blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html

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   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</title>
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  12  <h1>
  13      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  14
  15  </h1>
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  17 </div>
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  19
  20     <div class="entry">
  21       <div class="title">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</div>
  22       <div class="date"> 9th March 2012</div>
  23       <div class="body"><p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
  24 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
  25 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
  26 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
  27 more international audience.</p>
  28
  29 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
  30 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
  31 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
  32 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
  33 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
  34 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
  35 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
  36
  37
  38 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  39
  40 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
  41 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
  42 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
  43 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
  44 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
  45 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
  46 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
  47 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
  48 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
  49 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
  50 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
  51
  52 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
  53 project?</strong></p>
  54
  55 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
  56 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
  57 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
  58 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
  59 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
  60 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
  61 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
  62 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
  63 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
  64 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
  65 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
  66 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
  67 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
  68
  69 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
  70 Edu?</strong></p>
  71
  72 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
  73 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
  74 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
  75 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
  76 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
  77 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
  78 Japan.</p>
  79
  80 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
  81 Edu?</strong></p>
  82
  83 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
  84 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
  85 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
  86 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
  87 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
  88 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
  89 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
  90 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
  91 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
  92 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
  93 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
  94 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
  95 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
  96 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
  97 help.</p>
  98
  99 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 100
 101 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
 102 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
 103 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
 104 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
 105 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
 106 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
 107 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
 108 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
 109 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
 110 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
 111 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
 112
 113 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 114 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 115
 116 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
 117 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
 118 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
 119 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
 120 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
 121 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
 122 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
 123 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
 124 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
 125 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
 126 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
 127 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
 128 </div>
 129
 130       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.</div>
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