On Fri, Mar 16, 2001 at 08:10:40PM -0000, sparkz@breathemail.net wrote:
With regards to the discussion about putting Linux on the clients and using the free Linux software out there. My main problem Ive found is both the students and staff all want to take their work home and do it, then either email it or bring it in to finish off in break times. As all these people have had to buy systems with Microsoft products on them the question of compatability come into question. How can they do there work at home using the Microsoft products ie Office, Publisher, Works (yuk), then bring in and finish at school on a LInux system?
These people are gaining an education as to why proprietary software can bite them. They need to understand why using proprietary formats means that their work isn't transferable in a lot of cases. `Word' documents aren't even necessarily transferable between different versions of `Word' so they shouldn't use it if they need to transfer files between computers!
Also the kids today already know how to use all the Microsoft stuff, It would be harder to teach them on a Linux system and they would struggle and possibly get confused using two totally different systems.
Unfortunately, the learning process is often a case of `struggle' and `confusion' and if they already know the Microsoft stuff why the hell are we teaching them even more? Give them a broad education instead of one defined around a single manufacturers transient products.
Also as most workplaces have all Microsoft based systems when looking for Jobs they nearly always ask if you can use Word or Excel, if the kids had been taught on Linux machines they would have no chance in the real world when being forced to use a microsft based machine. This is why i chose an NT system as thats what out there normally. I would love to put Linux on all the computers but until most businesses do I can't see that happening.
When I learnt wordprocessing I learnt on Wordperfect on dos which in it's day was the de facto standard. A few years later it was no longer the standard and wordprocessor interfaces had completely changed, so that time I'd spent learning Wordperfect keystrokes etc. was largely wasted. I suggest that the kids today who are so busily beavering away on their MS apps are similarly wasting their time - if they insist on doing it let them do it in their own time, not in the schools where they are meant to be learning something useful and enduring. If the parents/teachers moan about not being able to use their software at home with the stuff they've done at school then tell them they've got the wrong software and to investigate getting free software that is compatible and uses open formats ie. text not binary. Why aren't schools teaching kids the fundamentals about computing? Why are they wasting the children's time with this proprietary nonsense? It's little short of disgraceful IMHO. How about teaching them (and the teachers) to use a text-editor and some mark-up? HTML, SGML/XML, LaTeX etc. are not going to disappear any time soon and what's more they're portable. There has to be a mirrored shift away from proprietary software within schools as now exists in the real world; evidence: the Internet. It no longer makes sense to use proprietary software and it makes even less sense to teach kids how to use it. In a networked society you *have* to use common protocols and formats and people should be taught how to use them if they're going to be productive when they leave school. This is where Linux is an ideal teaching tool and the Microsoft products are little short of hopeless. -- Frank *-------*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-------* | Boroughbridge | Tel: 01423 323019 | PGP keyID: 0xC0B341A3 | *-------*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-----*-------* http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/