[dot] An Interview with KDE-Edu Developers
Dot Stories
stories at kdenews.org
Wed Mar 28 23:45:19 CEST 2007
URL: http://dot.kde.org/1175118195/
From: Giovanni Venturi <giovanni at kde-it.org>
Dept: educating-about-education
Date: Wednesday28/Mar/2007, @14:43
An Interview with KDE-Edu Developers
====================================
We are here today to talk about the developers of the KDE-Edu
[http://edu.kde.org/] Project. The purpose of this interview is to
feature and present their work and motivation, which is often not as
well-known or regarded as other, more prominent work within the KDE
project. The KDE-Edu developers are developing high-quality educational
software for the K Desktop Environment. Their primary focus is on school
children aged 3 to 18, and the specialised user interface needs of young
users. However, they are also have programs to aid teachers in planning
lessons, and others that are of interest to university students and
anyone else with a desire to learn! Read on for the interview.
Note: The following interview was originally released at the KDE Italia
web site [http://www.kde-it.org/], and is also available in Italian.
[http://www.kde-it.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=107&Itemid=1]
CARSTEN NIEHAUS
Can you introduce yourself to the KDE Italia readers? What did you
study? What is your day job?
I am a teacher for Biology and Chemistry. I am 27 years old and I live
in Osnabrück, North Germany, but am teaching in a Gymnasium in a small
town called Bad Essen. I am teaching students from 5th to 13th grade
(that translates to 10 to 19 years old).
When did you hear of KDE for the first time? When did you start using
Linux and why?
When I did my military service in the German Air Force I had quite some
time in the evenings. I bought a box of SuSE 6.4 and simply played
around with it. I started sending translations for a couple of KDE games
and after some patches somebody gave me a CVS account. That was... 1999.
I heard about Linux perhaps a year or two earlier, but never saw a
computer using it.
How and when did you get involved in KDE?
Well, see the question above. When I studied chemistry I needed a
periodic table and thought that having an electronic version would be
nice. So I started to work on Kalzium, my main application. I had never
coded C++, and only knew TurboPascal. That is because in German schools,
TurboPascal was the programming language in the 90s. Currently most
schools teach Java, though.
What makes you contribute for KDE instead of the competition?
The API of KDE and the Qt toolkit. As I started with SuSE, I started
with KDE. Soon, I had social contacts with several KDE folks so I stuck
with KDE. When I started coding I had a look at several APIs and Qt is
just too simple to resist. I never liked the API of GTK+. So my choice
was obvious.
Can you say that programming for KDE was an investment? You got C++/Qt
programming experience that helped you in enriching your personal skill
set. Can this be of help getting a job? Could it be a good attribute to
take to a job interview with a software company?
Well, programming is a time investment. But it is worth it! I am doing
this all in my spare time, but it is a hobby (and a good one!). I now
know most of the KDE developers personally because of all the social
events and fairs. This is a really nice community and I guess that a KDE
developer has a free bed in almost every town on the world, right?
For my job, my involvement in KDE doesn't help me. But my school uses
Linux/KDE for all student PCs. But that is totally unrelated to my
involvement, as the installation was already there two years before I
entered the school :)
Have you ever stayed at an aKademy conference? If so, can you tell us
briefly about it? What did you do? Would you say that a KDE
user/developer should participate in at least one KDE developers
conference (aKademy) in his/her life?
I have been in to aKademy 2005, in Malaga, Spain. I think that
participating in a “Free Software Event” is really
important, not necessarily an aKademy (though that is surely a great
event!). For me, the social aspect is the most important factor in my
contributions to F/OSS. In other words, putting faces on names is really
important - if possible, you should really try to visit on of the bigger
Linux/KDE-events, yes.
What are the most beautiful experiences with KDE? aKademy itself? To
know other developers? Or something else?
As I said, the social component is the most important to me. So I
guess, the fun hours with other developers, be it aKademy or LinuxTag
were the most beautiful experiences.
Do your parents and friends use Linux and KDE?
My partner Julia is using Linux for a couple of years now. She never
missed Windows. My father tries hard to find stupid arguments why he
wants to use Windows XP, but the day he'll switch will come, I swear.
Beside me and Julia I have no friends using Linux, but I already
converted many to use OpenOffice!
What could be your slogan to attract people to KDE? Can you give also
some "reasons to stay with *nix/KDE"?
