It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to +publish another interview with the people behind +Debian Edu and Skolelinux. +This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the +years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor +details get right before release. + +
Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
+ +My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm 49 years old and living in +Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany. I worked nearly 20 years as +certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an +international company for machinery and equipment. Since 2011 I'm a +certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical +documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer. From April this year +I will manage the department of technical documentation at a +manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.
+ +My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used +it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at +home since 2006.
+ +How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu +project?
+ +Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my +daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the +middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped +him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she +asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old +computers in use. I answered: "Yes".
+ +Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer +running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as +gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer +network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time +and with a lot of fun. About one year later the school was connected +to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school +building. That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a +Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and +being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra +costs for things like licence and software. So I searched for a +school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of +people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux +prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school. I +managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over +the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in +Bielefeld in December of 2006.
+ +What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian +Edu?
+ +When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages +for me as today.
+ +In the past there were advantages like:
+ +-
+
+
- I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as +they had little money to spent for computers and software. + +
- It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without +cost. + +
- It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for +schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows +clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a +infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a +server + +
- I was able to configure the server to the needs of the +school. + +
Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones +came up in this way:
+ +-
+
+
- Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software +now. + +
- They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which +have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts +because they are to close to Microsoft ideology. + +
- With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for +management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the +interfaces used in the past. + +
- It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the +different needs. + +
- The documentation is usable and gets better every day. + +
- More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the +world and so the community, which is an very important part I think, +is sharing knowledge and minds. + +
- Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are +solved today by Debian Edu. + +
What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian +Edu?
+ +-
+
+
- There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into +their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even +whole municipality areas. + +
- Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not +enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to +politicians. + +
- Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of. + +
Which free software do you use daily?
+ +I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop +computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I +use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel, +KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I +need from the KDE environment. On console I use newsbeuter, mutt, +screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.
+ +My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube +and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS, +rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services +with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me +and the whole family. I probably forgot something.
+ +Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?
+ +I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate +Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different +countries and areas all over the world.
+