<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
<atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 27 May 2012 17:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
+mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
+up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupiles. His name was Ralf
+Gesellensetter, and he have been an important tester and contributor
+since then, helping to make sure the
+<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
+Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
+Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
+years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
+also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
+O- or A-level ("Abitur"). For quite as long, I've been taking care of
+our computer network.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
+spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
+(4 months).</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
+my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
+very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
+("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
+to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
+months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
+(Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others. For more
+than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
+our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
+approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
+locally installed Skolelinux image. As a consequence, I joined quite
+a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
+(Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
+one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
+project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
+the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
+computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
+free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
+up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
+labs). Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
+administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
+might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
+budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
+supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
+office packages or desktop environments. These schools have the
+option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
+capacity to do so. Another issue is that Debian release cycles
+include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
+power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
+within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
+the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
+i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
+KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
+PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p><ol>
+
+<li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
+people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
+difference between proprietary software products, and free software
+developing.</li>
+
+<li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
+there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
+licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
+privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
+share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
+
+<li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
+trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
+decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
+
+<li>Don't stick to free software as to be run natively. Everybody uses
+free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
+general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
+shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
+
+<li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
+office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
+need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
+
+<li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
+
+<li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
+for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
+Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials. And
+keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
+
+</ol></p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>The cost of ODF and OOXML</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html</link>
</description>
</item>
- <item>
- <title>HTC One X - Your video? What do you mean?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><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><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>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
-
-<p><blockquote>
-"Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
-commercially. Although I can ONLY use them privately."
-</blockquote></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>I know why I prefer
-<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
-standards</a> also for video.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
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