<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html">Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 1st April 2012
+ 30th April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>Germany is a core area for the
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
-user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
-Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
-
-<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
-
-<p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
-Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
-"<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
-Dortmund</a>", a second chance school. Here, young adults is given
-the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
-examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
-second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
-or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
-
-<p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
-blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
-information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
-teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
-school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
-the end of April this year.</p>
-
-<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
-project?</strong></p>
-
-<p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
-attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
-Project). At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
-using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
-2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
-clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
-reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
-Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
-two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
-known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
-Skolelinux.</p>
+ <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
+<img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
-<p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
-better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
-clients. The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
-was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
-and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
-the admin teachers.</p>
+<p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
+common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
+But the last ones have not really been up to the task. My last
+cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
+time, and cutting my head took forever. And the one before that did
+not work very well either. We have looked for something better for a
+while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
+discovered that there are indeed better tools available. But these
+are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers". The hair saloons
+can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
+companies. The models they sell, are very different from the ones
+available from Elkjøp and Lefdal. The main difference is their
+efficiency. It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
+minutes required by my impotent Braun. The hairdresser I visited had
+a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
+producer. But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
-<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
-Edu?</strong></p>
+<p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it. This was not
+straight forward. The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
+did not want to sell anything to me. But searching for the model on
+the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
+around NOK 4000,-. This was a bit much. We kept searching and
+finally found a Danish supplier
+<a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
+it for around NOK 1800,-</a>. We ordered one, and it arrived a few
+days ago.</p>
-<p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
-Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
-So it was a perfect choice.</p>
+<p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
+to use it, so we left it charging over night. Normally it will only
+need one hour to charge. The following evening we successfully tested
+it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
+cutter. The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
+toys.</p>
-<p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
-possible to point teachers and students to programs like
-OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp. It's of
-high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
-a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUGs_leverer_h_ringsuttalelse_om_v3_1_av_statens_referansekatalog.html">NUUGs leverer høringsuttalelse om v3.1 av statens referansekatalog</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 27th April 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>NUUG-styremedlem Hans-Petter Fjeld
+<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110394259537201279374/posts/AGzRmAuFdW1">meldte
+nettopp</a> at han har sendt inn <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>s
+høringsuttalelse angående Difi sin standardkatalog v3.1. Jeg er veldig
+glad for at så mange bidro og sikret at vår stemme blir hørt i denne
+høringen. Anbefaler alle å lese våre
+<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/201204-standardkatalog-v3.1">to
+sider med innspill</a>.</p>
-<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
-Edu?</strong></p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video? What do you mean?</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 26th April 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
+article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
+<a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
+that the video editor application included with
+<a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
+X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use. The article is mostly
+based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
-<p>Nothing yet.</p>
+<p><blockquote>
+"<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
+brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
+kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
+</blockquote></p>
-<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+<p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
-<p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
-Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
-Annotator). At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
-LibreOffice.</p>
+<p><blockquote>
+"Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
+commercially. Although I can ONLY use them privately."
