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

   1 Title: Debian Edu interview: Yvan Masson
   2 Tags: english, debian edu, intervju
   3 Date: 2020-05-12 06:30
   4
   5 <p>It has been way too long since my last interview, but as the
   6 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
   7 community is still active, and new people keep showing up on the IRC
   8 channel <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu">#debian-edu</a> and
   9 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">the debian-edu mailing
  10 list</a>, I decided to give it another go.  I was hoping someone else
  11 might pick up the idea and run with it, but this has not happened as
  12 far as I can tell, so here we are… This time the announcement of a new
  13 free software tool to
  14 <a href="https://framagit.org/Yvan-Masson/WhosWho">create a school year
  15 book</a> triggered my interest, and I decided to learn more about its
  16 author.</p>
  17
  18 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  19
  20 <p>My name is Yvan MASSON, I live in France. I have my own one person
  21 business in computer services.  The work consist of visiting my
  22 customers (person's home, local authority, small business) to give
  23 advise, install computers and software, fix issues, and provide
  24 computing usage training.  I spend the rest of my time enjoying my
  25 family and promoting free software.</p>
  26
  27 <p><strong>What is your approach for promoting free
  28 software?</strong></p>
  29
  30 <p>When I think that free software could be suitable for someone, I
  31 explain what it is, with simple words, give a few known examples, and
  32 explain that while there is no fee it is a viable alternative in many
  33 situations. Most people are receptive when you explain how it is
  34 better (I simplify arguments here, I know that it is not so simple):
  35 Linux works on older hardware, there are no viruses, and the software
  36 can be audited to ensure user is not spied upon. I think the most
  37 important is to keep a clear but moderated speech: when you try to
  38 convince too much, people feel attacked and stop listening.</p>
  39
  40 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
  41 project?</strong></p>
  42
  43 <p>I can not remember how I first heard of Skolelinux / Debian Edu,
  44 but probably on planet.debian.org. As I have been working for a
  45 school, I have interest in this type of project.
  46
  47 <p>The school I am involved in is a school for "children" between 14
  48 and 18 years old.  The French government has recommended free software
  49 since 2012, but they do not always use free software themselves.  The
  50 school computers are still using the Windows operating system, but all
  51 of them have the classic set of free software: Firefox ESR,
  52 LibreOffice (with the excellent extension Grammalecte that indicates
  53 French grammatical errors), SumatraPDF, Audacity, 7zip, KeePass2, VLC,
  54 GIMP, Inkscape…
  55
  56 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  57 Edu?</strong></p>
  58
  59 <p>It is free software! Built on Debian, I am sure that users are not
  60 spied upon, and that it can run on low end hardware.  This last point
  61 is very important, because we really need to improve "green IT".  I do
  62 not know enough about Skolelinux / Debian Edu to tell how it is better
  63 than another free software solution, but what I like is the "all in
  64 one" solution: everything has been thought of and prepared to ease
  65 installation and usage.</p>
  66
  67 <p>I like Free Software because I hate using something that I can not
  68 understand. I do not say that I can understand everything nor that I
  69 want to understand everything, but knowing that someone / some company
  70 intentionally prevents me from understanding how things work is really
  71 unacceptable to me.</p>
  72
  73 <p>Secondly, and more importantly, free software is a requirement to
  74 prevent abuses regarding human rights and environmental care.
  75 Humanity can not rely on tools that are in the hands of small group of
  76 people.</p>
  77
  78 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
  79 Edu?</strong></p>
  80
  81 <p>Again, I don't know this project enough. Maybe a dedicated website?
  82 Debian wiki works well for documentation, but is not very appealing to
  83 someone discovering the project. Also, as Skolelinux / Debian Edu uses
  84 OpenLDAP, it probably means that Windows workstations cannot use
  85 centralized authentication. Maybe the project could use Samba as an
  86 Active Directory domain controller instead, allowing Windows desktop
  87 usage when necessary.</p>
  88
  89 <p>(Editors note: In fact Windows workstations can
  90 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Buster/HowTo/Samba">use
  91 the centralized authentication in a Debian Edu setup</a>, at least for
  92 some versions of Windows, but the fact that this is not well known can
  93 be seen as an indication of the need for better documentation and
  94 marketing. :)</p>
  95
  96 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
  97
  98 <p>Nothing original: Debian testing/sid with Gnome desktop, Firefox,
  99 Thunderbird, LibreOffice…</p>
 100
 101 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 102 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 103
 104 <p>Every effort to spread free software into schools is important,
 105 whatever it is. But I think, at least where I live, that IT
 106 professionals maintaining schools networks are still very "Microsoft
 107 centric".  Schools will use any working solution, but they need people
 108 to install and maintain it.  How to make these professionals sensitive
 109 about free software and train them with solutions like Debian Edu /
 110 Skolelinux is a really good question :-)</p>