Canadian academia and open source

[kburtch-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org]

James Knott <james.knott-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> said:

> kburtch-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org wrote:
> > At May's PegaSoft dinner meeting, Linux in schools (not universities) was
> > discussed:
> > 
> > "There has been a significant interest in Linux in schools, particularly
in the
> > UK.  The problem with bringing Linux into schools in Canada is that schools
> > here have established agendas, hierarchies and large budgets.  There needs to
> > be spending cuts to education in order to generate interest in Linux.  Schools
> > in the UK have smaller budgets making Linux more attractive."
> > 
> > http://www.pegasoft.ca/minutes/may_2005.html
> 
> I guess you missed this.
> 
> <http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2004-05/sunflash.20040527.1.html>

No, it was discussed.  I believe the opinions were that they were buying a
commercial product (StarOffice) not OpenOffice.  The point was that the
heavily funded and beaucratic school boards in Ontario will always buy the
commerical software and most of them are heavily biased against installing
Linux or using open source because they don't care about price--they can
always pass the cost back to the government.

This is compared to the UK where the school board are run differently and
Linux and open source are more attractive options and meeting with much success.

KB

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