From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Sat, 2 Jun 2012 17:15:51 +0000 (+0000) Subject: More fixing. X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/commitdiff_plain/67f3637cec9e01fb7aacbdd7cc02b94642c42640 More fixing. --- diff --git a/blog/draft/2012-06-skolelinux-george-bredberg.txt b/blog/draft/2012-06-skolelinux-george-bredberg.txt index b51f4c44a5..6fc26ae9ba 100644 --- a/blog/draft/2012-06-skolelinux-george-bredberg.txt +++ b/blog/draft/2012-06-skolelinux-george-bredberg.txt @@ -1,33 +1,101 @@ -Title: Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel +Title: Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg Tags: english, debian edu, intervju -Date: 2012-04-15 11:30 +Date: 2012-06-08 11:30

Debian Edu and Skolelinux > * Who are you, and how do you spend your days? - Im 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. + +Im 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? - 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. + +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? - The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete distribution, ready to install. It has ldap-support, windows integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an admin 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 is vnc-based 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 thinclients 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 thinclients. Skolelinux support for discless 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 thinclients 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. + +The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete +distribution, ready to install. It has ldap-support, windows +integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an admin 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 is vnc-based 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 thinclients 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 +thinclients. Skolelinux support for discless 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 +thinclients 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? - Debian is a bit to 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 repos has stopped sound from working with them. It's a kernel/Alsa issue. So you have to be more carefull properly testing the updates before you run them in a production environment. This has never happend with CentOS. - I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at install time. In Skolelinux they are kind of hardcoded 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 windows applications within the skolelinux environment needs to be beter 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 were some applications cant be opensource. As for us we really need to run InDesign in our journalist classes. + +Debian is a bit to 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 repos has stopped sound from +working with them. It's a kernel/Alsa issue. So you have to be more +carefull properly testing the updates before you run them in a +production environment. This has never happend with CentOS. + +I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at install +time. In Skolelinux they are kind of hardcoded 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 windows +applications within the skolelinux environment needs to be beter +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 were some applications cant +be opensource. As for us we really need to run InDesign in our +journalist classes. > * Which free software do you use daily? - Myself Im running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days. I use almost only opensource software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;) ) + +Myself Im running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days. I use almost only +opensource 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? - To get scools to use free software there has to be good opensource software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But it's also very important that the multimedia support is working flawlessly. 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 thinclients,as long as they have good multimedia support, are a very good idea. It's also important that the opensource software works even for the administration. It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with opensource, 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 thinclient (linux) desktop is essential. At least at our school, where we have mixed level of educations, from high-school to - journalist-school. +To get scools to use free software there has to be good opensource +software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But it's also +very important that the multimedia support is working +flawlessly. 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 thinclients,as long as they +have good multimedia support, are a very good idea. It's also +important that the opensource software works even for the +administration. It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with +opensource, 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 thinclient (linux) +desktop is essential. At least at our school, where we have mixed +level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.