blog/data/2014-07-31-skolelinux-bernd-zeitzen.txt

   1 Title: Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen
   2 Tags: english, debian edu, intervju
   3 Date: 2014-07-31 08:30
   4
   5 <p>The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for
   6 schools, <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
   7 Skolelinux</a>, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people
   8 involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists
   9 from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust
  10 the setup.  I managed to interview him this summer.</p>
  11
  12 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  13
  14 <p>My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self
  15 employed physiotherapist.  My former profession is tool maker, but I
  16 haven't worked for 30 years in this job.  30 years ago I started to
  17 support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the
  18 administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu
  19 Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows
  20 Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only
  21 works with Windows . :-(</p>
  22
  23 <p>In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use
  24 Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX.  Today we are running a
  25 Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of
  26 children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist,
  27 psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to
  28 work with the documentations of our patients.</p>
  29
  30 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
  31 project?</strong></p>
  32
  33 <p>Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in
  34 his school (<a href="http://www.gymnasium-harsewinkel.de/">Gymnasium
  35 Harsewinkel</a>).  They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they
  36 were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the
  37 software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their
  38 computer skills in optional lessons.  I'm spending 4-6 hours a week
  39 with this job.</p>
  40
  41 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  42 Edu?</strong></p>
  43
  44 <p>The independence.</p>
  45
  46 <p>First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the
  47 software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software
  48 included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.</p>
  49
  50 <p>Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the
  51 possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices.  The
  52 servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are
  53 working reliable. </p>
  54
  55 <p>We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45
  56 workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile
  57 solution for all classrooms.  These machines are all booting from the
  58 terminal server.  In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile
  59 workstations.  Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these
  60 machines in their classrooms.  Internet access is realized by a WLAN
  61 router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a
  62 dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.</p>
  63
  64 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  65 Edu?</strong></p>
  66
  67 <p>Teachers and pupils are Windows users.  &lt;Irony on&gt; And Linux
  68 isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. &lt;Irony
  69 off&gt; They don't realize the stability of the system. </p>
  70
  71 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
  72
  73 <p>Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba,
  74 Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)</p>
  75
  76 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
  77 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
  78
  79 <p>In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide
  80 which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by
  81 teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with
  82 Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS
  83 Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software
  84 instead.  Another problem are the publisher of school books.  They
  85 develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.</p>