system - pupils will be able to use Linux or Windows with no difference (assuming Star Office stores in a common file format for each platform).
StarOffice does, but the network version has one or two problems. The main one is that the print command is stored in full in the file, and that file will crash SO if re-loaded into a situation where the default printer is not the same as the one when it was saved, though it loads into a Windows version OK. I look forward to 5.2 where I hope this bug s fixed. Another is that if the user's directory is on a NFS-mounted remote drive, lots of system file corruptions seem to appear. I should be interested to be in touch with others who use SO on a fully networked thin-client basis (the code running on a central server) with lots of users. It's tough on the server!
The only job left is to find a way for users to access their email - we use Mercury and Pegasus, which puts the email directly into their filespace. This shouldn't be too difficult ( I hope).
[Mercury and Pegasus were excellent UK-manufactured computers of the late fifties/early sixties. Mercury used to get through valves at an amazing rate (those glass things with glowing cathodes inside).] Pine is a simple multi-platform thin-client email solution [even runs on BBCs, but not on a Mercury], but it's a glass teletype and not a windowed system. Editing, pasting, printing and attachment handling all require just a little user intelligence. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-820527 or 07798 636725 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk