<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2014 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for
+schools, <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
+Skolelinux</a>, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people
+involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists
+from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust
+the setup. I managed to interview him this summer.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self
+employed physiotherapist. My former profession is tool maker, but I
+haven't worked for 30 years in this job. 30 years ago I started to
+support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the
+administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu
+Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows
+Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only
+works with Windows . :-(</p>
+
+<p>In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use
+Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX. Today we are running a
+Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of
+children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist,
+psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to
+work with the documentations of our patients.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in
+his school (<a href="http://www.gymnasium-harsewinkel.de/">Gymnasium
+Harsewinkel</a>). They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they
+were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the
+software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their
+computer skills in optional lessons. I'm spending 4-6 hours a week
+with this job.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The independence.</p>
+
+<p>First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the
+software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software
+included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.</p>
+
+<p>Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the
+possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices. The
+servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are
+working reliable. </p>
+
+<p>We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45
+workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile
+solution for all classrooms. These machines are all booting from the
+terminal server. In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile
+workstations. Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these
+machines in their classrooms. Internet access is realized by a WLAN
+router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a
+dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Teachers and pupils are Windows users. &lt;Irony on&gt; And Linux
+isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. &lt;Irony
+off&gt; They don't realize the stability of the system. </p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba,
+Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide
+which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by
+teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with
+Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS
+Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software
+instead. Another problem are the publisher of school books. They
+develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>98.6 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/98_6_percent_done_with_the_Norwegian_draft_translation_of_Free_Culture.html</link>
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