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Re: [LUG] NZ School Goes Open Source Amid Microsoft Mandate

 

Quoting Gordon Henderson <gordon+dcglug@xxxxxxxxxx>:


.. is on the front-page of slashdot today.

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/01/25/0230231

There are some intersting comments about hoe Microsoft gets paid
whether a school uses MS or not...

Gordon


I like this bit on the CIO article (which is linked from the Slashdot link)...

"Applications used within the school include OpenOffice, Google Docs, Moodle for managing education content, and Mahara for student portfolios. The Koha software used by the school library was also customised to integrate more closely with the LDAP security system and to allow book recommendations. While Koha was paid to make those changes, the resulting code will be freely available to all New Zealand schools -- an approach Brennan contrasted with Windows software, where modifications are typically charged separately for each school."

So despite the fact that the school had to pay for some customisation of the Koha software, the changes were presumably released under the GPL so everyone can benefit. Now just think if every school needed that change and all chipped in, it could probably cost them peanuts, compared to as it says about the Windows software "where modifications are typically charged separately for each school". That's got to be a real saving there.

But hey, I'm preaching to the choir here aren't I?

It's a shame that the folks that need to be convinced aren't hearing these arguements, or maybe they are but not taking notice.

Rob




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