[NTLUG:Discuss] Help with schools

[Steve Baker]

On 02/12/2011 07:49 PM, Chris Cox wrote:
> So.. why choose FOSS?  DO NOT ... NOT!!... for the price... because, closed
> source companies KNOW FOSS and know how to discount to get around that issue...
> in fact, so well, that it's a NO BRAINER to them... and they win at least 99% of
> the time in "price" issues (rarely does price matter to them).
>
>   
I beg to differ.

The cost issue is not the cost to the school...it's the cost to the
students.

Even if the school is awash with money and cost is absolutely no issue -
the problem is that students need to be able to practice their skills on
their own computers at home.   Certainly the school could merely
threaten to switch to OpenOffice - and Microsoft will indeed find a way
to make Office come out for $0.   But the students can't do that.  
They'll have to pay significant $$$ if they want Office at home.

If the school adopts OpenOffice, they can give all of their students
instructions on how to download and install it on whatever computer they
have at home.   They all have the exact same version that they're using
at school - everything "just works" no matter whether they have WinXP or
Vista or Win7 (or Mac or Linux or some low-end netbook).    Trying to
get them to submit work electronically when there is a mishmash of old
and new versions - and teaching them the Vista version at school when at
home they have some "home edition" on XP at home just isn't easy on
either the kids or the teachers.

With free software - there is no reason why everyone can't do their
homework.

I have a kid in college - they are learning 3D art.  The software of
choice is Maya...an excellent package...which, sadly, costs many
hundreds of bucks in the "student edition" and thousands of bucks in the
full version.   As a result, very few of the kids can play around with
the software at home - and they don't get anything like the practice
they need.   Switching them to using Blender (and GIMP instead of
Photoshop, etc, etc) would save parents a small fortune...even if the
college doesn't care how much they spend or what percentage of their
souls they have to hand over to get a good deal from the marketting guys.

I would also argue that if done widely enough and over enough time - it
would help businesses in that district.   If kids coming out of the
education system have only learned closed-source software - then there
is pressure on those businesses to buy the software that the schools are
teaching.   Teaching kids OSS tools would allow businesses to save money
too.

So cost *IS* an issue...although it's certainly not the only issue.

  -- Steve