blog/data/2020-05-12-skolelinux-yvan-masson.txt

   1 Title: Debian Edu interview: Yvan Masson
   2 Tags: english, debian edu, intervju
   3 Date: 2020-05-11 09:50
   4 Publish: 2020-05-11 09:50
   5
   6 <p>It has been way too long since my last interview, but as the <a
   7 href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
   8 community is still active, and new people keep showing up on the IRC
   9 channel <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu">#debian-edu</a> and
  10 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">the debian-edu mailing
  11 list</a>, I decided to give it another go.  This time the announcement
  12 of a new free software tool to
  13 <a href="https://framagit.org/Yvan-Masson/WhosWho">create a school year
  14 book</a> triggered my interest, and I decided to learn more about its
  15 author.</p>
  16
  17 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  18
  19 <p>My name is Yvan MASSON, I live in France. I have my own one person
  20 business in computer services.  The work consist of visiting my
  21 customers (person's home, local authority, small business) to give
  22 advise, install computers and software, fix issues, and provide
  23 computing usage training.  I spend the rest of my time enjoying my
  24 family and promoting free software.</p>
  25
  26 <p><strong>What is your approach for promoting free
  27 software?</strong></p>
  28
  29 <p>When I think that free software could be suitable for someone, I
  30 explain what it is, with simple words, give a few known examples, and
  31 explain that while there is no fee it is a viable alternative in many
  32 situations. Most people are receptive when you explain how it is
  33 better (I simplify arguments here, I know that it is not so simple):
  34 Linux works on older hardware, there are no viruses, and the software
  35 can be audited to ensure user is not spied upon. I think the most
  36 important is to keep a clear but moderated speech: when you try to
  37 convince too much, people feel attacked and stop listening.</p>
  38
  39 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
  40 project?</strong></p>
  41
  42 <p>I can not remember how I first heard of Skolelinux / Debian Edu,
  43 but probably on planet.debian.org. As I have been working for a
  44 school, I have interest in this type of project.
  45
  46 <p>The school I am involved in is a school for "children" between 14
  47 and 18 years old.  French government has recommended free software
  48 since 2012 (but is far away from applying this to itself), so while
  49 the school computers are still using Windows, all computer have the
  50 classic set of free software: Firefox ESR, LibreOffice (with the
  51 excellent extension Grammalecte that indicates French grammatical
  52 errors), SumatraPDF, Audacity, 7zip, KeePass2, VLC, GIMP, Inkscape…
  53
  54 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  55 Edu?</strong></p>
  56
  57 <p>It is free software! Built on Debian, I am sure that users are not
  58 spied upon, and that it can run on low end hardware.  This last point
  59 is very important, because we really need to improve "green IT".  I do
  60 not know enough about Skolelinux / Debian Edu to tell how it is better
  61 than another free software solution, but what I like is the "all in
  62 one" solution: everything has been thought of and prepared to ease
  63 installation and usage.</p>
  64
  65 I live Free Software because I hate using something that I can not
  66 understand. I do not say that I can understand everything nor that I
  67 want to understand everything, but knowing that someone / some company
  68 intentionally prevents me from understanding how things work is really
  69 unacceptable to me.</p>
  70
  71 <p>Secondly, and more importantly, free software is a requirement to
  72 prevent abuses regarding human rights and environmental care.
  73 Humanity can not rely on tools that are in the hands of small group of
  74 people.</p>
  75
  76 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  77 Edu?</strong></p>
  78
  79 <p>Again, I don't know this project enough. Maybe a dedicated website?
  80 Debian wiki works well for documentation, but is not very appealing to
  81 someone discovering the project. Also, as Skolelinux / Debian Edu uses
  82 OpenLDAP, it probably means that Windows workstations cannot use
  83 centralized authentication. Maybe the project could use Samba as an
  84 Active Directory domain controller instead, allowing Windows desktop
  85 usage when necessary.</p>
  86
  87 <p>(Editors note: Infact Windows workstations can get the centralized
  88 authentication in a Debian Edu setup, but the fact that this is not
  89 well known can be seen as an indication of the need for better
  90 documentation and marketing. :)
  91
  92 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
  93
  94 <p>Nothing original: Debian testing/sid with Gnome desktop, Firefox,
  95 Thunderbird, LibreOffice…</p>
  96
  97 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
  98 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
  99
 100 <p>Every effort to spread free software into schools is important,
 101 whatever it is. But I think, at least where I live, that IT
 102 professionals maintaining schools networks are still very "Microsoft
 103 centric".  Schools will use any working solution, but they need people
 104 to install and maintain it.  How to make these professionals sensitive
 105 about free software and train them with solutions like Debian Edu /
 106 Skolelinux is a really good question :-)</p>