During my work on -Debian Edu -based on Squeeze, I came across some issues that should be -addressed in the Wheezy release. I finally found time to wrap up my -notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit -explanation.
+ +Jeg fikk nettopp spørsmål på epost om Skolelinux-prosjektet lever +fra en som var interessert i å bidra, og måtte jo konstatere at i og +med at spørsmålet ble stilt har prosjektet ikke lyktes med å formidle +sin aktivitet. Her er det jeg svarte:
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-
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- We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel -changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages -with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation -system depend on tasksel tasks in -/usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package -installation. - -
- Enable Kerberos login for more services. Now with the Kerberos
-foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
-services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions. We should
-at least try to enable it for these services:
-
-
-
-
- CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using - quotas. -
- Nagios for admins checking the system status. -
- GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords. -
- LDAP for admins updating LDAP. -
- Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active. -
- ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt. - -
-
- - When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to -authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to -use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it -is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind - -
- Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install. The split made -sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an -inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values. - -
- Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before -touching the disk if the disk is too small. This is -BTS report #653305 and the -d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply -it and upload. After this is done we need to adjust -debian-edu-install to use this new hook. - -
- Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install -time config). LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install -packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work -in Wheezy. - -
- Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow -the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding -up KDE login on slow networks. - -
- Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to -change on first login. This is useful when handing out password on -paper, to make sure only the user know the password. This require -fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm. - -
- Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary. -The current command line script is not very friendly to people most -familiar with GUIs. This should probably be integrated into GOsa to -have it available where the admin will be looking for it.. - -
- We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service -actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses). None of the -Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me. - -
- We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles -using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less -packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles. - -
- We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password -when changing password using the Kerberos protocol. The hook was -requested in BTS report -#588968 and is now available in Wheezy. We might need to write a -MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this. - -
- We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
-
-
-
-
- reduce the number of chemistry visualisers -
- consider dropping xpaint -
- and probably more? -
-
- - Some hardware need external firmware to work properly. This is -mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other -examples too. For popular laptops to work out of the box, such -firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide -some GUI to do this. Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we -could consider using their packages. At the moment we have some -command line script to do this (one for the running system, another -for the LTSP chroot). - - -
- In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options. We -should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to -install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to -use. - -
- The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out -interesting educational packages. We should work on the package -tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational -packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install -new applications with a simple mouse click. - -
- The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place, -with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to -be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable -filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled. We should -implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it, -instead of the "it is documented" method of today. - -
- A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to -"take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room. -There are at least three implementations, -italc, -controlaula og -epoptes and we should pick one of -them and make it trivial to set it up in a school. The challenges is -how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room -and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a -given room. - -
- Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we -should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into -the Debian Edu network. Not quite sure how. Perhaps we should -provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for -them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange -configuration and data with the central server. This should be -investigated. - -
I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy -version.
-De siste månedene har jeg sammen med andre i NUUG jobbet med å -gjøre det enklere å få innsyn i offentlige dokumenter, og dette -inkluderer å gjøre postjournaler enklere tilgjengelig for maskinell -analyse og søk. I den forbindelse tok jeg i dag å tittet litt på -Offentlig Elektronisk Postjournal -(OEP), FAD/DIFIs fellesløsning for departementer og statlige -etater.
- -Her er antall oppføringer pr. måned det siste året, -summert -opp ved hjelp av -en -Scraperwiki-database. Merk at denne Scraperwikien har -ytelsesproblemer pga. mengden data.
