François is from Purism, a company which makes Linux laptops, as well as its own version of Linux. It’s an interesting project. François is also a great interview subject in that he’s a filmmaker who is using Linux for his work.
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- Who are you, and what do you do?
My name is François, I am from France. I am director of creative at Purism, so most of my creative energy goes to Purism and promoting the copyleft philosophy. I am also a filmmaker and animator, making traditional 2D animation with computers. Some years ago I co-funded the British film production Free Seed Films and, much more recently, the non-profit organization Ethic Cinema, which aims to promote free cinematographic creations.
- Why do you use Linux?
I would like to give as much credit to GNU as to Linux because GNU is the origin of the system and the philosophy. I use GNU/Linux because it matches my philosophy in terms of user freedom and control over software and hardware. I come from a background of proprietary software for multimedia creation and I made the move to free software not so long ago in order to get this freedom, as well as control over the tools that I use everyday. I want control over my hardware obsolescence as much as possible.
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What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?
I use PureOS. It is the OS developed by Purism and it is based on Debian. It is actually Debian Stretch, with some add-ons for privacy and security.
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What desktop environment do you use and why do you use it?
I use GNOME Shell because it is sober, clean, and very efficient, with a modern look and feel. It is also one of the best mobile/desktop convergent environments, in my opinion. Why have different habits when using different devices?
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What one piece of Linux software do you depend upon? Why is it so important?
Do you mean Free software? If so, I would say Blender. It is one of the most amazing programs I have ever used. It’s very powerful and helped me a lot with my transition to free software. Of course, there is other software that I depend upon, like GIMP, Krita, Kdenlive, as well as FFmpeg and Firefox. What would I do without a web browser? 🙂
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What kind of hardware do you run this setup on?
I use a Librem 13, which is a very cool laptop that helps me avoid a lot of headaches. It is fast and its motherboard has been designed by Purism to run free software, so I can update safely. With PureOS, I don’t worry about incompatibility while getting the power, robustness and freedom of Debian.
I am waiting for the 4K based Librem 15 to arrive.
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Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?
Interview conducted August 21, 2016
The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.
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