I am really not competent enough for these kinds of promotional things!
What about “KDE rocks” . There are plenty of reasons to use
KDE, but more importantly, there are hardly any reasons to not use KDE!
I think *nix + KDE is a great environment for almost everybody.
If, one day, you stopped working on KDE, what could be the reason? Too
much time to dedicate to a new job, to your family or what else? Or,
simply, your passion for KDE is spent and so you leave the KDE team?
What would you miss of the KDE experience? (Obviously we hope you can
work in the KDE team for at least the next 30 years :))
Well, I guess Kalzium will remain my main application for a long time.
I guess I will always (famous words, I know) be a KDE user. In KDE 4,
the Strigi [http://www.vandenoever.info/software/strigi/] and NEPOMUK
[http://nepomuk.semanticdesktop.org/] stuff is the "killer feature" in
my eyes, and I can make very good use of it.
How much time do you usually spend on KDE?
It really depends on my motivation and my free time. It varies between
0 and 10 hours a week, I guess.
What are your plans for KDE 4?
I want to make more use of some features provided by OpenBabel
[http://openbabel.sf.net/]. OpenBabel is a file conversion tool which
allows you to convert one chemical file format to another. I already
added a GUI frontend to it, based on KOpenBabel.
Then Benoit Jacob and I added a 3D-viewer which is able to view any
molecule in 3D. It also uses OpenBabel (to read the chemical file) but
also Avogadro. Benoit coded all the math-stuff in Kalzium and is now
moving that code to Avogadro so that other apps can use it as well
(Avogadro is providing a library which other apps can use).
All of our source data is now based on BlueObelisk
[http://www.blueobelisk.org/], so that it is also shared with other
applications.
Then, of course, we have many smaller features, like an iconic view in
which every icon is symbolised by an icon rather than its symbol.
What was your first Linux distribution and why? Did you try many ones
before you found the right one?
So far I have used Gentoo, Mandrake (before the rename to Mandriva),
SuSE, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu. Currently, I am using OpenSUSE 10.2 which I
really like. I started with SuSE 6.4 and stayed on SuSE for one or two
years. SuSE was (and still is) very popular in Germany so I simply
ordered it over the internet. Other distributions were basically not
available in Germany (or at least I didn't know about them).
Which distribution do you use now? Why?
I was using Kubuntu for about 1.5 years, but recently switched to
OpenSUSE 10.2. The reasons are that, for one, it is really stable (I had
a data loss bug with OpenOffice in Kubuntu which wasn't fixed after
quite some time). Furthermore, OpenSUSE makes it really easy to develop
for KDE 4 because it provides you with the latest version of kdelibs
every Tuesday. That means I don't have to compile kdelibs myself but can
concentrate on compiling kdeedu :)
What is your favourite place in the world?
I have seen many places in the world. New York, Dublin and Prague are
probably my three favourite towns. There is no single place in the world
for me, there are just too many great places to be!
Have you ever been to Italy? If not, do you plan to come here and visit
our country?
Of course I have, several times even. But for some reasons, I never
visited your capital, Rome!
ALBERT ASTALS CID
Can you introduce yourself to the KDE Italia readers? What did you
study? What is your day job?
I'm usually not much good introducing myself, but let's try :-) Hi, I'm
Albert, I'm 25 years old, I'm from Barcelona and I'm a KDE developer, I
finished my studies in Computer Science a year and a half ago and I'm
currently working for a Traffic Simulation company.
When did you hear of KDE for the first time? When did you start using
Linux and why?
Not sure about the time frame, I just remember trying to install a
Mandrake 7.x disc that came with a PC Magazine and completely destroying
the contents of my hard drive. That was the start of a love relationship
:D I started using Linux seriously the first year of my computer studies
because they began teaching us how to program in Linux and Emacs (I hate
it since then).
How and when did you get involved in KDE?
I started translating KDE applications to the Catalan language back in
2003, and approximately one year later I thought, look, I know how to
program and some of these applications could need a little love here and
there, so I started creating some patches.
What makes you contribute for KDE instead of the competition?
Qt and People, simple as that, Qt is in my opinion almost the best
toolkit around for building applications (kdelibs is the best :D) and
has the best documentation. And KDE contributors are the most friendly
bunch of people i've found in the virtual world, and that gives a good
feeling.
