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I know that there are countries in Europe that have lower VAT rates for computers, as opposed to game consoles.
I suspect that by adding the Linux option to their PS3s, Sony was able to switch to the reduced VAT level, as hence bag more profits for the same retail price.

This may have been revoked/no longer valid/overturned/whatever recently and hence Sony has no further incentive to offer this feature.
Could also be that being classified as a computer made the console eligible for government subsidies to buy "computers" (such as in the UK the Home Access Program - http://www.becta.org.uk/homeaccess)

This might be helpful, Becta's Technical Specification, Institutional Infrastructure.

http://industry.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=14615

In particular, pages 38 and following specify what formats Office applications must be able to save their documents in. This is the real problem.

P-e-d-a-g-o-g-y look it up. Its not as simple as saying X amount of people use it. I've seen plenty of people use them. How does one know they are effective without actual pedagogy & studies? How do you know that the teachers who use whiteboard effectively wouldn't be just as effective without them? How do you know if those same teachers aren't more effective without them? Its not that simple. Teaching is a science. Show me the pedagogy. Show me the studies not sponsored by interactive whiteboard companies.

I'm not saying don't use media, I'm saying don't spend $ on proprietary whiteboards that are unproven in pedagogy. Even in the example you pointed out, the majority the benefit is from the careful use of media. Your lesson example had nothing to do with an interactive whiteboard and would have completely worked with a projector as I had suggested. Creating and using Media is well understood, and widely understood to be beneficial in the pedagogy.

As for the formats, don't be an idiot. Because someone releases a reader for their files doesn't make it an open and interoperable format. If you can't modify the file to use it for your lesson then you can't teach. Just ask the folks in the UK trying to put forward a standard whiteboard format, so that publishers, schools, teachers can share user created content that are device independent.

Your taxpaying pounds support BECTA ( http://becta.org.uk/ ). Slogan: "Becta is the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning."

Why on earth are you asking us when you have resources like these available!

First of all, why use crappy openldap when you can use the Netspace directory server that red hat bought and opensourced.

I have foung openLDAP to be reliable, compatible and easy to use. Can you elaborate on why you think it is crap?

There is a reason why they paid 23$ millions for it...

And the reasons are?

Then, AD isn't just a LDAP server with usernames and passwords....

Nor is openLDAP just a store for Windows user names and passwords. I use an openLDAP server for Windows services as well as providing user configuration for other services such as sendmail. The great advantage of using FOSS is that you are free from vendor lock in and can consider non-proprietary alternatives in other areas of your network.

Which is why many people can only use Windows setups. There's nothing like AD in the FOSS world. To start with, FOSS client apps should be lockdown-able from the server. But you can't do that...

I mean, in a office with a linux server and some linux clients, try to lockdown some options on Firefox, the desktop, evolution....surprise, you can't do it. Oh, yeah, there're a lot of workarounds everywhere, but they are different if you use KDE or Gnome or depending on the app you are using. It's a horrible mess.

Nowhere in the article do I see a desire to use FOSS desktop clients. The submitter simply wants to replace AD server with a non MS LDAP based alternative.

Windows clients and servers, on the other hand, are VERY well coupled. The day someone cares to fix this in the FOSS world, a lot of people will start using Linux in corporate networks.

This is otherwise known as vendor lock in. Some of use have tried very hard to break free of it to avoid being held to ransom by a vendor.

Until then, Windows is pretty much the only realistic option. I can't understand why Red Hat, Suse and Ubuntu don't put more efforts on this, it's one of the biggest showstoppers for Linux adoption.

I have been running what you consider an unrealistic option for the best part of a decade. I have yet to be fired. Sirius the consultancy I recommended have a client list of blue chip companines, local govenment and schools. They are all running some form of FOSS backend. You might like to take a fresh look at FOSS, it really works in the real world.

In my previous post I forgot to mention that OGC/Becta are the government agency's responsible for technology in the UK educational environment. It is considerably easier for a UK school to use a Becta accredited supplier than any other supplier. It is an incredible achievement for Sirius to gain that accreditation as no other FOSS consultancy has managed to cut through government red tape thus far.

The backups isn't true -- that's just like old binaries being read into a modern app.

Read the Becta Report about ODF in Microsoft Office for an independent view.

With many businesses already using Microsoft Office products (Maybe not 2007), wouldn't it be in the best interest for everyone to teach kids what the working environment actually uses? Sure OpenOffice and Linux is used, but 90% of OEM machines use Windows and Office.

• The kids use MS Office at school ("learning what the working environment actually uses") or they use KOffice or OOo or Google docs or Lotus Symphony which also gives them generic Office program experience
• The kids use whatever their parents can afford or prefer at home
• The kids' homework renders perfectly(*) at home and at school because it's in the one, standardized, office document format

(*) I mean 100% guaranteed and verifyable, not reverse-engineered

IMHO the ONLY reason why this is not feasible is, as is mentioned in the BECTA report (PDF), par. 5, that Microsoft seems to have deliberately made it unusually difficult to load and save ODF, and impossible to set it as the default file format.

