Re: [Staffslug] OpenOffice in schools

On Mon, 2007-09-10 at 17:58 +0100, ArchLinuxUser dick_turpin wrote: > (We dont have any windoze machines in the house). So I saved > it in a format supposedly compatible with Microsoft Office > 2003, but...of course, microsoft's (lack of) support for open > document format has redered the rather hefty assignment > useless to the school. > > Whoa hang on Kris lets be honest here, MS Office was around long > before oOo while I agree it would be nice for Mr Gates to include > support for oOo in his product I doubt he will seeing as that would > lose him money. IMV its for oOo to improve their compatibility with MS > Office and not the other way round. Don't get me wrong I'm not > defending MS or anything but I prefer fact to fiction and the fact is > its oOo that's at fault here not MS. oOo is notorious for being > cumbersome, bloated and not too hot with compatibility. Lets not cover > up OSS failures by using the fog of MS insults to cloud whats really > going on. While it would be good for them to have OpenOffice.org, they can open ODF docs from Microsoft Office by installing Sun's plug-in: http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/ ODF is, after all, the agreed (ISO) international standard for office data interchange, and .doc is a binay dump of the current MS documant in RAM, hidden behind a culture of secret data formats and lock-in :-/ > > I think this is a pile of animal's fecal matter, the school > should cater for the people that are actually using some > software that is compatible with open formats available on the > *nix platforms. > > I agree and this has been discussed over and over again, actually > Sneyd school, Bloxwich is starting to change, at the end of last term > the IT teacher was handing out oOo on cd's, Firefox has been installed > on one or two machine along with one or two other OSS apps such as > Dia. I hope everyone with contacts in education has informed them about the Open Schools Alliance's Success In Education event. We're holding it in Liverpool on 19 October. http://www.openschoolsalliance.org/education-event http://www.openschoolsalliance.org/education-event/itinerary/ > I intend to complain at my school today to see if I can get > some form of open solution for the software made available to > us. But I am interested to hear your oppinions on this issue, > and if its actually worth promoting. > > Yes it is, just remember you are promoting an alternative that will have incompatibilities and missing features compared to the product they have used for at least the last 10+ years. That applies to all upgrades of course - they will find more than a few differences were they to change to Office 2007, rather more changes in fact than if they went to OOo. Regards, - Richard _______________________________________________ Staffslug mailing list Staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk http://www.staffslug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/staffslug