Canadian academia and open source

[James Knott]

James Knott wrote:
> 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.

Forgot to mention, StarOffice is built on OpenOffice.
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