Strictly speaking of course, products such as OpenOffice.org and Mozilla Thunderbird (the latter being infinitely superior to Outlook Express) are not shareware or freeware as they are open source. Freeware is software that is free as in beer, but is a precompiled executable; eliminating these is sensible. On the other hand, if Becta are referring to open source by the use of this term, that would be criminal (more or less literally), and the person who put it in the spec needs to look to their position, given the keynote speaker at FLOSSIE... -----Original Message----- From: Alex Brett [mailto:alex.brett@brettcomputers.co.uk] Sent: 23 December 2003 14:07 To: suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] BECTa's spec on laptops for teachers

From the Email part of the spec at http://www.lft.ngfl.gov.uk/index.php?i=307

'Facility for offline email reading and composition. Freeware or shareware is not acceptable' That would seem to eliminate Outlook Express (which in my view ia a good thing given the numerous viruses that have been caused by the bad coding in Outlook Express!), however it seems to imply the use of Outlook which is even worse! Has anybody had any response from BECTa as to why 'Freeware or shareware is not acceptable'? Alex Brett alex.brett@brettcomputers.co.uk On 23 Dec 2003 at 13:47, David Bowles wrote:

As far as I can recall the way the spec is worded the reference to e-mail omits the term 'freeware' as an exclusion. Hence Outlook Express is a valid e-mail client.

David Bowles

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On Mon, Dec 22, 2003 at 10:11:02PM +0000, David Bowles wrote:

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As for an e-mail client, this is usually covered by MS Outlook or the bundles Sun Office equivalent. Outlook express also fits the specification.

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The latest spec would appear to exclude Outlook Express, since it is

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"freeware". The only thing which would appear to be acceptable according to the spec is something POP3 based. Which clashes with the "security policy" of some of the RBCs.

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