We recently interviewed Javier Igea on how he uses Fedora. This is part of a series on the Fedora Magazine where we profile Fedora users and how they use Fedora to get things done. If you are interested in being interviewed for a further installment of this series, you can contact us on the feedback form.
Who is Javier Igea?
Javier Igea has been using Linux since he bought the first release of Red Hat from a book store. While he was working on his PhD in New York City, his adviser recommended that he switch from Windows to Linux. The reason for this was he was going to be doing serious numerical computations. When asked about his childhood heroes, he joked about being a little bit old. “Tarzan. Do people know about him?” He continued, “I guess I am a little old, I was born in the late 50’s.” Igea’s two favorite movies are Saving Private Ryan and Welcome to the Sticks. Javier also likes fishing for striped bass, which he describes as a strange event.
Javier loves to share his life and abilities within his community. “I see myself as a hard worker, and a person with a big curiosity about nature and life; as a matter of fact, I got a PhD in astrophysics in the 90’s at NYU, which is not normal for a priest. I really love life and enjoy it,” said Igea.
Javier has been a priest in Madrid, Spain, for almost 30 years. “Well, people laugh when I tell them that Fedora/Linux is my second religion,” he said. He has some success in showing people that Fedora and open source are extremely capable. Igea stated, “In some people I have produced a strong desire to use and know free software, as they are amazed by the things one can do with it.”
What hardware?
Igea runs a Mailman server with several lists for his community on a Raspberry Pi. It is connected to the web via an ADSL modem with copper (not fiber lines). For his personal use, he has a desktop with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard disk.
What software?
The Raspberry Pi Igea runs uses Pidora. The desktop is currently running Fedora 23. He uses a little bit of everything for daily tasks: LibreOffice, GIMP, and Inkscape to create communications for his parish. Javier uses Emacs for text editing and bluefish for HTML coding. In the past, he used Lyx to write a book. He uses xibo to run digital signage for the church.
rodorapido
Amen!
Charles
Good stuff. It’s interesting to see how diverse the demographics of Fedora users is. What a lovely community.
Yu
Thanks for the great stories. However I’d like to point out there is not a single CJK Asian in all 16 parts of this 16 part series.
Steven Snow
An Priest with a PhD in Astrophysics, who would have thunk it, although I would suggest the two are not mutually exclusive. I would like to know how fishing for striped bass is such a strange event though.
Jeroen
The father of the Big Bang theory, Georges Lemaître, was in fact also a priest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre
pierre
Interesting indeed, it is funny the diversity of people using Fedora. Is he from America, South America or another spanish speaking coutry ? I’d love to visit his parish
Pablo
From Spain
KerstinW
Nice Interview, great man, best distro so far.
Snydox
He is currently in Spain. http://www.parroquiasantaelena.org Damn I’m used to be catholic. I would love to meet him some time.
pierre
indeed, it is in Madrid I can see on the link you gave. If I ever go there again I’ll pay them a visit. The site is made with Joomla, it looks great.
Onyeibo Oku
“Javier loves to shared his life and abilities within his community.”
remove “d” on “shared
Martin
Did I miss something about Pidora? I thought their latest release has been with f20 which is long without any updates, right?
Ant Stephenson
@Martin
Correct, F20 was the latest release. The article suggests his other machine, a desktop, is running F23.