X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/10b0eb0d3059ce92407cd83905b580cf3057af39..a4267c35f623304f12e7219c3ff0ca97ce083c06:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index e40f8f616a..a2436f2dda 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -6,6 +6,146 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html + Tue, 4 Jun 2013 10:30:00 +0200 + <p>It has been a while since my last English +<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> +interview last November. But the developers and translators are still +pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this +time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators +in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p> + +<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> + +<p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant +professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching +mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in +probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p> + +<p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years +and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby +packaging, publicity and translation.</p> + +<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project?</strong></p> + +<p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of +<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the +Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since +then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the +manual. + +<p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a +virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen +shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and +how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p> + +<p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly +ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided +by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>. What pleased +me also was the fact that among the software installed by default, +there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages, +to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and +artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>, +<a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and +movies/animation (I was especially thinking of +<a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p> + +<p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on +<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>. +Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this +beautiful project.</p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its +community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the +fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p> + +<p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian +distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection +of educational free software.</p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the +project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do +not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software +solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find +is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p> + +<p>One can find support from a company by looking at +<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the +wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of +companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or +Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However, +for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that +consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some +support for Debian Edu as well.</p> + +<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> + +<p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use +most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for +scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice. I am +also using the mathematical software +<a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about‎">Scilab</a> and +<a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html‎">Sage</a> (built from +source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet). + +<p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in +using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and +statistics?</strong></p> + +<p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our +university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/‎">R</a> and +Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For +geometry, there are nice programs:</p> + +<ul> + +<li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and +<a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig‎">kig</a> to do +constructions in planar geometry + +<li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a> +to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze +groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li> + +</ul> + +<p>I like also +<a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which +provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage, +<a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave‎">Octave</a>, etc...</p> + +<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?</strong></p> + +<p>My suggestions would be to</p> + +<ul> + +<li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li> + +<li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using + well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and + OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li> + +<li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li> + +<li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other + system.</li> + +</ul> + + + Åpent møte på onsdag om bruken av Microsoft Exchange ved Universitetet i Oslo http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pent_m_te_p__onsdag_om_bruken_av_Microsoft_Exchange_ved_Universitetet_i_Oslo.html @@ -656,36 +796,5 @@ unødige utgifter på IT i skoleverket. :)</p> - - Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html - Sun, 5 May 2013 07:40:00 +0200 - <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the -<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement -for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box. This is a great -Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly -soon.</p> - -<p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program -in particular make me very happy to see included. The -<a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by -the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is -included for the first time. Alongside similar programs like -<a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and -<a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>, -it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen, -and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the -computer. Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian -Edu.</a> - -<p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian -Edu/Skolelinux release too. The -<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first -alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon -follow.<p> - - -