[Freeschool] Fwd: Re: [seul-edu] OSS for schools
Michael Shigorin
mike на osdn.org.ua
Сб Окт 11 17:13:29 MSD 2003
----- Forwarded message from Randy Edwards <redwards на golgotha.net> -----
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 08:14:22 +1200
From: Randy Edwards <redwards на golgotha.net>
To: seul-edu на seul.org
Subject: Re: [seul-edu] OSS for schools
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030930 Debian/1.4-5
>Are there any other schools/universities using it? I would like to
>contact them and share experiences
I'm the director of IT for the College of the Marshall Islands, a small
college in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and we recently switched
over to StarOffice (and OpenOffice). We've had no problems at all with the
software.
The "problems" we have had are related to "change" and the mental
mindset of "MS Office is good and god-like, anything else is inferior." As
with any large conversion, do your homework and line up the "political
support" of key players first to make sure they're on board. This can't be
stressed enough.
Training and real-world issues -- e.g. document conversion -- are
non-existent for us. We've run a few "intro" training sessions on
StarOffice to show people some differences (e.g. where to set margins and
how to insert page numbers) and to show off some of StarOffice's features
(e.g. the Gallery), but people have switched over painlessly. No one here
is using any sort of advanced template or macro features, so document
conversion is simply a non-issue for us.
>My plan is to start with OpenOffice running on Windows and in a year or
>so, maybe 2, we will switch to Linux, providing everything works well.
This is a key issue that you can explain to your administration. By
going with OpenOffice or StarOffice, not only will you avoid MS Office's
macro-virus problems, license restrictions, and annual subscription fees for
its office suite, but you give yourself options to move to entirely new
desktop platforms (e.g. Linux, Macs, other Unixes) down the road. Once you
put some dollar figures on those options, that will get your
administration's attention!
Regards,
.
Randy
--
"If the current stylistic distinctions between open-source and commercial
software persist, an open-software revolution could lead to yet another
divide between haves and have-nots: those with the skills and connections
to make use of free software, and those who must pay high prices for
increasingly dated commercial offerings." -- Scientific American
----- End forwarded message -----
--
---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike на altlinux.ru>
------ Linux.Kiev http://www.linux.kiev.ua/
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