- -MÃ¥ned | Antall |
---|---|
2011-07 | 164355 |
2011-08 | 153662 |
2011-09 | 173134 |
2011-10 | 170665 |
2011-11 | 198409 |
2011-12 | 175908 |
2012-01 | 206875 |
2012-02 | 202862 |
2012-03 | 204225 |
2012-04 | 207931 |
2012-05 | 223754 |
Det er også interessant å se hvor ofte ulike etater sender inn sine -journaloppføringer til OEP. OEP inneholder en liste med sist -innrapporteringsdato for alle som sender til OEP, og ved å se når og -hvor ofte det blir sendt inn fra etatene kan -frekvensen -beregnes. Her er bunnlista, dvs. de som leverer mer enn hver 10 -dag beregnet fra -en -Scraperwiki-database:
- -Etat | Frekvens | Leveringer |
---|---|---|
Norges geologiske undersøkelse | 83.7527546296 | 1 |
Medietilsynet | 33.7527546296 | 1 |
Departementenes servicesenter | 23.8763773148 | 2 |
Kunnskapsdepartementet | 15.8763773148 | 2 |
Kompetansesenter for distriktsutvikling | 15.3763773148 | 2 |
Toll- og avgiftsdirektoratet | 15.3763773148 | 2 |
Fredskorpset | 12.5842515432 | 3 |
Statens legemiddelverk | 12.1881886574 | 4 |
Utlendingsnemnda | 11.5842515432 | 3 |
Politidirektoratet | 10.9175848765 | 3 |
Skattedirektoratet | 10.9175848765 | 3 |
Statens innkrevingssentral | 10.5842515432 | 3 |
Barne-, ungdoms- og familiedirektoratet | 10.2509182099 | 3 |
Kunst i offentlige rom | 10.2509182099 | 3 |
En kan beregne lignende frekvenser ved å sammenligne -journalføringsdato med publiseringsdato for hver enkelt oppføring i -OEP, men den lenken legger jeg ikke ved her for å unngå at -søkemotorroboter begynner å overbelaste Scraperwiki-databasen.
- -Jeg har spurt Norges geologiske undersøkelse om hvorfor de leverer -så sjelden, og det kommer av at de har problemer etter oppgradering av -arkivsystemet sitt og jobber med å fikse det slik at de kan gå tilbake -til å levere hver uke. Har ikke undersøkt noen av de andre.
+++Jada, Skolelinux-prosjektet +lever, men det meste av utvikling foregår nå under paraplyen +Debian Edu som er det +internasjonale navnet på prosjektet. Dugnaden i Norge organiseres av +medlemsforeningen +Fri programvare i +Skolen, og det finnes minst ett selskap som selger kommersiell +support på løsningen (Skolelinux +Drift AS, der jeg er styremedlem). Anbefaler at du melder deg på +epostlisten +debian-edu@lists.debian.org +(og debian-edu-announce) og +melder deg inn i +foreningen for å få beskjed om aktivitet som planlegges. Det +planlegges +utviklersamlinger +i august og utover høsten.
+ +Bidra gjerne med å spre ordet om Skolelinux. Det er alt for få som +bidrar til pressedekning, bloggposter, twittermeldinger, etc. :)
+ +Jeg antar du har funnet +bloggserien +min med intervjuer. Det er antagelig også interessant for deg å +følge med på Planet +Skolelinux.
+ +Hm, jeg burde vel blogge alle disse lenkene slik at de blir enklere +Ã¥ finne...
+
Herved gjort. :)
Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a -TV -with face recognition to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to -me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face -recognition on the TV image itself. It could let the viewer know who -is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility, -company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better -evaluate what is being said and done. That would be a feature I would -be willing to pay for.
- -I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my -household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel. -It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book -1984 by George -Orwell.
+ +I am currently working on a +project +to translate the book +Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig +to Norwegian. And the source we base our translation on is the +docbook version, to +allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for +this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly +tagged. The source files of this project is available from +github.
+ +The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have +no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert. Is there a +docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a +well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process +for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book? This will provide a +well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot +easier for us to create a good Norwegian version. If you can and want +to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and +send pull requests with fixes. :)
A few days ago -I -reported how to get the support status out of Dell using an -unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was -discovered -by Daniel De Marco in february. Combined with my web scraping -code for HP, Dell and IBM -from -2009, I got inspired and wrote -a -web service based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the -support status and get a machine readable result back.
