Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter
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May (9)
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June (8)
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debian (77)
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debian edu (133)
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debian edu (134)
digistan (10)
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drivstoffpriser (4)
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english (200)
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english (201)
fiksgatami (21)
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frikanalen (11)
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intervju (36)
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intervju (37)
isenkram (6)
diff --git a/blog/draft/2013-skolelinux-victor-nitu.txt b/blog/draft/2013-skolelinux-victor-nitu.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 41492d4b52..0000000000
--- a/blog/draft/2013-skolelinux-victor-nitu.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,134 +0,0 @@
-Title: Debian Edu interview: Victor NiÈu
-Tags: english, debian edu, intervju
-Date: 2013-06-17 10:30
-
-
The Debian Edu and
-Skolelinux distribution have users and contributors all around the
-globe. And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
-our IRC channel
-#debian-edu 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.
-
-
Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
-
-
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 beer 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.
-
-
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 FundaÈia Ceata, which is a free
-software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
-the only one we have in our country.
-
-
How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
-project?
-
-
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.
-
-
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.
-
-
What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
-Edu?
-
-
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.
-
-
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.
-
-
What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
-Edu?
-
-
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!
-
-
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.
-
-
Which free software do you use daily?
-
-
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!),
-Claws Mail due to its ease of
-use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
-Redshift, 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!
-
-
Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
-get schools to use free software?
-
-
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:
-
-
-
-- schools would like to get rid of proprietary software
-
-- 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?
-
-- 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!)
-
-- 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? ;-)
-
-
-
-
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.
diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html
index 12b8582d1e..7d15f7c382 100644
--- a/blog/index.html
+++ b/blog/index.html
@@ -19,6 +19,150 @@
+
+
+
17th June 2013
+
The Debian Edu and
+Skolelinux distribution have users and contributors all around the
+globe. And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
+our IRC channel
+#debian-edu 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.
+
+
Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
+
+
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 beer 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.
+
+
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 FundaÈia Ceata, which is a free
+software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
+the only one we have in our country.
+
+
How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?
+
+
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.
+
+
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.
+
+
What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?
+
+
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.
+
+
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.
+
+
What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?
+
+
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!
+
+
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.
+
+
Which free software do you use daily?
+
+
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!),
+Claws Mail due to its ease of
+use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
+Redshift, 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!
+
+
Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?
+
+
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:
+
+
+
+- schools would like to get rid of proprietary software
+
+- 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?
+
+- 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!)
+
+- 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? ;-)
+
+
+
+
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.
+
+
+
+
+
12th June 2013
@@ -880,134 +1024,6 @@ on new Laptops?
-
-
-
24th May 2013
-
En ting
-Skolelinux-prosjektet har
-hatt mye glede av er studentprosjekter. F.eks. er
-stillbildeanimasjonssystemet
-Stopmotion resultat av et studentprosjekt i Skolelinux. De siste
-månedene har en ivrig student veiledet av Marius Kotsbak i
-FRiSK testet hva en
-kan få til med en datamaskin til NOK 400,- (antagelig 1700,- med
-skjerm, tastatur og mus) når det brukes i Skolelinux. Jeg spurte han
-om et intervju.
-
-
Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?
-
-
Jeg heter Nirosan Thiyagalingam. Jeg er 24 år og studerer
-dataingeniør studiet ved Høgskolen i Sør Trøndelag. Interessen for
-data har siden ung alder vært tilstede og jeg har i tillegg alltid
-vært glad i å lære nye ting. Med teknologi som endres svært hurtig er
-det alltid noe nytt å lære. Noe som igjen har gjort det svært
-interessant å følge med på utviklingen. Jeg valgte dataingeniør
-studiet grunnet ønske om å lære enda mer om programmering og utvikling
-av store systemer.
-
-
Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?