What I mean is, I think the use of a standardized document format to transfer homework from home to school and vice-versa is more important than which office package the kids learn to use (at home or at school). Although I agree with a previous poster that it is probably better to learn that there are different ones, and that it's not that difficult to learn a new one after you've understood the basic concepts.

Also you have to take into account that when the pupils graduate, the "working environment" might have moved on to other software, or still be using software from 20 years ago that those kids haven't ever used either. I guess it's different if you grew up in a time where there were multiple different small computer systems that kids could see (Apple II, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum) or where there's only Microsoft and that's all there'll ever be because "everyone has to learn it".

Unfortunately, we've been down this road many times before. A large Microsoft customer wants to renegotiate its Windows licenses, but Microsoft won't cut the price. The customer threatens to dump Windows and go all Linux, and then Microsoft gives substantial discounts on what the customer actually wanted all along. This sounds like nothing more than another contract renegotiation with Microsoft.

(...)

Can the document format be set as the default file format in Office 2007? OOXML: yes ODF: No. Virtually every relevant file format except ODF can be set as the default file format. The user must remember that Office 2007 treats ODF differently every time they want to save a file using ODF.

Does 'File open' work as normal? OOXML: yes ODF: No. The normal 'File open' command will not open an ODF file correctly. The user must use a special 'ODF open' item in the file menu. Failure to do this results in the appearance of a screen that makes the ODF file look as though it contains unintelligible, corrupt or encrypted text.

(...)

Can I double click on the file and automatically open the relevant Office 2007 application? OOXML: yes ODF: No. As with 'File open', doing this results in the appearance of a screen that makes it looks[sic] as if the ODF file contains unintelligible, corrupt or encrypted text.

(...)

From a programmer's perspective, I thought it would be easier to implement it just like all the other file formats, not make a special case for it. That takes EXTRA EFFORT. Therefore, there must be a reason that this effort was expended in MS Office 2007.

This makes it look different because Linux isn't mentioned at all; it's about a reasonable feature request by a customer (please consider supporting this standard file format) which is implemented, but implemented so lackadaisically as to imply a deliberate insult. Why should you upgrade if (a) there is no great business case to upgrade yet and (b) it's not cheap and (c) your software vendor is publicly urinating on your head.

We're talking about the flagship product of one of the world's largest software companies; it's not as if they don't care about these details. Sigh.

This is BECTA's final report, the result of a two year study. Last year, they practically begged M$ for case studies and pilot projects to prove Vista's worth. There are only two reasons M$ failed to answer BECTA's concerns:

1. VISTA and Office 2007 are not cost justified.
2. The UK school system is too small a customer for M$ to worry about.
3. M$ does not care about the study and they can push their software onto the UK school system anyway. This one is really condition #1.

No, three reasons:

1. VISTA and Office 2007 are not cost justified.
2. The UK school system is too small a customer for M$ to worry about.
3. M$ does not care about the study and they can push their software onto the UK school system anyway. This one is really condition #1.
4. and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope

Our four...no... Amongst our reasons.... I'll come in again.

This is BECTA's final report, the result of a two year study. Last year, they practically begged M$ for case studies and pilot projects to prove Vista's worth. There are only two reasons M$ failed to answer BECTA's concerns:

1. VISTA and Office 2007 are not cost justified.
2. The UK school system is too small a customer for M$ to worry about.
3. M$ does not care about the study and they can push their software onto the UK school system anyway. This one is really condition #1.

Well, it's a good thing you can count.

As for the UK school system being too small a customer... Excuse me?
If the Croatian school system isn't too small a customer for MS to worry about, I really can't see the UK system being considered irrelevant.
Especially since MS wants MS software in schools: "give me a child of seven" and all that jazz.

Really, twitter, your blind hatred of M$ even makes you blind to what they really are doing.
Chill out, why don't you?

This is BECTA's final report, the result of a two year study. Last year, they practically begged M$ for case studies and pilot projects to prove Vista's worth. There are only two reasons M$ failed to answer BECTA's concerns:

1. VISTA and Office 2007 are not cost justified.
2. The UK school system is too small a customer for M$ to worry about.
3. M$ does not care about the study and they can push their software onto the UK school system anyway. This one is really condition #1.

It's amazing that M$ did not just fund some more "Get the facts" style reports and make a case.

Your joke is more of the same kind of arrogance. It's too bad you feel that way, but it's OK because a person can only disgrace themselves. Anger management and an honest job might help.

The actual report

BTW here is the report in glorious PDF:
http://learningandskills.becta.org.uk/download.cfm?resID=35275

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/24/HNappled elllead_1.html

http://www.becta.org.uk/satisfactionsurvey/2001/de sktop/summary.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,122226-page,1/ar ticle.html

That was a grand total of 2 minute of reasearch and dragging and dropping the URL into here. If I could find this much in 2 minutes, it looks pretty good for Apple in more detailed research.

