blog/data/2013-06-17-skolelinux-victor-nitu.txt

   1 Title: Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu
   2 Tags: english, debian edu, intervju
   3 Date: 2013-06-17 10:50
   4
   5 <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
   6 Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
   7 globe.  And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
   8 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
   9 #debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
  10 worked.  We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
  11 help us with translations.  And today I managed to get an interview
  12 with him, to learn more about him.</p>
  13
  14 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  15
  16 <p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
  17 which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
  18 party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
  19 friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
  20 country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
  21 community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
  22 began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
  23 constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
  24 field.</p>
  25
  26 <p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
  27 provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
  28 activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
  29 of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
  30 software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
  31 the only one we have in our country.</p>
  32
  33 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
  34 project?</strong></p>
  35
  36 <p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
  37 even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
  38 it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
  39 educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
  40 love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
  41 technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
  42 ways to contribute.</p>
  43
  44 <p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
  45 configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
  46 haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
  47 areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
  48 software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
  49 one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
  50 environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
  51 for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
  52 from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
  53 have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
  54
  55 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
  56 Edu?</strong></p>
  57
  58 <p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
  59 maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
  60 took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
  61 Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
  62 time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
  63 with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
  64 out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
  65 it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
  66
  67 <p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
  68 availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
  69 scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
  70 only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
  71 lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
  72 project.</p>
  73
  74 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  75 Edu?</strong></p>
  76
  77 <p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
  78 disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
  79 project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
  80 a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story.  I'd like to see
  81 Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
  82 ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
  83 lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
  84 opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
  85 to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
  86
  87 <p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
  88 with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
  89 to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
  90 on.</p>
  91
  92 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
  93
  94 <p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
  95 daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
  96 am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
  97 Enlightenment project a lot!),
  98 <a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/‎">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
  99 use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
 100 <a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
 101 get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
 102 stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
 103
 104 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 105 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 106
 107 <p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
 108 now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
 109 that:</p>
 110
 111 <ul>
 112
 113 <li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
 114
 115 <li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
 116     experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
 117     of teenagers more?</li>
 118
 119 <li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
 120     be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
 121     other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
 122     them!)</li>
 123
 124 <li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
 125     lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
 126     person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
 127
 128 </ul>
 129
 130 <p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
 131 example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
 132 it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
 133 people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
 134 very hard to convert against their will.</p>