- -This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON -output: - -
- --% GET https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1 -supportstatus({"servicetag": "2v1xwn1", "warrantyend": "2013-11-24", "shipped": "2010-11-24", "scrapestamputc": "2012-06-06T20:26:56.965847", "scrapedurl": "http://143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL", "vendor": "Dell", "productid": ""}) -% -
It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add -support for other vendors. The python source is available on -Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.
+ +Et ofte brukt sitat i fri programvareverden er Stallman-sitatet +«Free Software, +"free" as in "free speech", not as in "free beer"». Men det er +ikke direkte overførbart til norsk, da det baserer seg på koblingen +gratis/fri på engelsk. En direkte oversettelse ville være «Fri +programvare, "fri" som i "talefrihet", ikke som "gratis øl"», og det +går jo glipp av poenget. I forbindelse med at vi er +igang +med å oversette Free Culture +av Lawrence Lessig, måtte jeg forsøke a finne en bedre +oversettelse.
+ +Mitt forslag til oversettelse blir dermed å droppe ølet, og heller +fokusere på det kjente norske uttrykket "fri bar". Dermed blir +oversettelsen «Fri programvare - "fri" som i "talefrihet", ikke som i +"fri bar"».
+ +Noen som har bedre forslag?
+ +Forøvrig bruker jeg fri programvare som et samlebegrep på norsk for +begge de engelske uttrykkene Free Software og Open Source, jamfør +NUUGs +lille folder om temaet.
Jeg oppdaget nylig en -artikkel -i Adresseavisa i Trondheim som nevner FiksGataMi, og der Trondheim -kommune ser ut til å fortelle at de ikke følger forvaltningslovens -krav ved mottak av meldinger sendt inn via FiksGataMi. La derfor -nettopp inn denne kommentaren til artikkelen:
- -
- -- -Her er en liten faktaoppdatering om FiksGataMi-tjenesten, da noen -ser ut til å ha misforstått hvordan den fungerer.
- -FiksGataMi er et privat initiativ opprettet og drevet av -medlemsforeningen NUUG. FiksGataMi tar imot meldinger om feil i -offentlig infrastruktur, og sender meldingen skriftlig videre på vegne -av innmelder til aktuell aktør i det offentlige, det være seg kommune, -fylke eller vegvesenregion. Offentlig etat blir valgt ut fra -geografisk plassering og kategori valgt av innsender. Offentlige -etater er i følge forvaltningsloven pliktig å følge opp og besvare -skriftlige henvendelser, og hvis noen av mottakerne ikke gjør dette -kan en klage på lovbrudd i det offentlige. FiksGataMi fungerer dermed -som en slags epostklient for innbyggerne der kopi av innsendte -meldinger gjøres tilgjengelig og knyttes til kartplassering for enkel -gjenfinning. à sende inn nye problemrapporter via FiksGataMi er -dermed ikke avhengig av at kommunen aktivt må følge med på meldinger -hos FiksGataMi, da de får dem tilsendt på sine offisielle -epostmottakspunkter. Hvorvidt noe blir fikset og om innbyggerne er -opp til mottaker av meldingene. For Trondheim kommune er -mottaksadressen bydrift.vegdrift@trondheim.kommune.no, en adresse jeg -inntil jeg leste denne artikkelen trodde ble håndtert i henhold til -forvaltningslovens krav.
- -Kan ellers fortelle at 57 kommuner lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine -nettsider, og at 37 % (4182 av 11266 ) av problemrapportene sendt inn -via FiksGataMi er markert som løst i løsningen. Trondheim kommune har -fått tilbud om å få rapportene levert på datamaskinlesbart format i -stedet for epost, men har ikke takket ja så langt.
- -Vennlig hilsen Petter Reinholdtsen, en av NUUG-folkene bak FiksGataMi.no
- -
Det høres for meg ut som om innbyggerne i Trondheim burde klage på -kommunens potensielle lovbrudd.
