+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a></div>
+ <div class="date"> 9th March 2012</div>
+ <div class="body"><p>Inspired by the interview series conducted by Raphael, I started a
+Norwegian interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu /
+Skolelinux community. This was so popular that I believe it is time
+to move to a more international audience.</p>
+
+<p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
+Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
+Europe, there are users all around the globe. One of those far away
+from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
+and contributor. It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
+work out of the box in Japan. I got him to answer a few questions,
+and am happy to share the response with you. :)
+
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
+and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
+Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
+teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
+Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
+I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
+primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
+so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
+also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
+to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
+appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
+server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
+samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
+Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
+did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
+and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
+there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
+problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
+previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
+Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
+downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
+Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
+my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
+workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
+ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
+designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
+doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
+school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
+Japan.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
+have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
+make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
+who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
+important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
+instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
+default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
+kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
+Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is. A
+second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
+customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
+multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
+took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
+I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
+help.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
+studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
+(customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
+still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
+house, that's very useful for the family photos and music. At school
+the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
+have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
+day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
+installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS. We also
+have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
+and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
+and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
+popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
+to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
+file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago. The Edu aspect is
+also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
+Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu? But of course the main attraction is
+budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
+compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
+is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
+are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
+doesn't play flash, for example.</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/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html">Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</a></div>
<div class="date"> 7th March 2012</div>
</div>
<div class="padding"></div>
- <div class="entry">
- <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_intervju__Olav_Dahlum.html">Skolelinux-intervju: Olav Dahlum</a></div>
- <div class="date">18th February 2012</div>
- <div class="body"><p>I serien med intervjuer av folk i
-<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>-miljøet, får vi nå
-høre fra et nyvalgt medlem i foreningen
-<a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/">Fri programvare i
-Skolen</a>.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Jeg heter Olav Dahlum, og er frilans oversetter, tester,
-prosjektleder og bruker av fri og åpen programvare som
-LibreOffice. Jeg er også et av styremedlemmene i FRISK.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Jeg kom i kontakt med prosjektet i 2009, da jeg ble ansatt i
-stiftelsen Åpne kontorprogram på norsk for å oversette og teste den
-norske utgaven av OpenOffice.org. Arbeidet har hele tiden vært
-koordinert sammen med Skolelinux, og mange av de samme menneskene er
-involvert, så på den måten ble jeg en del av den utvidede
-familien.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Skolelinux handler i likhet med utdanningssektoren om å dele
-kunnskap med andre, og det er dette som er hovedstyrken til
-prosjektet. Selv om Skolelinux hovedsaklig er involvert i utvikling
-av programvare, er det også et sted der man kan utfolde seg uavhengig
-av bakgrunn og ferdigheter.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Liten utbredelse og manglende støtte fra leverandører som leverer
-pedagogisk programvare til skolebruk. Kunne kanskje hatt flere
-verktøy som letter administrasjonen ytterligere, slik at også mindre
-erfarne databrukere kan utføre lett vedlikehold og rutinejobber.</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Jeg er nesten forpliktet til å si at jeg bruker LibreOffice... Jeg
-bruker forøvrig frie og åpne operativsystemer basert på
-operativsystemkjernen Linux, for tiden openSUSE 12,1 med KDE4. Men
-hvis jeg skal dra fram noen flere eksempler så er nok Mozilla Firefox
-og Thunderbird to av de jeg bruker mest. I tillegg er jeg en flittig
-bruker av OpenSSH, Irssi, Midnight Commander, Git, Subversion,
-Translation Toolkit og Super Maryo Chronicles (litt gøy skal man ha,
-og med to håndkontroller liggende er det ikke til å unngå).</p>
-
-<p><strong>Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
-skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?</strong></p>
-
-<p>Vi må få leverandører av pedagogisk programvare med på laget, men
-også utvikle vår egen tilpasset det norske markedet. Det er også
-mulig å involvere utdanningssektoren direkte i arbeidet, for eksempel
-gjennom studentprosjekter der elevene selv er med å utforme
-programvare direkte eller indirekte gjennom aktive bidrag. Dette gjør
-ikke bare samarbeidet tettere, men fokuset på standarder og friheten
-til å velge sin egen løsning vil kanskje stimulere interessen for
-framtidig deltakelse i bransjen. Vi som driver med fri og åpen
-programvare ønsker oss ikke rene konsumenter, men tenkende og
-selvstendige individer som kan være med å skape sin egen fremtid.</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/intervju">intervju</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
-
-
- </div>
- </div>
- <div class="padding"></div>
-
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<div id="sidebar">
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
-<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (5)</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (6)</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (54)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (83)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (84)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (7)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (112)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (113)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (14)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (16)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (17)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (15)</a></li>
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