-
-
Skolelinux prosjektet hørte jeg først om i media. Men det var først
-når jeg skulle velge bacheloroppgave at jeg fattet mer interesse for
-prosjektet. Et enkelt søk på nettet førte meg til skolelinux sine
-hjemmesider. Informasjonen jeg fant der gjorde meg enda nysgjerrig og
-jeg valgte derfor en oppgave som gikk ut på å få en
-Raspberry PI. Altså en
-ultra-billig datamaskin til å kjøre Debian Edu på lik linje med
-vanlige datamaskiner. I løpet av prosjektet ble det gjort mye
-forskning på nettet. Det var mye jeg måtte forstå rundt hvordan
-operativsystemet Linux fungerte før jeg kunne angripe
-problemet. Prøvde først å finne ut hvordan man kunne transformere en
-vanlig installasjon av Skolelinux til Raspberry PI, men dette var
-altfor vanskelig å jeg endte opp med mer spørsmål enn svar. Det ble
-videre opprettet kontakt med Skolelinux utviklere på IRC der jeg fikk
-diskutert hvilken retning jeg burde gå for å få til en fullverdig
-løsning. Det ble bestemt at jeg skulle gå for å først installere
-Raspian. Dette er et
-operativsystem basert på Debian spesiallaget for Raspberry Pi sin
-maskinvare. Nå som Debian var installert på datamaskinen gjenstod det
-å installere de nødvendige Skolelinux pakkene for å få til et
-fullverdig system. Disse pakkene ble installert manuelt i første
-omgang, men ble senere installert automatisk via et script som Petter
-Reinholdtsen laget. Dette scriptet er så enkel å bruke at man er i
-gang med installasjonen i løpet av bare 5 minutter. Ikke nok med det,
-alt skjer helt automatisk. Alt i alt er jeg veldig fornøyd med
-resultatet av installasjonsprosessen. Raspberry Pi er en veldig svak
-maskin og det merkes godt når man har installert Skolelinux på
-den. Video og 3D-rendering fungerer utrolig dårlig, men nettsurfing og
-kontorprogrammer fungerer godt. Det kan derfor konkluderes med at
-datamaskinen er egnet for enkle oppgaver.
-
-
Jeg syns det er viktig påpeke at dette kun er startfasen av en slik
-løsning. På markedet finnes det nå maskiner som har bedre hardware enn
-Raspberry Pi. Det er store muligheter for at man kan klare å
-installere Skolelinux på disse også, og da forsvinner nok mest
-sannsynlig ytelsesproblemene med Video og 3D rendering også.
-
-
Det ble også prøvd med en løsning som gjorde at Raspberry Pi
-fungerte som en tynnklient. Denne løsningen hadde langt bedre ytelse
-med tanke på hastighet og brukeropplevelse. Men også her var video og
-3D rendering dårlig. Det ble brukt en liten Linux distribusjon kalt
-BerryTerminal for å få til
-dette.
-
-
Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?
-
-
Fordelen med Skolelinux er mange. At det er gratis er en stor
-fordel, men at det er så mange som er med på å utvikle det og
-vedlikeholde det er en enda større fordel. Allerede før jeg startet
-med prosjektet så jeg mange fordeler, og når jeg nærmet meg sluttfasen
-så jeg langt flere. At prosjektet skulle inneha en så høy kvalitet
-hadde jeg aldri trodd. En vanlig Skolelinux installasjon har de
-nødvendige programmene og funksjonen som både små og store skoler i
-tillegg til organisasjoner kan klare seg med. At prosjektet tilbyr en
-så komplett løsning er en kjempefordel. Installasjonen er knirkefri
-og det er svært enkelt å installere og komme i gang.
-
-
Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?
-
-
Ulempene jeg ser med prosjektet er ryddigheten av websidene. Selv
-om websidene er enkle og konsise er det allikevel ikke appellerende i
-like stor grad som for eksempel
-Ubuntu sine sider. Deres side
-tilbyr, i tillegg til godt design og presentasjon, en nettbasert
-emulator av deres operativsystem. Dette er en stor fordel slik jeg ser
-det. Bortsett fra dette ser jeg absolutt ingen ulemper med
-Skolelinux-prosjektet.
-
-
Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?
-
-
Til daglig er jeg en flittig bruker av det åpne media
-sentersystemet XBMC. Det enorme
-samfunnet rundt dette prosjektet har gjort dette til et program som
-dekker alles behov. Man kan tilpasse det akkurat slik man vil både med
-tanke på utseende og funksjoner ved installere plug-ins eller
-scripts.
-
-
Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få
-skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?
-
-
Strategien som burde brukes sett fra mine øyne er
-markedsføring. Jeg er sikker på at om flere skoler fikk et lite innsyn
-i hvor bra Skolelinux er så ville de ikke nølt med å gå over fra noe
-annet som koster de store summer. At skolelinux til de grader tilbyr
-en så komplett løsning bure komme frem. Enten via reklamekampanjer
-eller ved å sende ut folk til skoler for så å la skolenettverk
-ansvarlige få teste ut hvordan Skolelinux fungerer i praksis. Om det
-i tillegg ble utviklet gode websider og en emulator for å la brukere
-prøve operativsystemet ville nok dette ha styrket inntrykket
-betraktelig.
-
-
-
-
-