+ +Da opphavsrettsloven ble revidert i forrige runde rundt 2005, var +det skummelt å se hvor lite stortingsrepresentantene forsto hvordan +Internet påvirket folks forhold til kulturuttrykk, og min venn Vidar +og jeg spekulert på at det hadde kanskje vært fornuftig om samtlige +representanter fikk en norsk utgave av boken +Free Culture av Lawrence Lessig +som forklarte litt om problemstillingene. Vi endte opp med å +prioritere utvikling i +Skolelinux-prosjektet i +stedet, så den oversatte boken så aldri dagens lys. Men i forrige uke +ble jeg inspirert til å ta opp tråden og se om det er mulig å få til +bokprosjektet denne gang, da det er tydelig at kulturdepartementet i +sitt nye forsøk på å gjøre opphavsrettsloven enda mer ubalansert til +fordel for forlag og store mediehus fortsatt trenger en annen vinkling +i debatten.
+ +Planen min er å oversette boka på dugnad, sette den opp for +trykking med en av de mange +trykk på +forespørsel-tjenestene, skaffe sponsor til å finansiere trykking +til stortingsrepresentantene og alle som har bidratt med +oversettelser. Kanskje vi også kan få en avtale med et forlag om +publisering når boka er ferdig? Kommentarene til +Eirik +Newth og +Espen +Andersen om erfaringene med selvpublisering og trykk på +forespørsel er interessante og ikke avskrekkende, og jeg mistenker at +Lulu er en grei leverandør av +trykketjenester til prosjektet.
+ +Jeg har satt opp +et +Github-prosjekt for a lage boken, basert på Docbook-utgaven jeg +fant fra Hans Schou. Skolelinux har hatt byggesystem for å lage +oversatt HTML og PDF-utgave av Docbook-bøker i en årrekke, så jeg har +kopiert og utvidet dette oppsettet. Originalteksten er i Docbook, og +oversettelsen gjøres i .po-filer med hjelp av vanlige +oversetterverktøy brukt i fri programvareverden. Dernest tar +byggesystemet over og lager PDF og EPUB-utgave av den oversatte +teksten. Resultatet kan ses i Github-prosjektet. For å komme raskt +igang har jeg brukt maskinoversettelse av alle tekstbitene fra engelsk +til norsk, noe som grovoversatte ca. 1300 av de ca. 1700 tekstbitene +boken består av. Jeg håper nå at flere kan bidra med å få +oversettelsen på plass, slik at teksten kan være klar i løpet av +høsten. Når alt er oversatt må teksten gjennomgås for feil og +konsistent språk. Totalt er det nok mange timer som trengs for å +gjennomføre oversettelsen.
+ +Ãkonomien i dette er ikke avskrekkende. 169 +stortingsrepresentanter og nesten like mange varamedlemmer bør fÃ¥ +bøker, og estimert produduksjonskostnad for hver bok er rundt 6 EURO i +følge et raskt estimat fra Lulu. Jeg vet ennÃ¥ ikke hvor mange sider +det blir i størrelsen 5,5" x 8.5" (det er ca. 140 sider i A4-format), +sÃ¥ jeg gjettet pÃ¥ 400 sider. Jeg tror originalutgaven har nesten 400 +sider. For 169*2 eksemplarer snakker vi om en trykkekostnad pÃ¥ +ca. 2000 EURO, dvs. ca 15 000 NOK. Det burde være mulig Ã¥ finne en +sponsor for Ã¥ dekke en slik sum. I tillegg kommer distribusjon og +porto, som antagelig kommer pÃ¥ like mye.
+ +Kan du bidra med oversettelse og docbook-typesetting? Ta kontakt +og send patcher i github. Jeg legger gjerne inn folk i prosjektet +slik at du kan oppdatere direkte.
Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the -Debian Edu and Skolelinux -mailing list. He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and -thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the +
+The Debian Edu / +Skolelinux project have users all over the globe, but until +recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour +country Sweden. This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March +this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how +to adjust and scale the just released Debian Edu -Squeeze version.
