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A Monocultural Alternative: TheOpenCD

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the or-at-least-a-nicer-monoculture dept.

GooseLiverPate writes "Computers and Composition Online has an article by Dr. Paul Cesarini concerning the risks of a Microsoft monoculture in education. He describes the relation between Open Source and Microsoft as: "one of gnats swarming around a large, slow-moving beast." and emphasises the lack of innovation in Internet Explorer and MS-Office. He suggests TheOpenCD as a possible bridge for schools and universities to Open Source, and includes a review of the newly released version 1.2."

2 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Compliments from MS by Melissa+Bra · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1331169,00.as p "Addressing several thousand attendees at the Worldwide Partner Conference, he took a swipe at Linux, open source and StarOffice, saying, "they simply accept the view that what they have is good enough. That view does not foster innovation. Being where we were with Office 1997 is not good enough for us," he said." Microsoft admitting that OO is already equal to something they spent millions and millions on and also happens to be much more widely used than Office XP is the best thing they could have said. I mean that. Office 97 is still very popular. One of the biggest challenges MS has is moving people off that since many businesses find that Office 97 is all they need. The fact they think OO has met the quality level that most of world thinks is "good enough" is excellent news. Congrats to the OpenOffice.org team and thanks to Microsoft for the marketing material.

  2. Uhhhh......no by spartro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The "widespread budgetary woes" and "ever-increasing licensing fees" don't effect them.

    That is why I was told to use the leftovers from last years tech budjet to buy enough toner cartridges and ink cartridges for this year and next. We have already been told that the money isn't there. After many years in school systems, the only time I believe it when people tell me about future money is when they say it isn't there.

    Microsoft gives its products to schools for free or at a steep discount, and is more and more likely to do so the more viable the competition becomes.

    Could you please point me to where this is available for schools? All my MS products are at a marginal discount. At best.