Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (150 mails)

[Malcolm Herbert <malc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi all

after much debate, here's the rtf of the small-scale technology pilot
document and also an amusing cartoon

hey...i don't mind the debate or the slagging

Malcolm

------------------------------------
Dr Malcolm Herbert
Head of Technology R&D, Becta
02476 847126   Fax: 02476 847120
------------------------------------







on 12/9/00 11:38 am, Frank Shute at shute@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 12, 2000 at 06:27:26PM +0100, Adrian Wells wrote:
>> 
>>>> Mmmm, remember my comments about word being a world class piece of
>>>> software? Used by nearly everyone? The ideal way to disseminate
>> documents.
>>>> 
>>>> You all booed and shouted! :-) Did I return fire? - No! I just waited
>> :-)
>>> 
>>> I still boo and shout. It's a proprietry format which requires you
>>> to have proprietry tools to produce it (quite apart from it being
>>> horrid). It is very far from being the ideal way to disseminate
>>> documentation.
>> I've used WPs from the day dot, even written my own when the cost of
>> something to do the job was just too much or not available on the platform I
>> was using, and the best for general office work, despite all the extra
>> baggage that I never use, and that stupid bloody paper-clip, has got to be
>> Word - sorry! 
> 
> Quite apart from anything else the `bloody paper-clip' (tm) makes me
> want to throw a brick at my monitor, so Word is ruled out on expense
> grounds (19" monitors being expensive to replace :)
> 
>> And I can (and do) transmit files to co-workers all around the
>> world. Do you think that I would pay so much to use something that didn't
>> work. There is truth in the phrase, "you get what you pay for" ! Free is
>> great IF it will do the job.
> 
> I don't exactly see what Word can do that free tools can't. I think
> there is truth in the phrase "you get what you pay for", in the case
> of Microsoft it's bloated, proprietry software that locks you in to
> a life of software and hardware upgrades and misery at vast expense.
> 
> I used to use Word but when I found that I couldn't read .docs
> produced in one version of Word with an older version of Word I
> rapidly cottoned on to what MS's game was - ie. forcing users to
> upgrade whether they liked it or not.
> 
>>> There are any number of acceptable open formats - ascii, html, PS,
>>> PDF which can be produced by freely available applications.
>> Ascii - Wot, no formatting.
>> HTML - yeah, okay but clunky to write.
>> PDF - fab, The correct way to do it, but at a cost.
>> PS - huge and at a cost.
>> These are all propriety formats by the way.
> 
> PDF and PS are proprietry but open formats for which there are
> freely available readers for /all/ platforms. There are few tools
> for dealing with .doc's on nix and none to produce them.
> 
> HTML - non proprietry and can't word spit out, admittedly bad, html
> anyhow?  
> 
>>> It sort of beggars belief that anybody should post a .doc file
>>> to a mailing list primarily concerned with the use of open
>>> software.
>>> 
>>>> Thanks Malcolm! Regarding OSE too, Whoops!
>> My point exactly.
>> 
>>> Good news indeed regarding Becta encouraging the development of
>>> OSS for schools. But if schools are going to use OSS perhaps we
>>> should show that it is a practical proposition by using it
>>> ourselves.
>> 
>> So, which will you go for? Some readers of this list can't even
>> read HTML e-mails. You need a format that is already in place
>> though-out the world, so lets go for plain ascii, afterall it does
>> have that computer-nurd look and feel.
> 
> I don't want html emails but I don't mind html attachments. Ascii is
> of course limited and I would personally recommend that PDF is used
> for documentation that needs to be distributed with formatting
> preserved. Anybody with a reasonably modern computer will either
> have a copy of Acrobat Reader or can download one from
> http://www.adobe.com/ for free.
> 
> Adrian, can you save a Word .doc as plain text? Perhaps you would be
> good enough to post Malcolm's .doc to me as plain text and I'll make
> it available as PDF for those who can't deal with .docs
> 
> <snipped>


<<< image/gif; name="uf002045.gif"; x-mac-creator="6F676C65"; x-mac-type="47494666": Unrecognized >>>