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On 17/06/2010 11:50, Rob Beard wrote:
Hi folks,I thought this might be interesting. Basically it's a discussion going on in the comments section of The Register about the new Office 2010 (and how you can't buy a cheaper version upgrade from a previous version of MS Office)...http://forums.channelregister.co.uk/forum/1/2010/06/16/office_2010_no_upgrade/Scroll down to the post titled "Think of the children" by Dave_H.This really got me, his poor kids who are at secondary school are being given fail marks because they can't open proprietary document formats (i.e. Office 2007).I think this is something that should be brought up. These teachers are basically helping vendor lock in by using proprietary software which the kids then may well have to buy (for instance MS Publisher) which funds the Microsoft monopoly.Surely if the schools switched to OpenOffice, they could distribute copies of OpenOffice for Windows, Linux and Mac so anyone with a computer at home could make use of the documents.My elder step kids are in secondary school now and one of them is talking about moving back to Devon to live with us. If we get this sort of vendor lock in from their new school I'm going to kick up a stink about it.I wonder if it's worth mentioning to Adrian Sanders and Anne-Marie Morris (or anyone outside of Teignbridge/Torbay, mention it to your local MP).Rob
Just forwarded your mail and sent the below to my MP in S Wales :) ---- Hi Alun,When I was doing my degree the lecturers told us *not* to submit assignments in docx (the Office 2007 format) because they couldn't open it. I think it is reprehensible that teachers in schools are apparently doing the reverse and failing children for their own errors. I would be interested to know how widespread this practise is.
Kind regards, Julian -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html