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All schools In Denmark switching to Linux

Posted by Hemos on from the making-the-move dept.

Someone who can read Danish writes "According to this story (in Danish) Denmark has taken the first steps to start using Linux and Staroffice in all schools (1.1 million students). Sun has agreed to provide Staroffice for free, or on a CD-ROM for 10 Danish crowns ($1.5)."

3 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. Editors on crack... by Iamthefallen · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article speaks mostly about Sun's StarOffice and how students will be offered it, not that every school will switch to Linux...

    I'll leave translation to someone who has stronger danish skills than me though.

    --
    Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
  2. Translation by Radagast · · Score: 5, Informative

    Free software for school use
    By Keld Louie Pedersen

    Denmark's 1.1 million students and teachers can now turn their backs to Microsoft corporation. At least when it comes to office software.

    A deal between the Silicon Valley company Sun Microsystems Incorporated and UNI-C means that the country's students and teachers can download the office program StarOffice 6.0 from Sun at no cost and freely install it on their home computer. Alternately, they can buy it on CD-ROM at cost, 10 kroners per CD. The schools can buy StarOFfice in packages of 50.

    Sun has made the deal with UNI-C according to the guidelines announced by education minister Ulla Toernaes (Left Party) on October 30th, on how educational institutions should act when offered free office software. Amongst the requirements are that such software donations are without cost for the state, and that UNI-C Denmark's information technology center should be responsible for distributing licenses.

    UNI-C's expenses are covered by the 10 kroner the distribution of CD-ROMs brings. Sun makes a server with the free Linux operating system available for those students and teachers who want to download StarOffice 6.0.

    "UNI-C exists to help the Danish educational world, so we're naturally very pleased to be able to distribute this type of initiative from Sun", says Dorte Olesen, director of UNI-C.

    The world's undisputedly most wide-spread office system is Microsoft Office, although this does not exist in a version that can be used on computers with Linux as the operating system.

    Because of Microsoft's dominance in both office and operating systems, several government institutions are working on creating alternatives, primarily the combination of Linux and StarOffice.

    If all 1.1 million students and teachers make use of the offer, the total value will, according to Sun Microsystems, be around 200 million kroners.

    --
    --Joakim Ziegler
  3. Clarification of a few things... by bolind · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi,

    I'm from Denmark, I can read the article, so I figured I'd clear up a few things:

    An entity, which is called UNI-C, has reached an agreement with Sun Microsystems about distribution of their StarOffice package. Schools, teachers and students will be able to get the software for free if they download it (from a linux server, running on the danish school network known as Sektornet) or for a fee of ~ $1.50 on a CD.

    UNI-C is a semigovermental entity, that does networking for the public school system and the universities, hosts the DIX (Danish Internet eXchange) and things like that. Danish law says, that for a public school to accept free software, the software must be of no expense to the state, and its ditribution must be handled by UNI-C.

    So, in conclusion, no, every school in Denmark is not switching to Linux. They may switch to StarOffice, on some platform.

    But hey, it's a step in the right direction...

    Oh, and merry x-mas everyone.

    Bo