Today I completed an assignment for IT in Linux. (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. 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 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. A rather peed off, Kris Douglas Softdel Limited Hosting Services Web: www.softdel.net Mail: kris(a)softdel.net _______________________________________________ Staffslug mailing list Staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk http://www.staffslug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/staffslug

Sadly it's not quite as easy as asking the school to support an open standard. Most school IT policy is formulated by a bunch of suits that form a section of the LEA (Local Education Authority). It's these guys that need to learn the lesson. The trouble is deals get made. I'm not talking shady, under the counter stuff here just basic "buy these PC's and this server and we'll throw in X copies of Win XP/Vista together with X amount of copies of MS Office." This is money men not IT professionals, all they see is that they 'think' they are getting a bargain and so they go for it. Tell them about Linux and they think something is dodgy when you tell them it is free. The few schools that have some level of control of their IT budget are often too scared to go down the open source route because the main IT support tell them that they will not support anything other than MS products.... -- ============================================== Kevan Farmer Linux user #373362 Staffordshire _______________________________________________ Staffslug mailing list Staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk http://www.staffslug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/staffslug

they restrict opening this file for some reason that is the problem.

because of their paranoid network configuration, no doubt.

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

You would have thought that Mr Gates would have twigged by now that he should at least make 'Read-ability' backwards compatible.