Thanks for the disk! :-)
*We've given copies of the disk to several staff -using 98, XP, and MAC - No
feedback at all, but that's teachers for you :-)
*We use it a little in the ICT office - depends which Icon we hit, and I use
at home as does my 10yr old son and the NME, on our PC's (98 & SuSE both
dual booting)
*We have a few pupils who have emailed homework in Open Office (OO) format,
All of their parents are 'in the industry', So it's been useful to be able
to load and convert files.
*It's been offered to the pupils but no take-up as yet although we may hand
this over to the library to push - their point of view is that they have a
WP etc on their laptop/pc that does more than they could possibly get out of
it, so why change?
*We also install it on new laptops for pupils. When parents ask us to
recommend a laptop (which we always wriggle out of!) we suggest that they
buy a bare bones machine and offer the installation of a free suite, OO.
We've done about four of these so far - again no feedback - So I assume good
:-)
*We installed Star office about 18months ago across the network but it never
ran correctly (probably just needed a little more time and effort on our
part!) But when we have a few free hours we intend putting OO on as it does
seem a little slicker than SO.
*I have to say that I prefer the IDE in word as I do in Firefox over IE.
It's somehow more efficient to be in an application than a document,
although the SO implementation of a 'desk top' was overkill in the wrong
direction.
I suppose it's a case of pushing and tipping the balance. The biggest
obstacle is bundled software, why change when you already have the same as
everyone else?
Someone was saying in another thread that MS lower costs allows them be seen
to be 'giving' something to schools - Giving for free would probable do them
no harm at all, since they need to indoctrinate them young - I'm always
amazed at the number of people that purchase the same make and model of car
that they took their driving lessons in - maybe it's a mater of confidence?
I for one never had much confidence in SO! Not as a stand-alone, but in a
world where everyone else was using the 'defacto standard', it just couldn't
cope with reading anything but the simplest documents. OO is much better :-)
Adrian
----- Original Message -----
From: ian
On Thu, 2004-03-11 at 07:01, G.Harris wrote:
OpenOffice.org was installed on our system last August in response to a need for software at home for students doing the Applied ICT exam (Edexcel) and for other students doing GCSE who in this very poor sem- / inskilled rural area are only just able to buy a box and not the software (very common). Tesco.net supply the Internet connection We give the students a CD with OOorg on it to install as the download would be impossible for many of them - second-hand machines - 533 processors or less - old modems, etc.
<SNIP> Thanks to those who have replied to my request for info on OO.o usage.... and keep them coming if there are more, the feedback is really useful and can have an effect on development priorities.
Regards, -- ian
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