>> Could someone outline for me the benefits of using OSS in schools and other >> publicly funded bodies- I feel in need of someone with knowledge to tell me, >> Caroline
> 4. Ability to provide software to students, schools can allow students > to do work at home, such as writing essays, as long as they have a PC > if the school uses Free software then they can give out copies. This > allows poorer people to receive a better education, as much software > is now more expensive than the minimum hardware needed for a working > system. > (MS Office 2003, student version: ?119.99 WinXP home SP2 ?176.99 > source Amazon.co.uk) > ArsTechnica budget box is $500, (roughly ?250), > thus hardware cheaper than the MS OS and Office suite. > And that's not counting all the other software. OOOO I never thought of that one. Good, I'll remember that. > Or is it OK to require people to have money to get an education? Here here! Expecting a child to have a computer at home is definately a long shot in many schools, at the least they can provide them with a copy of OpenOffice on CD so they can do that work without breaking the law. Though I do expect many run cracked copies of Office, but the if the schools adopted OpenDocument then that would mean more update of OpenOffice, until Microsoft actually adopt an international standard. Ciarán -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
