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South African Education Department Bans Free and Open Source Software

Posted by Unknown on from the 1993-wants-their-programming-language-back dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The South African Education Department has effectively banned the use of FOSS software in state-run schools by forcing all candidates writing the Computer Applications Technology examination to use Microsoft's Office 2010 or 2013 as the only supported options. In the same circular, the state has mandated that all schools use Delphi, instead of Java, as the programming language for the country's Information Technology practical paper. South Africa, notorious for its poor performance in Maths and Science and for having vastly over-crowded and underfunded schools, are now locked into costly Microsoft licensing because of this decision."

9 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. (sniffs cautiously) by zooblethorpe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, I don't smell any hint of corruption here, no sirree!

    </sarcasm>

    --
    "What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
    "A four-foot prune."
    1. Re:(sniffs cautiously) by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, I don't smell any hint of corruption here, no sirree!

      It doesn't need to be corruption.

      It could merely be incompetence and stupidity.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:(sniffs cautiously) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Never ascribe to incompetence what can be adequately explained by greed.

  2. How many people where bribed to make this deal? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How many people where bribed to make this deal?

  3. Holy Hype-fest Batman! by CajunArson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "The South African Education Department has effectively banned the use of FOSS software in state-run schools by forcing all candidates writing the Computer Applications Technology examination to use Microsoft's Office 2010 or 2013 as the only supported options."

    Fascinating, apparently MS-South Africa has sophisticated technology that seeks out and destroys all open source software simply because Microsoft Office is used for some tasks. This new learning is amazing! Tell me again how sheep-bladders can be used to prevent earthquakes!

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    1. Re:Holy Hype-fest Batman! by CajunArson · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh one other thing: anybody who says that using "Delphi" is somehow not "open-source" while using Java is "open source" doesn't understand the difference between a programming language in the abstract and a particular piece of software that compiles or interprets code written in the language in the concrete needs a head exam.

      Something tells me these guys: http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/ would get offended if you tell them that they hate open source because they have an open source implementation of Delphi. Since Delphi is a descendant of Pascal, which has a long history in software education, it's not some evil conspiracy to use Delphi in a classroom setting.

      --
      AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    2. Re:Holy Hype-fest Batman! by hawguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "The South African Education Department has effectively banned the use of FOSS software in state-run schools by forcing all candidates writing the Computer Applications Technology examination to use Microsoft's Office 2010 or 2013 as the only supported options."

      Fascinating, apparently MS-South Africa has sophisticated technology that seeks out and destroys all open source software simply because Microsoft Office is used for some tasks. This new learning is amazing! Tell me again how sheep-bladders can be used to prevent earthquakes!

      That technology is called "convenience" and "money", and is what was meant by "effectively banned" rather than saying "completely banned".

      Once you've spent the money to purchase the non-FOSS tools that the school requires you to use, you're not going to seek out free/open source replacements for those tools.

      A few FOSS zealots may be willing to use LibreOffice, FreePascal, Linux, etc for most things, and only use the paid tools when he absolutely has to, but the average user isn't going to pay for one environment to use for special tasks, and then set up a completely different FOSS environment where he'll do most of his work.

      (I'm one of those few, I use Linux for 99% of my work, but rdp into a Windows server to run Outlook, Visio, MS-Office, etc when I need to)

  4. Calling Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Mark Shuttleworth, please speak up!

  5. Thank you Bill and Belinda Gates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Side effect of the Gates foundation aid to Africa?