+</blockquote></p>
-<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
-get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+<p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
+suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
+with my Canon IXUS 130</a>. The HTC One X specification specifies that
+the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
+video. AMR is
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
+Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
+Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
+<a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>. MP4 is
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
+H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
+with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
-<p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
-that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
-interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
+<p>I know why I prefer
+<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
+standards</a> also for video.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html">Holder de ord og NUUG lanserer testtjeneste med stortingsinformasjon</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 5th April 2012
+ 22nd April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
-Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News. The result was made public for
-non-subscribers today. I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
-for schools. Check out his article
-<a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
-distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
+ <p>I
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_har_mine_representanter_stemt_i_Storinget_.html">januar
+i fjor</a> startet vi i NUUG arbeid med å gjøre informasjon om hvem
+som har stemt hva på <a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">Stortinget</a>
+enklere tilgjengelig. I løpet av få måneder fant vi sammen med
+organisasjonen <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a>
+som arbeidet mot et lignende mål.</p>
+
+<p>Siden den gang har vi fått tak i maskinelt lesbart informasjon om
+hvem som stemte hva mellom 1990 og våren 2010, og tilgang til
+stortingets nye datatjeneste som har informasjon fra høsten 2011 til i
+dag. Det gjenstår litt arbeid med det første datasettet, men
+datasettet fra høsten 2011 er klart til bruk. Begge datasettene er
+tilgjengelig <a href="https://gitorious.org/nuug/folketingparser">via
+git</a>.</p>
+
+<p>På
+<a href="http://www.goopen.no/holder-de-ord-datadrevet-oppfolging-av-politiske-lofter/">Go Open</a> i morgen lanserer
+NUUG sammen med Holder de ord <a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/">en
+test-tjeneste</a> som viser hva som er og blir behandlet på Stortinget og
+hvem som har stemt hva siden oktober i fjor. Du får herved mulighet
+til å ta en sniktitt.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 6th April 2012
+ 19th April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>Recently I have spent time with
-<a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
-up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
-Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
-process I discovered something very surprising. The reason the KDE
-menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
-due to the way KDE find application icons. I discovered that showing
-the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
-passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server. Most of these were
-
-NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response. Because the
-ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
-ms, the menus would be very slow. Looking at the strace of kicker in
-Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
-the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
-non-existing files. KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
-one icon file. In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
-around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
+ <p>Here in Norway, the
+<a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
+Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
+a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
+standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
+government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made
+an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
+standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
+to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete
+on the same level.</p>
-<p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
-directories, and the list of possible directories is large. In
-(almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
-and .xpm. The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
-mounted. Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
-requests. I am not the first one to discover this. I found a
-<a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
-from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
+<p>But recently, some standards with RAND
+(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
+And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
+directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
+standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
+implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
+user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
+willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In
+practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
+be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By
+definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
+So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
+And given that people will use the software without handing any money
+to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
+software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
+to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result
+in these situations is that free software are locked out from
+implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
-<p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
-kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
-used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
-for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
-icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/. Finally, I add symlinks to
-these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
-for them. This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
-one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
-almost instantaneous. I'm not quite sure where to make the package
-publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
+<p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
+standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
+how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free
+software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
+help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
+in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
+I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
+attention to these issues in the future.</p>
