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There are some links in the original to stories (like a teacher telling a student that giving someone else a linux disk is illegal..
I have been a Linux user for past 10 years, and would never boot a Windows machine except I work on one ever day for my company.
The missing component for a complete conversion on my work desktop computer for work is a scriptable publishing program.
I use Quark now, with Xdata import plug-in.
Scribus is probably workable if I was proficient in Python.
Next years project.
Not sure on what grounds the student would sue but I'm sure that a creative and enterprising law student could come up with something ... “perhaps torturous interference with education”?
News flash Prof. Some folks just don't have a spare 150.00 laying around to sustain the Redmond Giant. You won't be able to tell a Linux-based .doc from a Windows-based one.
I just graduated from the University of Texas 2 years ago. All 4 years I was there, the student-discounted version of MS Office cost us only $15.
I agree with the author on most points in the article, but his arbitrary figure of $150 is not due diligence on his part.
There are arguments on both sides of this issue. Especially support issues. If you have to support client computers, it is best to limit the # of OS’s you have to support. Otherwise you have to have staff trained in all the variations. This costs $$$.
Opensource is great stuff. But the lack of uniformity is troublesome and the lack of support is a major issue also. As times get tight, you will see more and more of it though.
It’s a racket, just like college textbooks.
The reason public schools use Windows is because it’s not their money.
What educators will eventually learn to understand is that technology has the potential to multiply the good teacher productivity.
It will not make excuses for the poor teachers survival.
Distributive learning with local coaches is a win win for the student, taxpayers, local community, and the good teachers.
Not the teachers union.
If it's nonsense then why is the author balling his eyes out? Must be because it ISN'T actually compatible, if it were, he could just use it, and the teacher couldn't tell the difference with the finished product.
My school district is about to get millions in bailout money, and they’re saying they’re going to use it on technology. Whatever their solution, be it open source, PC or Mac, I hope they have a long-term plan or the money is going to be wasted. What you use means nothing if there is no viable plan, and schools getting millions in phone tax money have shown that to be true time and time again.
I think I’m going to a school board meeting.
I think this author takes for granted the school systems;
The school systems are a bureaucracy just like any other. They exist to keep themselves in existance. It really is that simple.
MCSEs that are telling school superintendents that it’s literally illegal to remove Windows from the machine? That’s an incredibly unethical way to entrench yourself.