Canadian academia and open source

[James Knott]

kburtch-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org wrote:
> 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.

1) I believe the "educational" StarOffice licence is free.
2) People using StarOffice at school are more likely to consider
OpenOffice elsewhere, than those who've only used MS Office.

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