May 2002 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Linux for Guardian readers
by Damian Counsell 21 May '02

21 May '02

> Just read the article online, Yes, it's now appeared in the archive at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4410011,00.html > shall we deluge the Guardian with > comments? We're probably too late---I suspect that the editor's Inbox is already stuffed full of email written in virtual green ink and specked with virtual dandruff :-) ... -- Damian Counsell http://www.counsell.com/

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Suse 7.3 on ibook USB modem won't dial out
by Andy Spong 20 May '02

20 May '02

Hello Have installed suse 7.3 on an apple ibook which has an internal usb modem on port usb1, I have tried setting it up with yast and yast 2 but to no avail. when I run wvdial it keeps coming back with "invalid argument" The kernel I am running is 2.4.1.2 If anyone can assist I'd be most grateful. Thanks Andy Educational Service for the Visually Impaired (Hull)

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Schools Teaching Materials
by Rod McCall 20 May '02

20 May '02

Hi Everyone, We are currently putting together a range of FREE K12 teaching materials for our development environment (Revolution). We are looking for a handful of people who currently do teaching to have a look at them for us, sadly there is no payment for this. However the tutorials will be available free to educators afterwards so I guess that's the pay back. However we can look at giving a free 10 user pack of Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor to those who are interested. The tutorials are quite large and cover around 14 topics from the introduction to using Internet protocols, however we would probably only give each reviewer 2-4 to look at. The tutorials are aimed at children aged 16+ and perhaps first year university students who are doing programming for the first time. They are designed to be a set of free standing notes along the lines of a set of book chapters. As such the explore the underlying concepts being taught as well as providing a specific tutorial to follow. This means they can hopefully be referred to at a later date. If you are interested please email me directly rather than posting to the list. Kind regards, Rod Rod McCall <www.runrev.com> Runtime Revolution Ltd Revolution - The Solution for Software Development tel: +44 (0) 870 747 1165 fax: +44 (0) 131 718 4334

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StarOffice 6
by Christopher Dawkins 19 May '02

19 May '02

Sun seem to be making a mess of it again. Just looked on their site, thinking of getting a boxed set to start with, and they promote Gem Distribution Ltd (www.gem.co.uk) as the provider. The Gem site advertises XP and Xboxes. It makes no mention of either Sun or StarOffice! The Sun site says at one point "Free to education" and at another "We do offer educational site licences". These are not necessarily contradictory, of course: it seems from elsewhere that educational site licences are free. Does anyone have any further information concerning UK suppliers of a) the CDs b) licences, if they are necessary b) documentation, other than what's on the site - e.g. books I have to decide on openoffice.org vs Staroffice, and get it going before my current SO6 dies, which I think is going to be June 3rd. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-822698, mobile 07816 821659 cchd(a)felsted.essex.sch.uk

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USB modem wont work on ibook
by Andy Spong 19 May '02

19 May '02

Hello all, I'm working for a visually impaired service in Hull, evaluating suse linux 7.3 on an apple ibook. No matter what I do I cant get the usb internal modem to dial after configuring with either yast or yast2. The kernel is 2.4.1.2 If anyone has had similar problems or knows how to fix it I'd be most grateful If I run wvdial it comes back with invalid argument, even though I have chosen the correct usb port in Yast2. Thanks Andy

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New resources
by Chris Puttick 16 May '02

16 May '02

Hi Just wanted to announce this work in progress: http://resources.centralmanclc.com - we'll be adding a few new things to this over the next few days, including a rather neat PHP web content management system (I know, I know, another one...) which will be used to create the next, less boring version of the site. If anyone wants to host some stuff on the site, let me know. We have "quite a lot" of bandwidth... Some of you might be tempted to click on the Hobarte link, wondering what it's all about. Hobarte will be the subject of another email, quite soon (and I keep saying that, too). Those still running Windows on their networks might find the VisualAssist application extremely useful (assuming visually impaired people are integrated into your various national education systems). I hope everyone finds the politics of its funding interesting. :-) Cheers Chris Puttick IT Manager Central Manchester City Learning Centre +44 (0)161 212 1972

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BBC content
by Ian Lynch 16 May '02

16 May '02

There is a lot of controversy at present because the BBC propose to put £150m into content development with free access for schools. The traditional suppliers such as RM are squealing because they believe it will damage their business. Isn't this another side to the free software argument? Shouldn't the BBC make the content available under the GPL and then others could use it and develop additional resources all free? The main argument of RM et al seems to be that it will kill development because the commercial developers will not be able to compete. Since the same money will be available I don't think that argument holds water since the BBC can't cover every single aspect of education. I see this initiative as potentially complementary to free software, especially if we could persuade the BBC to release its content under the GPL - after all, its our license fees paying for it. Regards, -- IanL

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BBC content
by Grainge, Derek 16 May '02

16 May '02

> The main problem I see is that the BBC will probably only > produce material > that will run in IE under Windows, it will use ActiveX and Flash 7 and > similar things, so we won't be able to use it. > When I went to a M$ briefing, I got the impression a lot of this stuff might well be tied into products like Encarta Class Server. I hope to God not. But it's difficult inventing mutlimedia interactive material which is context/platform-free. So maybe if we want to kneecap the BBC we should suggest packages they should use to preserve platform independence - i.e. be positive with them. If they produce stuff that ONLY works on IE then they're piss-poor web designers in the first place! -- ******************************************************************************** All mail sent and received may be examined to prevent transmission of unacceptable material. Wellington College does not accept responsibility for email contents. Problems to postmaster(a)wellington-college.berks.sch.uk. Website: http://www.wellington-college.berks.sch.uk ********************************************************************************