-<p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
-and icon handling, but also the login process. Not quite sure how to
-speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
-that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
+<p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
+from Simon Phipps
+(<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
+Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
-<p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
-(at) lists.debian.org.</p>
+<p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
+<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
+post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
+same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government. I
+can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
+<a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
+hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
+It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
+specifications with RAND terms.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html">Forskning: "GPL gir lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling av makt fra produsent til bruker"</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 8th April 2012
+ 15th April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
-like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
-and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
-contributor to the
-<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
-Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
-
-<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
-
-<p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
-occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
-
-<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
-project?</strong></p>
+ <p>Da jeg googlet etter noe annet kom jeg tilfeldigvis over
+<a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=58309">en
+hovedfagsoppgave</a> ved Universitetet i Oslo som diskuterer verdien
+av GPLs fire friheter for brukerne av IT-systemer. Jeg ble fascinert
+over det som presenteres der. Her er sammendraget:</p>
-<p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user! The only
-reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
-around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
-they'd like a native English speaker to proofread... So I did a sweep
-through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
-"localisation".</p>
+<p><blockquote>
-<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
-Edu?</strong></p>
+<p>Motivasjonen til å skrive denne oppgaven er en personlig undring
+over hvorfor det primært, og ofte eksklusivt, fokuseres på det
+økonomiske aspektet ved utredninger om fri programvare er et godt valg
+for det offentlige. Fri og produsenteid programvare bygger på
+fundamentalt forskjellige ideologier som kan ha implikasjoner utover
+økonomiske kostnader. Kunnskapskulturen som er med på å definere fri
+programvare er basert på åpenhet, og er en verdi i seg selv.</p>
-<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
-Edu?</strong></p>
+<p>Oppgavens tema er programvarelisensen GPL og frihet. GPL-lisensiert
+programvare gir visse friheter i forhold til produsenteid
+programvare. Mitt spørsmål er om, og eventuelt i hvilken utstrekning,
+disse frihetene blir benyttet av ulike brukere og hvordan de
+manifesterer seg for disse brukerne. Sentrale spørsmål i oppgaven
+er:</p>
-<p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it! In fact I
-had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
-education system.</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Hvordan fordeles handlekraft gjennom lisensieringen av programvaren?</li>
+<li>Hvilke konsekvenser har programvarelisensen for de ulike brukere? </li>
+</ul>
-<p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
-as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
-everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
-money on the latest hardware.</p>
+<p>Fri programvare gir blant annet brukeren mulighet til å studere og
+modifisere kildekoden. Denne formen for frihet erverves gjennom
+kunnskap og krever at brukeren også er en ekspert. Hva skjer med
+frihetene til GPL når sluttbrukeren er en annen? Dette diskuteres i
+dialog med informantene.</p>
-<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+<p>Jeg har i denne oppgaven samlet inn intervjudata fra IKT-ansvarlige
+ved grunnskolene i Nittedal kommune, driftsansvarlig og IKT-veilederen
+for skolene i kommunen, samt IKT-koordinator for utdanning i Akershus
+fylkeskommune og bokmåloversettere av OpenOffice.org. Den empiriske
+delen av oppgaven er delt inn i to seksjoner; den første omhandler
+operativsystemet Skolelinux, den andre kontorprogrampakken
+OpenOffice.org.</p>
-<p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
-software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
-words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
+<p>Som vi vil se gir GPL lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling
+av makt fra produsent til bruker. Brukerens makt analyseres gjennom
+begrepene brukermedvirkning og handlingsfrihet. Det blir også lagt
+vekt på strukturelle forhold rundt bruken av teknologi, og spesielt de
+økonomiske begrepene nettverkseksternaliteter, innlåsing og
+stiavhengighet. Dette er begreper av spesiell nytte når objektet som
+omsettes eller distribueres er et kommunikasjonsprodukt, fordi verdien
+til et slikt gode for en potensiell bruker avhenger av antall
+eksisterende brukere av godet. I tilknytning til denne problematikken
+inneholder oppgaven også en diskusjon rundt åpne standarder og
+formater.</p>
-<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
-get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+<p>Oppgaven konkluderer med at de «fire frihetene» som GPL-lisensen er
+laget for å beskytte er av avgjørende betydning for bruken av
+OpenOffice.org og Skolelinux, i Akershus fylkeskommune såvel som i
+skolene i Nittedal. Distribusjonen av handlekraft er ikke helt
+symmetrisk. Det er først og fremst de profesjonelle utviklerne i
+Skolelinux som direkte kan nyttiggjøre seg friheten til å endre kode,
+mens en sluttbruker som Nittedal kommune nyttiggjør seg den økonomiske
+friheten til å kunne distribuere programmene. Det er imidlertid også
+slik at ingen aktør klarer seg uten alle disse «frihetene».</p>
+</blockquote></p>
-<p>Well, I don't know. I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
-with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
-you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
+<p>Jeg fant også en masteroppgave fra 2006, men der ligger ikke
+komplett oppgave tilgjengelig. På tide å holde et øye med
+<a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/search.html?q=skolelinux">Skolelinux-søket</a>
+til DUO...</p>
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html">Jeg skal på konferansen Go Open 2012</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 13th April 2012
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p>Jeg har tenkt meg på konferansen <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go
-Open 2012</a> i Oslo 23. april.