Becta are favourable to Open Source and open standards too. See their Technical Specifications document which, for example, requires text documents to be held as .txt, .rtf or .odt but NOT .doc.
See also Open Source Software in Schools: A case study report, Open Source Software in Schools: A study of the spectrum of use and related ICT infrastructure costs, Open Source Software in Schools: Information sheet.

Becta are favourable to Open Source and open standards too. See their Technical Specifications document which, for example, requires text documents to be held as .txt, .rtf or .odt but NOT .doc.
See also Open Source Software in Schools: A case study report, Open Source Software in Schools: A study of the spectrum of use and related ICT infrastructure costs, Open Source Software in Schools: Information sheet.

Becta are favourable to Open Source and open standards too. See their Technical Specifications document which, for example, requires text documents to be held as .txt, .rtf or .odt but NOT .doc.
See also Open Source Software in Schools: A case study report, Open Source Software in Schools: A study of the spectrum of use and related ICT infrastructure costs, Open Source Software in Schools: Information sheet.

Becta are favourable to Open Source and open standards too. See their Technical Specifications document which, for example, requires text documents to be held as .txt, .rtf or .odt but NOT .doc.
See also Open Source Software in Schools: A case study report, Open Source Software in Schools: A study of the spectrum of use and related ICT infrastructure costs, Open Source Software in Schools: Information sheet.

"The misconception that open source solutions are free often ends up costing an organization a lot more in the long run because they never took the time to do an initial assessment of what they actually expect from the product."

Isn't this Microsoft's favorite anti-open-source argument? Do you have any (non-Microsoft-generated) data to support that? When you talk to people using, or considering using Eclipse (with or without crystal), do you warn them to carefully consider these "hidden costs", and take a closer look at Visual Studio, or some other proprietary offering? As the PM for crystal for Eclipse, aren't you trying to "have your cake and eat it too" with this argument? Business Objects supports MySQL, eclipse, tomcat, and red hat linux. For some reason, Business Objects seems to anticipate demand in their base for open source solutions at all levels of the stack. Well, every level except BI. What dynamics are driving Business Objects to use open source in so many places, and which of those dynamics DON'T apply to reporting or BI, and why?

As far as "carefully considering requirements before a project", anyone interested can go to sourceforge and download reporting, analysis, dashboards, and the whole BI platform from Pentaho, try it out, and see for sure whether it meets their needs. It's not "forget your requirements - use this because it's free", it's "carefully consider your requriements, download the entire open source BI suite and try it out for free. And by the way, ask your proprietary vendor to allow you to do the same with their whole suite."

I googled "open source costs more". The first hit was this study from the UK:

http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/doc uments/BEC5606_Full_report18.pdf

This study seems to show that, in their experience, they saved money by using open source, and not just on licenses.

The second hit was from CIO Magazine, in an article called "The Myths of Open Source."

http://www.cio.com/archive/030104/open.html

It's all anecdotal, but the real users they talk to cite savings, and even larger-than-expected savings from using open source.

"A lot of companies are making a lot of money off of providing support and solutions for open source software. "

Who? JBoss, who is huge compared to your average open source company, has revenues estimated at $40M from support and services. While that's "a lot of money" by my personal standards, and is a little less than 10% of what Business Objects makes from support, if the UK study is to believed, it would mean that their customers still spent significantly less money than they would have using a proprietary offering. Put another way, JBoss is providing huge value to a very large worldwide community for $40M total, less than 10% of what Business Objects makes supporting BOBJ customers.

"Business Objects includes indemnification and support in all of their products"

Are you sure that's accurate? If I buy crystal reports developer, I get a real support contract from Business Objects? I can call in and get tech. help and report bugs? In looking at the online documentation in the online store, numerous features and benefits are mentioned, but nothing that I saw implies that you get support on the less-than-$7,500 editions of crystal. Your post implies that I would, but I think that's wrong.

I agree with you that people should consider many factors, and that an open source solution won't always be better.

-Lance
Pentaho

If you want a bit more information on the BECTA reports in this area go to:

http://www.becta.org.uk/leas/display.cfm?section=1 4_9_1

This gives a lot more information than the short summary in the on-line Times Eudcational Supplement. As well as hassling the teachers (I hope your being a little facetious using the term "hassle") it's a good idea to approach any councillors who sit on the LEAs education committee, the LEA itself and, of course, the school governors. But before you do anything else speak to the Head Teacher. Without his/her support, or at least informing them what you are doing, you will find things difficult.

Years ago I heard of a laptop where the backlight could be removed from the screen, and the hinge folded flat, so the whole unit could be set on top of an overhead projector.

A little Googling turns up an educational review of projector options where it's briefly mentioned, but I was unable to find any specific reviews of the machines mentioned.

Personally I want a display like that, with an optional diffuser to slip in back so I can use ambient light instead of the backlight, to save power.