[ILUG] Typical - Schools / vendor lockin.

[Conor Wynne]

On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 9:50 AM, Luke Ashe-Browne <xactly at gmail.com> wrote:

> Diarmuid Bourke wrote:
>
> > I would say it's a case of the school not having a clue. (ie, He has
> > publisher, it works on his computer when he tests it) Have you tried
> > contacting them about it? Maybe they can put it online in a different
> > format.
> >
> > Diarmuid.
> >
> > Cathal Ferris wrote:
> >
> > > I find this type of thing all across the teaching spectrum in Ireland:
> > > Registration forms and other documentation in obscure formats readable
> > > only in expensive programs.
> > >
> > > Case in point: The registration form for a teacher's association
> > > meeting is in MS Publisher format. Even those places with enterprise
> > > licenses for MS products wouldn't have MS Publisher. Not many schools would
> > > have licenses for this.
> > >
> > > http://www.ista.ie/Letterkenny1.html
> > >
> > > How can this be remedied in the long run?
> > >
> > > Cathal.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Cathal Ferris
> > > pio at csn.ul.ie            http://www.swibble.com
> > >
> >
> >  The only long term answer is the promotion of free and open standards,
> ODF and the like. Write to them ask them to try publishing their documents
> in OOo, even linking to the download site from the files page itself, having
> the knock on affect of promoting its use


Its gas that, but I am off next week on a RH training course. naturally I
received the .doc file with instructions to the training center.
It opens in MS-Word completely garbled. I opened it with OO under RHEL5 and
it is perfectly readable.

Nice 1.

I totally agree that docs should be readable by all, and I detest MS-Word.
However, it is installed by default on my work PC and is the defacto
"standard" in the office... Although I have a license for Office-XP at home
(not OEM), I still replaced it with OO on windows.


> amonst users of the site (parents). There's little you can achieve
> quickly, but with continuing efforts maybe the world can be made aware. I
> still find it hilarious, and saddening, that budget strapped schools system
> don't outright embrace the use of free operating systems and productivity
> software. I mean they can't even pay the teachers salaries as it is. So
> they'll just keep unneccessarily hemoraging away their budgets on
> propriatary software, that could otherwise be used to aleviate the lack of
> positions for teaching staff, unless the like of us do something about it.
>
> </rant>
>
> mmmm, nice warm post-ranting glow.



HA, unless the teachers have an interest, it aint going to happen.
My father in law (retired now) did the IT in his school (also the
principal), and although quite tech savvy, absolutely refused to have linux
on the machines.

My mother in law (also a principal) has zero interest in linux. As a result,
no linux is their respective schools.
I managed to get a linux server in there, but even that didn't last...

It's windows all the way for them unfortunately.

Now they use linux when in my house, but the real issue is the educational
apps that the kids use are all windows based.
Not even mac versions for most apps. So OSX/linux are are a non-starter.

Conor.