Can you say that programming for KDE was an investment? You got C++/Qt
programming experience that helped you in enriching your personal skill
set. Can this be of help getting a job? Could it be a good attribute to
take to a job interview with a software company?
Actually I got my current job thanks to the C++ and Qt experience I
have so, yes I can definitely say that it was an investment, although
that has been more of a pleasant side effect than what I really wanted
when starting to contribute to KDE.
Have you ever stayed at an aKademy conference? If so, can you tell us
briefly about it? What did you do? Would you say that a KDE
user/developer should participate in at least one KDE developers
conference (aKademy) in his/her life?
I was in Dublin in 2006 and Malaga in 2005 - I can completely recommend
it to anybody that's remotely interested in KDE and of course any KDE
contributor should be at aKademy each year, not only once in his life!
What are the most beautiful experiences with KDE? aKademy itself? To
know other developers? Or something else?
I joined KDE because it is fun :-) Knowing developers is good but the
best thing and what keeps me going through the times I think of reducing
my time investment in KDE is when randomly you receive a user mail
saying “Thanks”.
Do your parents and friends use Linux and KDE?
Some do and some do not, mostly they do not, i'm not of the
evangelising kind of person so if people contact me with questions i'll
answer them, but I don't go actively seeking out new followers.
What could be your slogan to attract people to KDE? Can you give also
some "reasons to stay with *nix/KDE"?
As I said, i'm not the evangelising kind of person, but what I usually
say to people when they ask is “KDE does all I need and does it
better than Windows for me and does it for free, so give it a try and
see if it works for you too”.
If, one day, you stopped working on KDE, what could be the reason? Too
much time to dedicate to a new job, to your family or what else? Or,
simply, your passion for KDE is spent and so you leave the KDE team?
What would you miss of the KDE experience? (Obviously we hope you can
work in the KDE team for at least the next 30 years :))
Time, time and time. KDE is the most absorbing hobby i've ever had, and
this is sometimes bad as all absorbing things can be. So the time I
decide to cut down working on KDE will be when I decide that hobby has
gone too far.
How much time do you usually spend on KDE?
About 20 hours per week, sometimes more, sometimes less.
What are your plans for KDE 4?
Too many :D I'm working on a scrabble game, a pdftk frontend, a Gtali
clone, lots of new content users have sent me for KGeography
[http://edu.kde.org/kgeography/], SVG support in Blinken, the usual
duties of being KPDF [http://kpdf.kde.org/] mantainer and, of course,
trying to make okular [http://okular.org/] rock even more with threaded
text search, form support, and so on.
What was your first Linux distribution and why? Did you try many ones
before you found the right one?
Mandrake, because it was the first I had a physical CD for it worked
quite well. I shortly previewed SuSE, but YAST was too complicated for
me. The other distribution i've tried is my current one, Kubuntu.
Which distribution do you use now? Why?
I use Kubuntu because Mandriva stopped working for me and then I tried
SuSE and I did not like it. Finally, I tried Kubuntu and it seemed to
work quite well so I stopped there!
What is your favourite place in the world?
Home of course.
Have you ever been to Italy? If not, do you plan to come here and visit
our country?
I was in Italy when I was a young boy, maybe 4 or so, specifically in
Venice and the Italian Alps zone, I don't remember much so I definitely
plan coming back and visiting your (hopefully wonderful!) country :-).
ANNE-MARIE MAHFOUF
Can you introduce yourself to the KDE Italia readers? What did you
study? Do you have a day job?
I am the mother of 5 children and I have a diploma as a social worker
(so nothing related to IT). I am not in employment as my youngest child
just turned 1 years old so I am a mum at home! My husband is a
researcher in Meteorology and we chose to live for 7 years in England
and then for 4 years in Quebec, Canada. We are now back in France as it
was time he re-integrated his job here in France.
When did you hear of KDE for the first time? When did you start using
Linux and why?
I installed Linux for the first time in 1999 I think. I got a CD from a
magazine and was curious to see what it was. On the desktop I ran Window
Maker until I installed Mandrake which had KDE as default. I liked KDE
at first sight.
How and when did you get involved in KDE?
I started to translate from English to French (I started to translate
the KDevelop website for example, which I still do) and then I got
involved in KDE-Women. I founded KDE-Edu because I thought that the good
Educational software that existed at the time (KStars, KVocTrain,
KTouch) deserve to be in a module and to be better known.
What makes you contribute for KDE instead of the competition?
