Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-edu (332 mails)

["Mark Evans" <mpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Whoooaaaaaa there me matey!!!
> 
> I wasn't saying that because OpenOffice.Org was free that it was the 
> proverbial..I was merely saying that as a student the OpenOffice.Org version 
> *right now* for me would be excellent, and if my friends in business and 
> schools were going to use StarOffice the site license scheme with perhaps 
> appropriate support/updates would be prefereble to downloading a free copy 

The term "support" has been highly abused to the point
where it can even have negative conitations :)

> and forfeiting the support and packaging that *lots* of people like.
> 
> What we have to think of though is the mindset of the average proprietary 
> software user who sees marketing, packaging, cost (though small) and support 
> as integral to a "good deal". Yes- free software can (and often does) give 

Proprietary software all too often comes with "support"
which is utterly useless in practice.

> these things, but until the public is saturated with that point what Sun are 
> offering here will help a long way towards that goal.

The interesting thing is that in schools (and many corporate
settings) the people using the software arn't those who choose
to buy it in the first place. Indeed those who see most of 
the marketing may not be the people who use it either...