From 7e7d64f7af04da062711e32ba46613ab3fd8cf1c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Petter Reinholdtsen Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2013 22:27:47 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] New interview. --- .../2013-skolelinux-cedric-boutillier.txt | 119 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 119 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/draft/2013-skolelinux-cedric-boutillier.txt diff --git a/blog/draft/2013-skolelinux-cedric-boutillier.txt b/blog/draft/2013-skolelinux-cedric-boutillier.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..975526fb91 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/draft/2013-skolelinux-cedric-boutillier.txt @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +Title: Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier +Tags: english, debian edu, intervju +Date: 2013-06-01 21:30 + +Debian Edu and Skolelinux + +

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project?

+ +

I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of +the Debian Edu manual for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since +then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the +manual. + +

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.

+ +

What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly +ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided +by GOsa². 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 (Ardour, +Audacity) and +movies/animation (I was especially thinking of +Stopmotion).

+ +

I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on +#debian-edu. +Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this +beautiful project.

+ +

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?

+ +

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.

+ +

One can find support from a company by looking at +the +wiki dokumentation, 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.

+ +

Which free software do you use daily?

+ +

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 Scilab and Sage (built from +source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet). + +XXXXXXXXXXX + +> Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in using the free +> software in Debian to teach mathematics and statistics? + +I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our +university, we use both R and Scilab to teach statistics and +probabilistic simulations. For geometry, there are nice programs: +- drgeo and kig to do constructions in planar geometry +- kali to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze +groups), although the interface looks a bit old. +I like also cantor, which provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage, +Octave, etc... +[I guess they are all installed by default on Debian Edu, although I +didn't check, as I had to get rid of my virtual Debian Edu :( ) + + +

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?

+ +My suggestions would be to + + -- 2.47.2