Thank you um so i've stolen
the fridays for future for fossil future so um
i i am nicole i'm
working the kde eco initiative opt green
with joseph and the kde sustainable development goals meet the un sustainable
development goals which is great and the schools have um the In Germany,
the states have the duty to teach the kids sustainable development goals.
Unfortunately, software is not in that goal. They often forget about the software there.
For example, in October 2025, Windows 10 will be made obsolete.
It's estimated that it will render 250 million computers obsolete, which is crazy.
And by teaching kids that there's another world or another possibility other
than Windows and Macs, teach them Linux, then it might be part of the solution to the project.
Problem, sorry. Sorry.
So what I call digital empowerment goes with the KDE vision,
a world in which everyone has the choice over their digital lives and enjoys freedom and privacy.
Now, that's something that we need to teach the kids.
We need to show them that they have a choice. We need to show them that they
can control and shape their digital environment. and we need to show them how they have to execute it.
Unfortunately, at schools, this is not done very often.
But KDE Eco did it. So we held a workshop at a school in Hanover with eight
ninth graders and they have pulled out 19 computers out of the cellar of the school,
which would have been e-waste, and they have revived them with Linux.
And they've learned what impact it has to just throw computers away and then buy new ones.
So they have learned to install Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Fedora and Bazite and Mint.
The Fedora and Bazite with the KDE spin, that was important.
Important. So what did we talk about with the kids?
We talked about why did we do this, the environmental factor, the political factor.
We thought about use cases for those revived computers.
For example, they could give it back to their local school community where the
school is, or they can use it in the school cafeteria to do some research or
to play some games on, which was actually very important to them.
So we talked about what hardware we can use fully revive and which distro suits our needs.
And how do we do this or how did they learn it these two guys they made a video
um guide on how to make a usb stick with an iso image and then um how to install linux,
so they can teach other people about it so the outcome of that is that it was
basically engaging to everyone,
whether it was a technical aspect of it, whether it was a social or political
aspect of it, or the environmental aspect of it.
The other thing is that we have eight more kids that know about Linux,
plus maybe they're very, yay!
Maybe even their, exactly, their friends, their teachers, their parents maybe,
and even if it just sticks in the back of their mind.
They know there's something other than Apple and Windows.
Three kids are even interested in holding their own workshop to teach their
parents, their teachers at that school.
And we have 19 computers that are not e-waste anymore, revived by eight kids.
So and one of the biggest schools in
hanover which has about 1500 pupils and
150 teachers they want to
keep working with us they want to have more workshops with
us they want to keep that project on their agenda um and now my my little personal
story I am not a technical person I had to do this workshop I had to learn what a distribution is,
and why there are so many differences, which I still don't know.
I had to learn how to make a USB stick or flash a USB stick and I had to learn how to install it.
I have learned that I don't have to be a computer expert to do it,
which is good. I don't have to be scared about it.
But I needed to learn how to I how
I can explain it to kids to do this so I got my 14 year old daughter to do it
she's also not interested in computers so poor thing but she successfully managed
to flash a USB stick with Balea Etcher she successfully installed Fedora,
And the weekend after we did this together, we went to see my mom.
And my mom had a computer laying around. She said to me, I'm so frustrated.
I want to sit at the TV and would like to research something,
but I can't use this anymore because it's so slow.
And my daughter said, well, can we not put a fedora on it?
So I said, great success. Thank you.