Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014)

Re:Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014) by rimliu on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @10:37AM (#24481669)

There is another point hidden there. You can use free software in schools just fine. What happens when kids leave the schools? They will face MS Office or Google Docs. Maybe the idea there is that those kids then push to replace those with Libre Office, but that's a pipe dream. So they will have to learn those non-free products. And given that only minority learn the concepts not what exactly which button to push, there will be a lot of unhappy people in the offices.

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Re:Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014) by TallGuyShort on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @11:04AM (#24481966)

>> So they will have to learn those non-free products. And given that only minority learn the concepts not what exactly which button to push, there will be a lot of unhappy people in the offices.

If your standard for educational institutions is to learn how to push specific buttons and be unable to learn new software, then they will be failing miserably. And not just because, as you point out in your comment, not every company uses the same office suite. By your standard, using MS Office is already a pragmatic failure for students who go somewhere where they use Google Docs.

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Re:Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014) by rimliu on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @03:42AM (#24490416)

No, it is not my standart for education institutions. And (I hope) it is not a standard to teach. Alas, it is standard thing for people to learn. And, sadly enough, thi applies in all the areas. Concepts are hard, let's go shopping. I see it all the time in somewhat techincal hobbies: not many care about what's happening at the concept level, they just want a button to push and get the result. If that button is moved, there is a trouble.

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Re:Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014) by TallGuyShort on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @12:18PM (#24494111)

Your arguments apply to all office suites. Not free ones. I'm not sure what you're trying to suggest schools should do here.

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Re:Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014) by boomboomsubban on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @11:10AM (#24482041)

The reason everything outside of school uses those products is that the workforce is trained to use them.

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Re:Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014) by rimliu on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @03:38AM (#24490398)

Yes. Ant there is a thing called inertia. Feel free to fight it.

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Re:Schools Should Exclusively Use Free Software (2014) by TallGuyShort on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @12:22PM (#24494165)

Yeah see my previous comment, "But most of the arguments I hear against even considering the alternatives just sound like resistance to change for the sake of it." Poor arguments. If a lot of businesses start using Google Docs, shouldn't schools abandon Office?

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