-<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Medlemsforeningen NUUG</a> deler ut
-<a href="http://www.nuug.no/prisen/">prisen for fremme av fri
-programvare i Norge</a> der i år. Kommer du?</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html">Forskning: "GPL gir lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling av makt fra produsent til bruker"</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html">Jeg skal på konferansen Go Open 2012</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 15th April 2012
+ 13th April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>Da jeg googlet etter noe annet kom jeg tilfeldigvis over
-<a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=58309">en
-hovedfagsoppgave</a> ved Universitetet i Oslo som diskuterer verdien
-av GPLs fire friheter for brukerne av IT-systemer. Jeg ble fascinert
-over det som presenteres der. Her er sammendraget:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-
-<p>Motivasjonen til å skrive denne oppgaven er en personlig undring
-over hvorfor det primært, og ofte eksklusivt, fokuseres på det
-økonomiske aspektet ved utredninger om fri programvare er et godt valg
-for det offentlige. Fri og produsenteid programvare bygger på
-fundamentalt forskjellige ideologier som kan ha implikasjoner utover
-økonomiske kostnader. Kunnskapskulturen som er med på å definere fri
-programvare er basert på åpenhet, og er en verdi i seg selv.</p>
-
-<p>Oppgavens tema er programvarelisensen GPL og frihet. GPL-lisensiert
-programvare gir visse friheter i forhold til produsenteid
-programvare. Mitt spørsmål er om, og eventuelt i hvilken utstrekning,
-disse frihetene blir benyttet av ulike brukere og hvordan de
-manifesterer seg for disse brukerne. Sentrale spørsmål i oppgaven
-er:</p>
-
-<ul>
-<li>Hvordan fordeles handlekraft gjennom lisensieringen av programvaren?</li>
-<li>Hvilke konsekvenser har programvarelisensen for de ulike brukere? </li>
-</ul>
-
-<p>Fri programvare gir blant annet brukeren mulighet til å studere og
-modifisere kildekoden. Denne formen for frihet erverves gjennom
-kunnskap og krever at brukeren også er en ekspert. Hva skjer med
-frihetene til GPL når sluttbrukeren er en annen? Dette diskuteres i
-dialog med informantene.</p>
-
-<p>Jeg har i denne oppgaven samlet inn intervjudata fra IKT-ansvarlige
-ved grunnskolene i Nittedal kommune, driftsansvarlig og IKT-veilederen
-for skolene i kommunen, samt IKT-koordinator for utdanning i Akershus
-fylkeskommune og bokmåloversettere av OpenOffice.org. Den empiriske
-delen av oppgaven er delt inn i to seksjoner; den første omhandler
-operativsystemet Skolelinux, den andre kontorprogrampakken
-OpenOffice.org.</p>
-
-<p>Som vi vil se gir GPL lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling
-av makt fra produsent til bruker. Brukerens makt analyseres gjennom
-begrepene brukermedvirkning og handlingsfrihet. Det blir også lagt
-vekt på strukturelle forhold rundt bruken av teknologi, og spesielt de
-økonomiske begrepene nettverkseksternaliteter, innlåsing og
-stiavhengighet. Dette er begreper av spesiell nytte når objektet som
-omsettes eller distribueres er et kommunikasjonsprodukt, fordi verdien
-til et slikt gode for en potensiell bruker avhenger av antall
-eksisterende brukere av godet. I tilknytning til denne problematikken
-inneholder oppgaven også en diskusjon rundt åpne standarder og
-formater.</p>
-
-<p>Oppgaven konkluderer med at de «fire frihetene» som GPL-lisensen er
-laget for å beskytte er av avgjørende betydning for bruken av
-OpenOffice.org og Skolelinux, i Akershus fylkeskommune såvel som i
-skolene i Nittedal. Distribusjonen av handlekraft er ikke helt
-symmetrisk. Det er først og fremst de profesjonelle utviklerne i
-Skolelinux som direkte kan nyttiggjøre seg friheten til å endre kode,
-mens en sluttbruker som Nittedal kommune nyttiggjør seg den økonomiske
-friheten til å kunne distribuere programmene. Det er imidlertid også
-slik at ingen aktør klarer seg uten alle disse «frihetene».</p>
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>Jeg fant også en masteroppgave fra 2006, men der ligger ikke
-komplett oppgave tilgjengelig. På tide å holde et øye med
-<a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/search.html?q=skolelinux">Skolelinux-søket</a>
-til DUO...</p>
-
+ <p>Jeg har tenkt meg på konferansen <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go
+Open 2012</a> i Oslo 23. april.
