Schools should be using open source software

Re:Schools should be using open source software by npteljes on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:46PM (#31561543)

That's the point everyone should consider in the Windows/Linux debate. Windows/Office is not the de facto standard because they are superior technology - they won because Microsoft produced good enough software, employed every business trick in the book while also pioneering some, and because they covered the bases OP pointed out. Service and user experience is not only a very important part to provide, but often the part that makes or breaks the product.

That said, what schools teach is just some legislation away. I believe regulation could make it happen even now, if the regulators wanted so. But, of course, regulators are people too and therefore, yet again, it's not up to the technology itself to be better.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by ed25519FUUU on Monday May 30, 2022 @01:54PM (#31561643)

I think you’re missing OPs main point that any money saved from switching to open source would be eaten away and reversed dramatically with support costs.

Can you get unlimited remote support and a weekly on-site tech for $10k a year? No way.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by npteljes on Monday May 30, 2022 @02:34PM (#31562080)

I'm not missing that at all, I'm saying two things, that for one, Microsoft does this support thing well enough and two, legislation doesn't have to take the easier way, if they'd say that schools must teach X, the market would figure it out somehow. It would probably even be a worse experience as it is currently, but that never stopped any legislator.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by scarface74 on Monday May 30, 2022 @05:56PM (#31564054)

Yes, just like the “market” figured out how to increase privacy after the GDPR and not just a shit ton of cookie pop ups.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by bobthepanda on Monday May 30, 2022 @05:48PM (#31563986)

The problem with regulating what kind of tech you should use is that it can be surprisingly hard to change or update after the fact.

South Korea mandated usage of ActiveX in the 1990s as one of the first countries to push into online shopping, and it took until 2020 to get rid of it (and Internet Explorer) altogether.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by digisign on Monday May 30, 2022 @05:57PM (#31564066)

It's unlikely mandating open standards would result in that flavor of lock-in.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by zinekeller on Sunday June 05, 2022 @03:35PM (#31634140)

> It's unlikely mandating open standards would result in that flavor of lock-in.

Considering the difficulty of switching from IPv4 to IPv6 and extremely creative ways to update TCP (before everyone gave up), I'm not sure of that.

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Re:Schools should be using open source software by whywhywhywhy on Tuesday May 31, 2022 @05:31AM (#31567540)

Is Office even the de facto outside of the accounting industries reliance on Excel?

Are most schools and offices not running Google Docs these days for the word processing/presentation side of things?

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