blog/data/2012-03-09-skolelinux-nigel-barker.txt

   1 Title: Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker
   2 Tags: english, debian edu, intervju
   3 Date: 2012-03-09 11:30
   4
   5 <p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
   6 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
   7 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
   8 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
   9 more international audience.</p>
  10
  11 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
  12 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
  13 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
  14 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
  15 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
  16 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
  17 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
  18
  19
  20 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  21
  22 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
  23 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
  24 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
  25 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
  26 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
  27 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
  28 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
  29 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
  30 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
  31 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
  32 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
  33
  34 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
  35 project?</strong></p>
  36
  37 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
  38 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
  39 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
  40 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
  41 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
  42 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
  43 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
  44 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
  45 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
  46 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
  47 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
  48 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
  49 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
  50
  51 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
  52 Edu?</strong></p>
  53
  54 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
  55 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
  56 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
  57 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
  58 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
  59 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
  60 Japan.</p>
  61
  62 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
  63 Edu?</strong></p>
  64
  65 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
  66 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
  67 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
  68 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
  69 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
  70 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
  71 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
  72 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
  73 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
  74 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
  75 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
  76 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
  77 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
  78 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
  79 help.</p>
  80
  81 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
  82
  83 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
  84 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
  85 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
  86 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
  87 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
  88 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
  89 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
  90 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
  91 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
  92 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
  93 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
  94
  95 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
  96 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
  97
  98 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
  99 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
 100 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
 101 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
 102 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
 103 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
 104 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
 105 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
 106 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
 107 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
 108 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
 109 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>