I just liked the look of KDE and when I first get involved in
contributing I also liked the community, I felt at ease.
Can you say that programming for KDE was an investment? You got C++/Qt
programming experience that helped you in enriching your personal skill
set. Can this be of help getting a job? Can it be a good attribute to
take to a job interview with a software company?
Hmmm, I am getting too old for a job! And I don't think my programming
level is good enough, I am still studying in books to improve it. For
younger people, I would say that being involved in KDE programming will
help them in a real-life job as even if it's a Free Software project,
developers still have to follow rules and be able to interact with other
people.
Have you ever stayed at an aKademy conference? If so, can you tell us
briefly about it? What did you do? Would you say that a KDE
user/developer should participate in at least one KDE developers
conference (aKademy) in his/her life?
No, I never went to aKademy as I lived in Canada for the past 4 years.
I hope I will go this year and yes, I think it is good to see people in
real life. It's a good way to know other developers better and to work
differently than using mailing lists or IRC.
What are the most beautiful experiences with KDE? aKademy itself? To
know other developers? Or something else?
I joined KDE first for fun and then by being aware that Free Software
is important. I have a shirt that says: "Free Software, Free Society"
and I like that very much.
What I like a lot in KDE is the ability to meet so many different
people whom I call "virtual friends" as I come to know some of them
quite well (we exchange pictures for example).
The most extraordinary thing is that we manage to actually build a
working desktop which can compete with proprietary software. All those
individuals working all over the world on some bits of KDE contribute to
make it an extremely accomplished piece of software.
Do your parents and friends use Linux and KDE?
Hmmm, no, not really. People my age don't use the computer a lot and
tend to use what they bought pre-installed. My husband uses Linux as he
is a researcher but my kids use Windows unfortunately.
What could be your slogan to attract people to KDE? Can you give also
some "reasons to stay with *nix/KDE"?
I am not very good at slogans but I think KDE is very intuitive,
especially for people not used to computers. KDE and Linux provide
everything you need if you are not obliged to use some other software at
your school or workplace.
If, one day, you stopped working on KDE, what could be the reason? Too
much time to dedicate to a new job, to your family or what else? Or,
simply, your passion for KDE is spent and so you leave the KDE team?
What would you miss of the KDE experience? (Obviously we hope you can
work in the KDE team for at least the next 30 years :))
I cannot see that coming. I hope it won't happen. I'll probably miss
the intellectual challenge of learning lots of new things and the
community.
How much time do you usually spend on KDE?
It really depends. When my children are on holiday I have little time
for KDE and when they are at school I have more time. Last year I moved
country so I spent several months without an internet connection. Right
now I spend about 20 hours/week I think working on KDE. Not counting
that in bed I read a Qt programming book!
What are your plans for KDE 4?
Well, I have many and the most important is to do more promotion on
KDE-Edu. I started at FOSDEM to have a meeting with other people
involved in Free Educational software and we tried to see how we could
better work together. I am the kdeedu module coordinator: that means
that I check if everything is OK in the module and that the applications
there all compile and have no showstopper bugs.
I also maintain KAppTemplate which is a script in kdesdk which
generates KDE4 templates for people who want to start programming. I
also do some work with KDevelop templates and I translate to French when
I have time. What I wish for KDE 4 is to have neat KDE-Edu applications
and I'd like to thank all the KDE-Edu developers for their work. We were
one of the first modules to develop new features for KDE4. Our programs
really improved and took advantage of Qt4 improvements.
What was your first Linux distribution and why? Did you try many ones
before you found the right one?
I started with Red Hat then switched to Mandrake as it is French and I
am French :)
Which distribution do you use now? Why?
I still use Mandriva as I know my way around and it works well for me.
My husband also uses it and he keeps it as such on his laptop until he
changes laptop 4 or 5 years later. He even insisted on buying boxes from
Mandriva to contribute.
What is your favourite place in the world?
Paris! Where else?
Have you ever been to Italy? If not, do you plan to come here and visit
our country?
I've been to Italy several times and I love it. I visited Roma and
Venice and some other places, and have spent some short holidays in
Italy a few times. I enjoy the food and the spirit Italian people have,
the way they laugh - it seems to me that they love life, which I also
do.
Albert, Carsten, Anne-Marie - thank you all of you for your time!
Giovanni Venturi - KDE Italia - http://www.kde-it.org/
[http://www.kde-it.org/]
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