+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_release__beta_1__of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Second beta release (beta 1) of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 22nd August 2013
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>The second wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
+today, slightly delayed because of some bugs in the initial Windows
+integration fixes . This is the release announcement:</p>
+
+<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b1 released 2013-08-22</strong></p>
+
+<p>These are the release notes for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+7.1+edu0~b1, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
+
+<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
+Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
+out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
+network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
+services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
+and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
+environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
+the main server from CD or USB stick all other machines can be
+installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
+database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
+directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
+desktop contains
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
+than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
+the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
+and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
+
+<p>This is the sixth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically this
+is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the Squeeze
+release.</p>
+
+<p>ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
+versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
+release. Both alpha and beta0 based installations should reinstall or
+deal with gosa.conf manually; there are two options: (1) Keep
+gosa.conf and edit this file as outlined
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/08/msg00127.html">on
+the mailing list</a>. (2) Accept the new version of gosa.conf and
+replace both contained admin password placeholders with the password
+hashes found in the old one (backup copy!). In both cases every user
+need to change their their password to make sure a password is set for
+CIFS access to their home directory.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Added ssh askpass packages to default installation, to ensure ssh
+ work also without a attached tty.</li>
+<li>Add the command-not-found package to the default installation to
+ make it easier to figure out where to find missing command line
+ tools. Please note, that the command 'update-command-not-found'
+ has to be run as root to actually make it useful (internet access
+ required).</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Adjusted the USB stick ISO image build to include every tool
+needed for desktop=xfce installations.</li>
+<li>Adjust thin-client-server task to work when installing from USB
+stick ISO image.</li>
+<li>Made new grub artwork (changed png from indexed to RGB format).</li>
+<li>Minor cleanup in the CUPS setup.</li>
+<li>Make sure that bootstrapping of the Samba domain really happens
+ during installation of the main server and adjust SID handling to
+ cope with this.</li>
+<li>Make Samba passwords changeable (again) via GOsa².</li>
+<li>Fix generation of LM and NT password hashes via GOsa² to avoid
+ empty password hashes.</li>
+<li>Adapted Samba machine domain joining to latest change in the
+ smbldap-tools Perl package, fixing bugs blocking Windows machines
+ from joining the Samba domain.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>KDE fails to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
+ not use the http proxy as it should.</li>
+<li>Chromium also fails to use the proxy when using the KDE desktop
+ (using the KDE configuration).</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso</a></li>
+
+<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-CD.iso .</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 1e357f80b55e703523f2254adde6d78b
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 7157f9be5fd27c7694d713c6ecfed61c3edda3b2</p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso</a></li>
+<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b1-USB.iso .</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 7a8408ead59cf7e3cef25afb6e91590b
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: f1817c031f02790d5edb3bfa0dcf8451088ad119</p>
+
+
+<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
+
+ </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>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_beta_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">First beta release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 27th July 2013
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>The first wheezy based beta release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
+today. This is the release announcement:</p>
+
+<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~b0 released
+2013-07-27</strong></p>
+
+<p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+7.1+edu0~b0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
+
+<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
+Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
+out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
+network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
+services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
+and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
+environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
+the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
+installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
+database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
+directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
+desktop contains
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
+than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
+the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
+and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
+
+<p>This is the fifth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
+this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
+Squeeze release.</p>
+
+<p>ALERT: Alpha based installations should reinstall or downgrade the
+versions of gosa and libpam-mklocaluser to the ones used in this beta
+release.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Switched roaming workstation profiles from wicd to network-manager
+ for network configuration, as wicd didn't work any more.</li>
+<li>Changed version numbers of patched gosa and libpam-mklocaluser
+ packages to make sure our locally patched versions will be replaced
+ by the official packages when they are released from Debian. Those
+ installing alpha version need to reinstall or manually downgrade gosa
+ and libpam-mklocaluser.</li>
+<li>Added bluetooth tools to the default desktop (bluedevil, blueman).</li>
+<li>Added tools for sharing the desktop on KDE (krdc, krfb).</li>
+<li>Added valgrind to the default installation for easier debugging of
+ crash bugs.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Fixed artwork package to work with gnome, no longer break
+ desktop=gnome installations.</li>
+<li>Adjusted installer to now work when forced to use a proxy with the
+ netinst CD.</li>
+<li>Fixed code detecting and setting/loading hardware specific
+ setup/firmware to work more robust out of the box.</li>
+<li>Adjusted Kerberos setup to detect realm and server settings at
+ install time instead of dynamically at run time. This avoid a crash
+ with krb5-auth-dialog on diskless workstations without a DNS name.</li>
+<li>Worked around misfeature in network-manager not calling the dhclient
+ exit hooks, causing automatic proxy configuration and automatic host
+ name setting at run time to work again.</li>
+<li>Fixed feature setting the default Iceweasel start page from URL
+ fetched from LDAP, to allow schools to set the global default by
+ updating the dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no LDAP object.</li>
+<li>Changed default host name on all networked machines to be unique
+ (generated from MAC or reverse DNS) after boot.</li>
+<li>Adjusted partition sizes to make sure they are big enough.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Grub is missing the new artwork.</li>
+<li>KDE fail to understand the wpad.dat file provided, causing it to
+ not use the http proxy as it should.</li>
+<li>Chromium also fail to use the proxy.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso</a></li>
+
+<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-CD.iso .</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 55d5de9765b6dccd5d9ec33cf1a07109
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 996a1d9517740e4d627d100de2d12b23dd545a3f</p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso</a></li>
+<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~b0-USB.iso .</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: d8f0818c51a78d357de794066f289f69
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 49185ca354e8d0543240423746924f76a6cee733</p>
+
+
+<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
+
+ </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>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 9th July 2013
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
+Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
+party in Oslo. It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
+member assosiation NUUG</a> and
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
+Bitraf</a>.</p>
+
+<p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening. Everyone is
+welcome, and there is no fee to participate. There is on the other
+hand limited space, and only room for 30 people. Please put your name
+on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
+wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <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/nuug">nuug</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 3rd July 2013
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
+today. This is the release announcement:</p>
+
+<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
+2013-07-03</strong></p>
+
+<p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
+
+<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
+Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
+out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
