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All schools In Denmark switching to Linux
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)."
That's absurd! There aren't even that many kings in Denmark!
I work as a Network Engineer in a state-run university in Pennsylvania. The new Microsoft lisence terms (a.k.a. software rental)are beginning to cause major worry in a 2500-plus seat environment where old versions running on ancient comptuers allow us to get by. The concept of moving to a StarOffice or other productivity suit us now (an a year ago unthinkable) being seriously considered.
Ryan Dorman, CCNA Network Communications Specialist Millersville Univesrity
Time for Gates to say "there's something rotten in Denmark" and get on the plane.
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
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
Anyone interested in doing something along these lines, and avoiding M$'s protection racket ("y'know, for a few dollars a year per station, I could make sure that you don't get hassled by software license audits"), should check out k12ltsp.org. With corporate donation programs starting to pass along some decent hardware to schools, a kick-ass lab can be had for just the cost of the networking infrastructure.
Even heroes have the right to dream
Sun is making StarOffice available free for Danish schools--that's pretty much all the story is. Not really news since Sun has been promoting StarOffice pretty widely. The schools are under no obligation to use StarOffice, and it sounds like there is no Linux involved at all (except the server from which you can download StarOffice)--it might all be StarOffice for Windows that is being talked about here.
In a stunning speech a few hours ago, President George Bush declared Denmark a "den of malcontents and terrorists". And announcing to the UN in an emergency security session the need to: "bomb the hell out of them" for obvious stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and denying their people American software, goods and services.
Denmark, whose main exports include those silly little wooden shoes and tulips, was unavailable for comment.
In other news, Microsoft led a resounding stock rally.
It does not mention anything about schools switching to Linux.
a ^= b; b ^= a; a ^= b;
Penn State and Pitt are "semi-private" Commonwealth affiliated institutions. They get interesting tax status, charge in-state students less, and get some Commonwealth funding.
Then there are the more traditional state colleges: Lock Haven, IUP, Shippensburg(??), etc.
DANISH is like an advanced version PSTRY but you get a much better tase of it you compile it on APPLE or some other similarly fruity platform. It is best learned in the morning with a healthy side of JAVA.
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
In a full press release made available shortly after President Bush's recent speech attacking Denmark, the Administration outlined suspicions linking the Lego Corporation of Denmark to Al Quaida and the attack on the World Trade Centre.
Apparently, the attack was planned using a 43,000 lego brick scale model of the two towers. The Administration suspects direct involvement by Lego Corporation's scaled modelling experts and has now declared Lego products a Weapon of Mass (Modelling) Destruction. The Administration is now compiling a list of all people who have made substantial Lego purchases in the last few week and will be immediately calling them in for questioning and possible detention over the next few days.