Re: Church opensource.

[Patrick Dunford]

Steve Bell wrote:

Just thinking out loud here, but there's a big opportunity for the open
source community within churches.
Many churches use Powerpoint and a data projecter to project song lyrics for
the congregation.  And those who don't already, want to.
Small churches often have a desire to grow, but a very small budget.  They
dream big dreams but can't afford to buy them.  Morally, they can't use
pirated software, and $$wise, they can't afford WinXP, and MS Office.
I'm not sticking my hand up, just having an idea, but if someone invited
local churches to an installfest with the goal of getting a working
"Powerpoint" machine operating for "free"...


 

Personally I do not think this is a true representation of the 
situation. A projector will cost around $3000 minimum of a suitable size 
/ light output. The computer will cost maybe second hand $500. 
Powerpoint costs a few hundred dollars. The cost of powerpoint in those 
scenarios is but a small part of the overall cost. And the reason we use 
powerpoint is because everyone uses it. There's no scope for using some 
other incompatible system that won't be able to read powerpoint files. 
You don't need XP to run Powerpoint. Windows 98 is perfectly 
satisfactory. And you don't need to buy a whole Office package.