Schools should be using open source software

Re:Schools should be using open source software by zerop on Monday May 30, 2022 @12:52PM (#31560913)

Sharing from my experience of selling SaaS products for school management to schools -

1. School staff is not tech savy. They can not install or manage open source easily.

2. They mostly prefer commercial software with paid support. Software is critical to them but not their main business. They lack expertise and willingness to go for Open source software.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by alaricus on Monday May 30, 2022 @05:24PM (#31563770)

> They mostly prefer commercial software with paid support.

Most paid support is awful.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by o4b on Monday May 30, 2022 @08:03PM (#31564885)

Agreed. Is it typically worse than no support?

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by alaricus on Tuesday May 31, 2022 @01:04PM (#31571984)

not necessarily

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by guerrilla on Monday May 30, 2022 @12:59PM (#31561012)

> They mostly prefer commercial software with paid support.

But there's commercial free software with paid support.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by moralestapia on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:22PM (#31561278)

ORLY?

Give me an OSS alternative to Google Workspace and I'll move today.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by guerrilla on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:28PM (#31561353)

I'm no expert but aren't there literally dozens upon dozens of those? Nextcloud, Zimbra, Kolab, etc. for example? [1] There are hundreds of companies that provide nextcloud hosting with support alone [1]...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collaborative_software...

2. https://nextcloud.com/providers/

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by moralestapia on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:38PM (#31561456)

Nextcloud is quite good and is the only one I'd seriously consider from that list.

However, their Standard plan (which is the one that has Office-like apps) is actually more expensive than what I pay now on G, so there's literally no incentive for me to switch.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by guerrilla on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:41PM (#31561487)

I don't know what you mean by "their." There are hundreds of providers. Some are like $5/month.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by moralestapia on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:46PM (#31561541)

their = Nextcloud's.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by guerrilla on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:55PM (#31561660)

Okay well there are like 30 partners just on the Enterprise landing page alone. You should shop around.

Also, I just remembered. The Sonoma County Office of Education is already using Zimbra as its groupware. I wouldn't write it off entirely either.

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