+<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Medlemsforeningen NUUG</a> deler ut
+<a href="http://www.nuug.no/prisen/">prisen for fremme av fri
+programvare i Norge</a> der i år. Kommer du?</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 19th April 2012
+ 8th April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>Here in Norway, the
-<a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
-Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
-a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
-standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
-government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made
-an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
-standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
-to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete
-on the same level.</p>
-
-<p>But recently, some standards with RAND
-(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
-And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
-directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
-standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
-implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
-user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
-willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In
-practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
-be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By
-definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
-So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
-And given that people will use the software without handing any money
-to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
-software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
-to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result
-in these situations is that free software are locked out from
-implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
+ <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
+like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
+and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
+contributor to the
+<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
+Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
-<p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
-standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
-how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free
-software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
-help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
-in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
-I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
-attention to these issues in the future.</p>
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
-<p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
-from Simon Phipps
-(<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
-Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
+<p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
+occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
-<p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
-<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
-post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
-same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government. I
-can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
-<a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
-hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
-It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
-specifications with RAND terms.</p>
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
- </div>
- <div class="tags">
-
-
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html">Holder de ord og NUUG lanserer testtjeneste med stortingsinformasjon</a>
- </div>
- <div class="date">
- 22nd April 2012
- </div>
- <div class="body">
- <p>I
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_har_mine_representanter_stemt_i_Storinget_.html">januar
-i fjor</a> startet vi i NUUG arbeid med å gjøre informasjon om hvem
-som har stemt hva på <a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">Stortinget</a>
-enklere tilgjengelig. I løpet av få måneder fant vi sammen med
-organisasjonen <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a>
-som arbeidet mot et lignende mål.</p>
+<p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user! The only
+reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
+around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
+they'd like a native English speaker to proofread... So I did a sweep
+through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
+"localisation".</p>
-<p>Siden den gang har vi fått tak i maskinelt lesbart informasjon om
-hvem som stemte hva mellom 1990 og våren 2010, og tilgang til
-stortingets nye datatjeneste som har informasjon fra høsten 2011 til i
-dag. Det gjenstår litt arbeid med det første datasettet, men
-datasettet fra høsten 2011 er klart til bruk. Begge datasettene er
-tilgjengelig <a href="https://gitorious.org/nuug/folketingparser">via
-git</a>.</p>
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
-<p>På
-<a href="http://www.goopen.no/holder-de-ord-datadrevet-oppfolging-av-politiske-lofter/">Go Open</a> i morgen lanserer
-NUUG sammen med Holder de ord <a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/">en
-test-tjeneste</a> som viser hva som er og blir behandlet på Stortinget og
-hvem som har stemt hva siden oktober i fjor. Du får herved mulighet
-til å ta en sniktitt.</p>
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it! In fact I
+had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
+education system.</p>
+
+<p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
+as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
+everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
+money on the latest hardware.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
+software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
+words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Well, I don't know. I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
+with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
+you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video? What do you mean?</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 26th April 2012
+ 6th April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
-article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
-<a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
-that the video editor application included with
-<a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
-X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use. The article is mostly
-based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
+ <p>Recently I have spent time with
+<a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
+up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
+Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
+process I discovered something very surprising. The reason the KDE
+menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
+due to the way KDE find application icons. I discovered that showing
+the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
+passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server. Most of these were
-<p><blockquote>
-"<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
-brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
-kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
-</blockquote></p>
+NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response. Because the
+ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
+ms, the menus would be very slow. Looking at the strace of kicker in
+Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
+the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
+non-existing files. KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
+one icon file. In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
+around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
-<p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
+<p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
+directories, and the list of possible directories is large. In
+(almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
+and .xpm. The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
+mounted. Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
+requests. I am not the first one to discover this. I found a
+<a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
+from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
-<p><blockquote>
-"Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
-commercially. Although I can ONLY use them privately."
