-tictech message:
Hi All,
Nicole Winard said:
>
Just a few thoughts on selecting software...
Hasn't our district made a choice to go with MS? Is what you describe below
a situation which would lead us further away from standarization and
alignment? How would it affect e-mail?
>
Sounds like all the right questions. Here are a few thoughts that may
provide some answers.
Open Office does a pretty good job of adhering to the MS Office file
formats. So it can load and save in documents in Word, Power Point and
Excel formats. I have converted all my docs to use Open Office and will be
testing it over the summer. So far, it seems quite good, but not always
perfect.
* It's great that so many students now have computers at home. But that
fact makes it even worse for the ones who don't have them, or who have
non-standard software which came with their machine. MSWorks is one common
program students use which is not compatible with MS Office once they get
their document to school. If I can provide a student with free compatible
software, then that's a great boon for that person. Often students don't
understand why I can't just give them MSWord or Power Point. Open Office
addresses these situations nicely and does so within a framework that is
legal and provides an object lesson in copyright issues for the student.
* It's doubtful that anyone would take one of their nice new Dell computers
that came with Microsoft Office and remove MS Office so they could install
Open Office. That wouldn't make much sense. But what about several years
down the line? That version of MS Office will become extinct someday. If
Open Office is able to keep its file format compatibility with our Microsoft
standard, then Open Office may offer a replacement option for cash-strapped
schools.
* It's hard for many of us to remember that some schools... especially
elementary schools, have a technology budget of zero. So when the district
wants to insist on standards (good), it may occasionally do so at the
expense of schools who have NO money (bad). It's easy to say that schools
should budget appropriately to support their technology. It's not quite so
easy when you see them having to lay off teachers and cut essential
services.
I know of one such school that was promised several free computers from a
large company. They have been planning on these machines and have even
written them into their Tech Plan. Now they are finding out that every
computer will cost them $100. They don't have the money to pay the hundreds
of dollars for software we require for our computers and may have to decline
the offer.
Open Office may eventually be a way for some schools to remain compatible
with our MS Standard even if they don't have the money to purchase multiple
copies of commercial software.
*** tony
Tony Hand
tghand@seattleschools.org
Technology Coordinator
Nathan Hale High School
Seattle School District
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hand, Tony [mailto:tghand@seattleschools.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 10:14 PM
> To: 'tictech@learningspace.org'
> Subject: tictech: ** Open Office and Star Office - Wow **
>
>
> -tictech message:
>
> Dear Folks,
>
> Recent developments have brought into focus the desirability of using
> free software in place of our more usual proprietary programs
> when quality
> and usability permit.
>
> Of particular interest are the just-released, improved
> versions of Star
> Office by Sun Microsystems and Open Office by Sun and the Open Source
> Community. Star and Open Office support the Word, Excel and
> Power Point
> formats. Both products are offered for free to the education
> community and
> both are available for Windows and Linux. Open Office will soon be
> available for the MacOSX.
>
> For people familiar with Star Office 5.2, the new 6.0 version is much
> improved . The integrated look of Star Office 5.2 and its odd
> "beamer" navigation feature has been eliminated - although underlying
> modules are still all loaded and ready to run. The resulting
> product is
> much more like the office products with which we are all familiar.
>
> The possibility of retaining the ability to read and write in our
> current office formats without incurring the cost of
> purchasing proprietary
> software, could save schools quite a bit of money and free
> them from the
> shackles of one license for one machine.
>
> Here are a couple of pretty good reviews along with some screen shots:
>
> http://www.winplanet.com/winplanet/reviews/4196/1/
>
> http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1221
>
>
> Here are some testimonials in support of Star Office along with some
> information about the relationship between Star Office and
> Open Office.
>
> Zdnet
> May 20, 2002
> Considering that 80 percent of the people who use office
> suites use them
> for 20 percent of their features, StarOffice is the functional
> equivalent of Microsoft Office (as well as WordPerfect Office
> and Lotus
> SmartSuite) for most of us.
>
> Consulting Times:
> March 26, 2002
>
> One of the things that is least well understood -- is that this [Sun's
> involvement] isn't a one-time drop at OpenOffice.org. We're
> committed to
> the site and the synchronicity between future OpenOffice.org and
> StarOffice releases. Our developers develop directly into the
> OpenOffice.org code base. Then when we build StarOffice, we take that
> base from OpenOffice and add things to it. We are 100% in sync with
> OpenOffice.org and we'll stay so.
>
> The kinds of things that we cannot deliver to OpenOffice.org are file
> filters, fonts, some linguistic technology, and the database
> component,
> which is a third-party deal we have with Adabas.
>
>
> Zdnet
> May 15th, 2002
>
> We spent some time with StarOffice for both Windows and Linux
> recently,
> and came away impressed.
>
> Computerworld
> MAY 01, 2002
>
> SAN DIEGO -- End-user unrest over Microsoft Corp.'s
> enterprise licensing
> plan may prompt some companies to move from Microsoft Office suite to
> rival Sun Microsystems Inc.'s personal productivity suite, StarOffice,
> predicts Gartner Group Inc. Michael Silver, a Gartner
> analyst, said some
> firms are beginning to weigh the cost and licensing terms of
> Microsoft's
> Office against StarOffice's improving compatibility with
> Microsoft file
> formats and its expected lower pricing.
>
> =================================================
> Star Office
> http://store.sun.com/catalog/doc/BrowsePage.jhtml?cid=82799&parentId=
>
> Open Office
> http://openoffice.org
>
> Tony Hand <tghand@seattleschools.org>
>
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