+Wheezy setup to his liking. He granted me an interview, and I am +happy to share his answers with you here.Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
-My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel, -Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner -(Angela FuÃ) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed -by Angela).
- -During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator -and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work -touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During -the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in -becoming an osteopath.
- -Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela FuÃ, Mike Gabriel) -have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at -introducing free software into schools. The project's name is -"IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT -skills with communication skills.
+I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at +the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational +background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a +"folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups. In +Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master +in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I +just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my +perspective when working with IT.
How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu project?
-While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for -"IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to -reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available, -people said. From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux -distributions that target being used for school networks.
- -At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a -commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen, -Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we -went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing -and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian -Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that -got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most -attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within -the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.
- -In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local -people. People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data -protection experts, other IT professionals.
- -We came to two conclusions:
- -First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in -bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit -by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup -whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard -IT solution. The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and -customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are -possible. In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a -standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some -degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here -locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting -point.
- -Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at -all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions -for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What -has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment -of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule" -tries to provide an approach for this.
- -Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains, -defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in -Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT -equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin) -teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there -spare time.
- -We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were -networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school -here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to -teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi -non-existent until 2010/2011.
- -Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in -class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this -avoidance do exist.
- -We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this -social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey -for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with -several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and -they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management -at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new -and probably a gain for all.
+I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by +now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some +time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be +a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When +K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more +seriously into Skolelinux instead.What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu?
-There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to -any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian, -the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone -workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within -project communication, honest communication within the group of -developers, etc.
+The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete +distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows +integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an +administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux +based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very +well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better +when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is +showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to +mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the +same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by +setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the +workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the +thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very +convenient since a school today often need to use a class room +projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a +small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You +have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin +clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time. Our +old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very +nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it +comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even +such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is +quicker to update.What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu?
-Every coin has two sides:
- -Technically: BTS issue -#311188, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network -client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation -should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think -about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into -several portions (to make it easier for new developers to -contribute).
- -Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should -find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for -Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany -promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are -there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring -these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and -all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last -meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people -there being rather disconnected from the development department of -Debian Edu / Skolelinux.
+Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example +we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this +year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped +sound from working with them. It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have +to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in +a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.
+ +I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at +install time. In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the +distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration. +That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem. +Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs +to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and +support for single-sign on. That will make the transition to free +software easier, because you can keep the applications you really +need. No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where +some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to +run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes. We run a journalist +education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d +by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association). Our +education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they +are done. This is important if you want to get a job.
+ +Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and +magazines. We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there +market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource +world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according +to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they +are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to +edit and compile a newspaper. But politically at our school we are not +there yet. And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.
+ +We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to +the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try +Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to +Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have +tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio +program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio +studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only +want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise. Those +things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You +have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old +fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from +one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently +because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the +sound file.
+ +So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we +will try. The problem is the students have certain expectations when +they start an education towards a profession. So the programs has to +look and feel professional. Good thing with radio, there are many +programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised +as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what +program they learn, because once they start working they still have to +learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn +the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.
Which free software do you use daily?
-For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.
- -For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For -serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for -more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.
- -I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the -development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI. -PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently -is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.
- -For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde -as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber -I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also -the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive -whiteboard.
- -My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.
+Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days. I use almost +only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes +to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;) +)
Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to get schools to use free software?
-Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people, -enrol people.
+To get schools to use free software there has to be good open +source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But +it's also very important that the multimedia support is working +flawlessly. The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever +will create problems when it comes to both teachers and +students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin +clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good +idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for +the administration. It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with +open source, if the principal has to run Windows. It also creates a +problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that +will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good +support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux) +desktop is essential. At least at our school, where we have mixed +level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.
+ +Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three +useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN +article Radio station +management with Airtime, +Airtime which +claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and +Rivendell which claim to +be complete radio broadcast automation solution. All of them seem +useful to the aspiring radio producer.