-</blockquote></p>
+<p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
+kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
+used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
+for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
+icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/. Finally, I add symlinks to
+these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
+for them. This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
+one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
+almost instantaneous. I'm not quite sure where to make the package
+publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
-<p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
-suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
-with my Canon IXUS 130</a>. The HTC One X specification specifies that
-the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
-video. AMR is
-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
-Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
-Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
-<a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>. MP4 is
-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
-H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
-with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
+<p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
+and icon handling, but also the login process. Not quite sure how to
+speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
+that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
-<p>I know why I prefer
-<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
-standards</a> also for video.</p>
+<p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
+(at) lists.debian.org.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUGs_leverer_h_ringsuttalelse_om_v3_1_av_statens_referansekatalog.html">NUUGs leverer høringsuttalelse om v3.1 av statens referansekatalog</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 27th April 2012
+ 5th April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p>NUUG-styremedlem Hans-Petter Fjeld
-<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110394259537201279374/posts/AGzRmAuFdW1">meldte
-nettopp</a> at han har sendt inn <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>s
-høringsuttalelse angående Difi sin standardkatalog v3.1. Jeg er veldig
-glad for at så mange bidro og sikret at vår stemme blir hørt i denne
-høringen. Anbefaler alle å lese våre
-<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/201204-standardkatalog-v3.1">to
-sider med innspill</a>.</p>
+ <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
+Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News. The result was made public for
+non-subscribers today. I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
+for schools. Check out his article
+<a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
+distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
</div>
<div class="entry">
<div class="title">
- <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html">Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job</a>
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
</div>
<div class="date">
- 30th April 2012
+ 1st April 2012
</div>
<div class="body">
- <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
-<img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
+ <p>Germany is a core area for the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
+user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
+Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
-<p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
-common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
-But the last ones have not really been up to the task. My last
-cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
-time, and cutting my head took forever. And the one before that did
-not work very well either. We have looked for something better for a
-while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
-discovered that there are indeed better tools available. But these
-are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers". The hair saloons
-can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
-companies. The models they sell, are very different from the ones
-available from Elkjøp and Lefdal. The main difference is their
-efficiency. It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
-minutes required by my impotent Braun. The hairdresser I visited had
-a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
-producer. But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
-<p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it. This was not
-straight forward. The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
-did not want to sell anything to me. But searching for the model on
-the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
-around NOK 4000,-. This was a bit much. We kept searching and
-finally found a Danish supplier
-<a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
-it for around NOK 1800,-</a>. We ordered one, and it arrived a few
-days ago.</p>
+<p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
+Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
+"<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
+Dortmund</a>", a second chance school. Here, young adults is given
+the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
+examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
+second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
+or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
-<p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
-to use it, so we left it charging over night. Normally it will only
-need one hour to charge. The following evening we successfully tested
-it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
-cutter. The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
-toys.</p>
+<p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
+blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
+information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
+teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
+school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
+the end of April this year.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
+attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
+Project). At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
+using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
+2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
+clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
+reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
+Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
+two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
+known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
+Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
+better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
+clients. The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
+was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
+and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
+the admin teachers.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
+Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
+So it was a perfect choice.</p>
+
+<p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
+possible to point teachers and students to programs like
+OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp. It's of
+high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
+a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Nothing yet.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
+Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
+Annotator). At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
+LibreOffice.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
+that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
+interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
</div>
<div class="tags">
- Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
</div>
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