[K12OSN] OT: any OpenOffice vs. MS Office studies/cases out there?

[Almquist Burke]

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On Feb 20, 2009, at 8:43 PM, Peter Scheie wrote:

> For an easy catch-phrase to give to those who think OOo is  
> 'culturally unacceptable', I believe it was Paul Nelson, one of the  
> originators of K12LTSP, who said, "Spend your money on teachers,  
> not software."  To do otherwise, in these lean times, I would  
> argue, is scandalous.
>
> Peter
>

One thing to consider, especially if you already have a bunch of  
existing office licenses, would be to get a subscription to Crossover  
for linux.  IIRC they have pretty good deals for education and thin  
clients.  The CEO Jeremy White actually attended NCLS a couple years  
ago.



> David Hopkins wrote:
>> At the moment, here in Delaware we are looking at across-the-board  
>> 20%
>> budget cuts for everyone.  What we are doing at NCS finally got the
>> attention of the new administration and they (Dep Secretary of
>> Education and others) will be visiting soon to see the approach we  
>> use
>> (and a big thanks to everyone on this list for helping me get this
>> far) to mitigate those cuts.   They can speak with the NCS School
>> Director if they want. He is huge advocate of Opensource and K12LTSP
>> (and has been on several 'blue ribbon' committees wrt
>> education-related initiatives here).  NCS has always been rated the
>> top Middle School in Delaware since its inception, and has used
>> Opensource for word processing by students and staff for the last 6
>> years without any real issues wrt to compatibility. In fact, I have
>> used OO.org to open MS Office files that couldn't be opened by MS
>> Office (which I believe others have done as well).
>> Also, perhaps "culturelly unacceptable" needs to be rephrased "is it
>> then more culturelly acceptable to layoff teachers and staff, cut
>> school programs and otherwise degrade the educational system than  
>> even
>> consider moving to an approach that has been shown to work across the
>> US and around the world?" Maybe it is time to put a spotlight on  
>> those
>> that have that attitude?
>> David Hopkins
>> Newark Charter School
>> Newark Delaware
>> On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Alan Hodson <aahodson at episd.org>  
>> wrote:
>>> Having just heard at the highest level in my district that Open  
>>> Office is "culturally unacceptable here" (border district of  
>>> 63,000 students) I am wondering if there is someone in our  
>>> community of users/believers that has come across data/studies  
>>> that I could use disprove the MS ethos - I know than in Texas,  
>>> both PlanoISD and SanAntonioISD are huge open source supporters,  
>>> but I don't know if that has translated there, or anywhere else,  
>>> into a document that we can hold up as a banner.
>>> Any ideas?
>>> Thanks
>>> Alan Hodson
>>> Instructional Applications Analyst
>>> http://links.episd.org/
>>> -=o=-
>>>
>>>
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>
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