+network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
+services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
+and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
+environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
+the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
+installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
+database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
+directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
+desktop contains
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
+than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
+the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
+and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
+
+<p>This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
+this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
+Squeeze release.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.</li>
+ <li>Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
+ submenu. It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
+ brings KDE in line with the others.</li>
+ <li>Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
+ they don't have a desktop menu entry and thus won't show up in the
+ menu now that menu-xdg was removed.</li>
+ <li>Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
+ multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
+ X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
+ too.</li>
+ <li>Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
+ are too few to make the package useful.</li>
+</ul>
+<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
+ <li>Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.</li>
+ <li>Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
+ up for some language options.</li>
+ <li>Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.</li>
+ <li>Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.</li>
+ <li>Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
+ d-i is doing it.</li>
+ <li>Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
+ debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.</li>
+ <li>Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
+ script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
+ Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.</li>
+ <li>Update system to install needed firmware packages during
+ installation, to work properly in Wheezy.</li>
+ <li>Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).</li>
+ <li>Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
+ and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.</li>
+ <li>LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
+ work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.</li>
+</ul>
+<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
+<ul>
+ <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
+ available yet (698840).</li>
+ <li>Artwork not enabled for all desktops.</li>
+</ul>
+<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
+ <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8</p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
+ <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721</p>
+
+<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></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>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html">The value of a good distro wide test suite...</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 22nd June 2013
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>In the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
+Skolelinux</a> project, we include a post-installation test suite,
+which check that services are running, working, and return the
+expected results. It runs automatically just after the first boot on
+test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
+installations (using non-test ISOs). It test that the LDAP service is
+operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
+online resizable, etc, etc. And it check that the PXE service is
+configured, which is the topic of this post.</p>
+
+<p>The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
+Edu Wheezy release. These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
+complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
+happen all the needed packages need to be on them. Thanks to our test
+suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
+cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
+When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
+using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
+working packages to get it working. And the packages changed name
+from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
+debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
+packages during installation. Without our test suite, I suspect we
+would never have discovered this before release. Now it is fixed
+right after we got the ISOs operational.</p>
+
+<p>Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
+administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
+test suite using <tt>/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install</tt> and see if
+any errors are detected. This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
+the problem.</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
+please join us on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
+irc.debian.org</a> and the
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@</a> mailing
+list.</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>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html">Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 17th June 2013
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
+Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
+globe. And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
+#debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
+worked. We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
+help us with translations. And today I managed to get an interview
+with him, to learn more about him.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
+which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
+party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
+friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
+country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
+community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
+began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
+constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
+field.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
+provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
+activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
+of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
+software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
+the only one we have in our country.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
+even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
+it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
+educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
+love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
+technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
+ways to contribute.</p>
+
+<p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
+configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
+haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
+areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
+software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
+one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
+environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
+for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
+from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
+have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
+maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
+took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
+Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
+time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
+with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
+out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
+it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
+availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
+scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
+only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
+lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
+project.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
+disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
+project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
+a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story. I'd like to see
+Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
+ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
+lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
+opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
+to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
+
+<p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
+with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
+to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
+on.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
+daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
+am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
+Enlightenment project a lot!),
+<a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
+use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
+<a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
+get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
+stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</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, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
+now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
+that:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
+
+<li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
+ experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
+ of teenagers more?</li>
+
+<li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
+ be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
+ other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
+ them!)</li>
+
+<li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
+ lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
+ person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
+example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
+it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
+people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
+very hard to convert against their will.</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>
+
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