Gefragt wurde unter anderem, ob bei der Kommunikation mit öffentlichen Trägern offene Dokumentenformate zum Austausch verwendet werden sollten. Hier waren sich nahezu alle Befragten einig, und befürworteten offene Standards.

Bei der Frage ob Software die von staatlichen Stellen genutzt oder entwickelt wird unter einer Freien Lizenz stehen sollte, gab es unterschiedliche Meinungen.

Parteien die eher liberal oder rechts-populistische Grundhaltungen haben, befürworten dieses Vorgehen nicht. Aus Ihrer Sicht hätte der Bürger/die Bürgerin keinen Mehrwert wenn er/sie freien Zugriff auf “den Quelltext einer SAP hätte”

Hingegen sprachen sich viele der Befragten dafür aus, in Schulen und Kindergaerten plattform-unabhängige und Freie Software einzusetzen.

Nachzulesen sind die Ergebnisse hier.

frenetix mit OLAT in der Kategorie Business Case<
Kolab in der Kategorie Community
Sascha Grossenbacher in der Kategorie Youth

Archivista wurde für ihr langjähriges Open Source Engagement mit einem Special Award ausgezeichnet.

• The packages from Upstream channels are no longer split into separate repositories but merged into one big. You can now access all packages during install time.

• The distribution is now delivered on DVD iso images, only. But there will be a minimal install CD and a LightWeightServer CD available, soon.

• LiveCDs and LiveDVDs for i386 and x86_64 will be released within the next few days. These will bring in the ability to directly install from the livemedia.

Please read the full CentOS 6.0 Announcement for further information and enjoy the distro artwork.

Profile definitions are stored within /etc/dconf/profile/.

The DCONF_PROFILE environment variable could be set to load a specific profile. Otherwise dconf will attempt to load a profile named user.

To change the background image for all users, please create a profile definition /etc/dconf/profile/user with the following content:

user
site

The first line is the name of the user’s database which is stored in ~/.config/dconf/ (if ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME} does not point somewhere else). The name within the profile definition reflects the database name. In the example above, the database ~/.config/dconf/user will be loaded if it exists.

The remaining line(s) of the profile definition describe system databases, which are located within /etc/dconf/db/. Priority is taken top down. If locks are defined within a database, they may override settings from other databases with higher priority.

To change the background image system-wide, the according settings have to be defined within a system database (which is called site in this example).

For configuration, a system database directory can be created within /etc/dconf/db, named as the database name, trailed by .d (/etc/dconf/db/site.d in our case). This directory should also contain a subdirectory called locks to allow mandatory settings.

Within the database directory, keyfiles could be created. To define the background image, please create a file /etc/dconf/db/site.d/background with the following content:

[org/gnome/desktop/background]
picture-uri='file:///usr/share/backgrounds/images/favourite_wallpaper.png'


Afterwards the settings have to be compiled into a dconf database using:

dconf update


This step has to be repeated, every time changes have been made within the database directories.

Now, if a user has no custom wallpaper settings, the predefined wallpaper should be displayed on next login.

To force these settings, a lock could be created. Please note that this step will also set it mandatory, preventing users from changing it.

Creating a file /etc/dconf/db/site.d/locks/background-lock with the following content:

/org/gnome/desktop/background/picture-uri


followed by a dconf update will lock the key. Locking is currently only supported on a per-key basis.

In order to change the GDM wallpaper, you could refer to the newly created profile called site within /etc/dconf/profile/gdm. Please note that this file is not marked as config file, so it will be overwritten on every package update.

To figure out which dconf values exist you can either use the graphical dconf-editor or gsettings.

Luckily we have h-node these days, which is a hardware database, organized by the Free Software Foundation. Hardware is categorized so you can easily discover what you are looking for. Besides Notebooks, there are categories for Wifi cards, Video cards, Printers and multifunction, Scanners and many more. Compatibility is classified in form of grades. It does not matter if the device you want to add is completely free, as long as you note that down. Listing un-free devices is as important as listing free devices.

To test if your device works with Free Software, you can use a free Linux distribution, like trisquel. The latter is based on Ubuntu and can easily be booted from CD or USB key. Afterwards, you can discover your hardware, select the appropriate category, click the + new icon and fill in in the information you have. You can take a look at the Z61t I have added for an example.

The database already helped me to order a USB Key (TEW-424UB) that works with free software and next time I am planning to buy a notebook, I will consult it in advance.

Darauf folgten einige Versuche solch ein System in Ruby nachzubauen, es scheiterte aber an einer geeigneten Webdarstellung. Glücklicherweise ist Reinhard nach einiger Zeit auf das Projekt php iCalendar gestossen, das wir nun einsetzen. Viel Zeit und Muehe hat mich die Anpassung der Theme gekostet, aber nun ist das Projekt fertig.

Unter http://freie-termine.ch findest du eine aktuelle Übersicht über Veranstaltungen Rund um Open Source und Free Software in der Schweiz. Hast du selbst einen iCal Feed den du eingebunden haben möchtest, maile uns bitte die Feed URL. Du kannst über GriCal auch einzelne Termine einstellen, indem du sie mit dem Schlagwort freietermine versiehst.

On a modern graphic card, GNOME3 will start the GNOME Shell which is a complete break with the commonly known desktop environments. It has not task bar for task switching, instead it relies on Alt+Tab a lot. But don’t be afraid, you can still switch back to a so called Fallback mode if you prefer the old GNOME layout and behavior. Fallback mode will also be automatically activated on low-end graphic cards and so within virtualized environments. Just open System-Settings / System-Information / Graphics and activate Forced Fallback Mode if you got a powerful hardware but still prefer a classic layout.

Fallback mode is still not perfect yet (e.g. bright white handlers look a bit displaced) and has some bugs (e.g. application menu crashes after adding an icon from the menu to the panel), but overall it’s quite usable.

So wherever you are used to Alt+Tab and are interested in a new desktop experience, take a look at GNOME Shell. If you prefer a taskbar for window switching and menus for starting applications, just activate Fallback Mode.

On Friday afternoon Urs and I started to create a big wooden Plussy which we then photographed in different locations.

Some other fellows showed up later. Thanks to Gürkan, we now also have some nice portrait shoots.

Im Lightning Talk Track konnte ich einen kurzen Vortrag über sssd halten, in dem ich das neue Authentifizierungsframework vorgestellt habe.

Der Abend klang beim gemütlichen Chässpätzli-Essen aus, wo uns Venti vom Hackerfunk einige Perlen der Schweizerdeutschen Sprachkunst nähergebracht hat.

Alles in allem ein sehr schönes und empfehlenswertes Event unter Freunden. Vielen Dank an die Veranstalter und die netten Kollegen die uns geholfen haben.

It consists of an introduction course, two install evenings (one at the ETHZ and one at the University Zurich) and an advanced course.

Due to the fact that the students already know Linux from their student lab computers, they are often also interested in having it installed on their personal computers.

As it’s not really limited even people from the region could join the events (and also do).

This autum, I was doing the introduction course at the ETH Zurich where I was talking about how to free devices (and minds). It was a lot of fun and I got very good feedback.

Besides that I was helping at the install event which happened at the University Zurich where I prepared a bunch of machines with Linux.

I also thought about what to improve for the next time as we ran into a few problems. Modern laptops or netbooks often do not have a CD/DVD drive, any more, so USB keys or something similar are needed for installation. As the ETH already produces so called SafeIT USB keys which are handed out to every student, it would be great if they will be shipped with a bootable Linux in the future.

I am looking forward for the next event which hopefully will happen in spring 2011.