Petter Reinholdtsen

Debian Edu interview: Yvan Masson
12th May 2020

It has been way too long since my last interview, but as the Debian Edu / Skolelinux community is still active, and new people keep showing up on the IRC channel #debian-edu and the debian-edu mailing list, I decided to give it another go. I was hoping someone else might pick up the idea and run with it, but this has not happened as far as I can tell, so here we are… This time the announcement of a new free software tool to create a school year book triggered my interest, and I decided to learn more about its author.

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

My name is Yvan MASSON, I live in France. I have my own one person business in computer services. The work consist of visiting my customers (person's home, local authority, small business) to give advise, install computers and software, fix issues, and provide computing usage training. I spend the rest of my time enjoying my family and promoting free software.

What is your approach for promoting free software?

When I think that free software could be suitable for someone, I explain what it is, with simple words, give a few known examples, and explain that while there is no fee it is a viable alternative in many situations. Most people are receptive when you explain how it is better (I simplify arguments here, I know that it is not so simple): Linux works on older hardware, there are no viruses, and the software can be audited to ensure user is not spied upon. I think the most important is to keep a clear but moderated speech: when you try to convince too much, people feel attacked and stop listening.

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

I can not remember how I first heard of Skolelinux / Debian Edu, but probably on planet.debian.org. As I have been working for a school, I have interest in this type of project.

The school I am involved in is a school for "children" between 14 and 18 years old. The French government has recommended free software since 2012, but they do not always use free software themselves. The school computers are still using the Windows operating system, but all of them have the classic set of free software: Firefox ESR, LibreOffice (with the excellent extension Grammalecte that indicates French grammatical errors), SumatraPDF, Audacity, 7zip, KeePass2, VLC, GIMP, Inkscape…

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

It is free software! Built on Debian, I am sure that users are not spied upon, and that it can run on low end hardware. This last point is very important, because we really need to improve "green IT". I do not know enough about Skolelinux / Debian Edu to tell how it is better than another free software solution, but what I like is the "all in one" solution: everything has been thought of and prepared to ease installation and usage.

I like Free Software because I hate using something that I can not understand. I do not say that I can understand everything nor that I want to understand everything, but knowing that someone / some company intentionally prevents me from understanding how things work is really unacceptable to me.

Secondly, and more importantly, free software is a requirement to prevent abuses regarding human rights and environmental care. Humanity can not rely on tools that are in the hands of small group of people.

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

Again, I don't know this project enough. Maybe a dedicated website? Debian wiki works well for documentation, but is not very appealing to someone discovering the project. Also, as Skolelinux / Debian Edu uses OpenLDAP, it probably means that Windows workstations cannot use centralized authentication. Maybe the project could use Samba as an Active Directory domain controller instead, allowing Windows desktop usage when necessary.

(Editors note: In fact Windows workstations can use the centralized authentication in a Debian Edu setup, at least for some versions of Windows, but the fact that this is not well known can be seen as an indication of the need for better documentation and marketing. :)

Which free software do you use daily?

Nothing original: Debian testing/sid with Gnome desktop, Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice…

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

Every effort to spread free software into schools is important, whatever it is. But I think, at least where I live, that IT professionals maintaining schools networks are still very "Microsoft centric". Schools will use any working solution, but they need people to install and maintain it. How to make these professionals sensitive about free software and train them with solutions like Debian Edu / Skolelinux is a really good question :-)

Tags: debian edu, english, intervju.

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