[tech-cord] Microsoft

[George Tuttle]

Tech Coordinators:       As you may know, Microsoft alienated the education market this past six months by pulling some heavy handed tactics involving licensing software you don't need and also threatening a large school district in Oregon about licensing issues.  Whoever the idiot at Microsoft that came up with that idea was not aware was the bad blood between the two states of Washington and Oregon,  somewhat like between Iowa and Minnesota but a lot worse.  The whole state of Oregon started an open licensing initiative using linux, Staroffice and many other programs that don't break school budgets.  This is starting to catch on nationwide because of money issues in every state.  It is also affecting Apple because they are selling an operating system with their hardware and are also involved in marketing other software products, none of which are open-sourced.  Many software vendors are concerned about this open-sourced issue and don't know how to react to it.  They are hesitant about supporting linux but I predict at least one company will and then the dam will break, flooding the market with inexpensive, good software.     Microsoft realizes they really screwed up and are starting to react.  If you notice the new Gateway computer ads, if you are a teacher or student, you can get Office education edition FREE.  It includes Word XP, Excel XP, Outlook XP, and Powerpoint XP.  I think that more sweetheart deals are in the wings for education.  Microsoft's push to change licensing really blew up in their face.  And then the Oregon deal.  The department of education in Oregon has tons of open sourced software and information available free.  I think Scott has the URL for that.      Contrary to rumors, Staroffice 6.0 is free to schools after you purchase one copy for $50 and send in a licensing form.  I've been using Staroffice for about 18 months now and switched to 6.0 about 6 weeks ago and have to say it is a greatly improved product.  It will open and save in the Microsoft Office format so there really aren't any compatibility issues.  I'm going to put it on machines that do not have Office on them yet, faculty and student.     I think we have truly moved into the era of computers as commodities.  You can purchase a 1.7 Ghz system with 17" monitor for under $500.  Add a free operating system, linux, and free office software and you're still under $500.  We live in interesting times!!!!     George   PS:  I don't plan to learn linux and shouldn't have to.  Many vendors will preload linux and staroffice.  The rest is done through a graphical interface similar to Windows.  If it gets messed up, I pop in the cd and re-install.