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RE: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BBC content
by Chris Puttick 16 May '02

16 May '02

Do we have contact names for people in the BBC responsible for this content? -----Original Message----- From: Ian Lynch To: suse-linux-uk-schools(a)suse.com Sent: 5/16/02 10:22 AM Subject: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BBC content There is a lot of controversy at present because the BBC propose to put £150m into content development with free access for schools. The traditional suppliers such as RM are squealing because they believe it will damage their business. Isn't this another side to the free software argument? Shouldn't the BBC make the content available under the GPL and then others could use it and develop additional resources all free? The main argument of RM et al seems to be that it will kill development because the commercial developers will not be able to compete. Since the same money will be available I don't think that argument holds water since the BBC can't cover every single aspect of education. I see this initiative as potentially complementary to free software, especially if we could persuade the BBC to release its content under the GPL - after all, its our license fees paying for it. Regards, -- IanL -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-unsubscribe(a)suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-help(a)suse.com

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Sun puts $76 price tag on Office rival
by Malcolm Herbert 16 May '02

16 May '02

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-913812.html Sun puts $76 price tag on Office rival By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com May 14, 2002, 9:00 PM PT Sun Microsystems' StarOffice 6.0 will go on sale May 21 with a price of $75.95, the company will announce Wednesday, in a more concerted effort by the server specialist to take on Microsoft's overwhelmingly dominant Office. StarOffice 5.2 has been available as a free download since Sun acquired the StarOffice product line in 1999, but Sun said earlier this year it would charge for the new version and provide better support for customers using it. It may not be free, but it's still less expensive than Microsoft Office, which overwhelmingly dominates the office software market with a 95 percent share, according to Gartner Dataquest. The basic version of Office has a retail cost of $479, with an upgrade cost of $239 and an educational version for $149. "This is positioned as a low-cost alternative," said Cheryln Chin, vice president of business development at Sun's Software Systems group. Sun is specifically planning to sell StarOffice to large businesses, education customers and governments. You get what you pay for, counters Microsoft. "Customers are telling us that value is more important than price. Society is full of cheap alternatives," Nicole von Kaenel, Product Manager Microsoft Office, said in a statement. For both StarOffice and Microsoft Office, customers buying the product in large quantities get a price discount, with StarOffice costing between $25 and $50 per copy. StarOffice is available for educational customers at the cost of the CD, instruction manuals and shipping. Sun and Microsoft are constant thorns in each other's sides; Microsoft has worked to exclude Sun from industry collaboration while Sun has taken its complaints about the software rival to court in the form of a private antitrust lawsuit. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun generally tries to undermine Microsoft by moving computing power to the large central servers at the core of Sun's sales, a move that demotes PCs to a mere supporting role. This time, StarOffice is a direct challenge to Microsoft's business. There are more costs than just the initial purchase fee, though, all agree. Gartner puts the price of switching a Microsoft Office user to StarOffice a $1,200--costs that include factors such as retraining, lost productivity and the difficulties of translating StarOffice files to and from Microsoft formats. Sun's Chin acknowledges there are retraining costs, but argues "it could be lower than $1,200" and that Microsoft isn't exempt. "Anyone on Office 95 or 97 switching to Office XP is going to have the same retraining cost," Chin said. "Macros are different, file formats are different, the user interface is slightly different." Microsoft asserts it isn't working on any responses to the arrival of StarOffice--though it perhaps wasn't a coincidence that the company chose this week to announce that customers had purchased the right to install 60 million copies of Office XP. "We are focused on bringing Microsoft Office to the next level," von Kaenel said. "Competition is good for the industry. It keeps us on our toes and reminds us that we have to earn our customers every day." But Microsoft is running into problems with those very customers. The Redmond, Wash.-based company has run into resistance to a subscription plan that would let customers pay an annual fee for Office updates instead of a per-upgrade charge. Many customers complained that the change effectively raised the price. Chin said 1.8 million users are testing StarOffice 6; thus far about 70 percent to 80 percent of testers have adopted the product. Customers include the Burlington Coat Factory, A.B. Watley, the city of Nanaimo in British Columbia, Canada, and Paros Software. Sun doesn't have a dedicated StarOffice sales force. "We will be piggybacking on top of existing sales folks," she said. While Sun has a formidable sales force, it typically sells products such as storage systems and servers, not office software. StarOffice is based on the same software as OpenOffice, an open-source project that is developed by Sun and others. The programming code underlying the OpenOffice product may be freely changed or shared under the terms of the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a stark contrast to the tight proprietary controls over Microsoft Office. One major change of the new version of StarOffice is that individual programs such as word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software can be launched separately. In 5.2, it was all or nothing. The new version also uses XML-based file formats that aren't proprietary like Microsoft Office documents. The new version of StarOffice will be distributed with versions of Linux from MandrakeSoft, SuSE, Turbolinux and others, Chin said. Sun is in discussions with the top Linux seller, Red Hat, and hopes for a "favorable outcome," she added. By virtue of Windows' dominance in the desktop market, though, most copies of StarOffice will likely be used on Windows machines, she said. Sun is working on a future version of StarOffice--an extension of the server-based StarPortal and SunONE Webtop versions that run on central servers rather than on PCs. This new version will be in testing at customer sites by the end of the year, Chin said. The new server version is being rewritten to take advantage of new Internet software standards called Web services, an initiative in which Microsoft is leading the charge. News.com's Joe Wilcox contributed to this report.

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