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Old 08-31-2008, 07:42 AM   #1
LXer
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LXer: Universities that do not use Free Software: Time for a boycott?


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I received an email recently from a young man in Brazil who wanted me to come to his university and talk to the students and faculty about using Free Software. I am normally happy to advise universities to use Free Software, but usually this is done in conjunction with some large conference held at the university or some other venue. I just do not have the time to visit each and every school. But I did investigate the university of the student and found that Microsoft was indeed a sponsor of the University. In fact, the university had a large banner on the front page of their web site talking about Microsoft as a partner. It was the first time I saw a university advertising a commercial firm on their home page.

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Old 08-31-2008, 08:57 AM   #2
Robhogg
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Would this mean that I'd have to boycott the Open University? Although some of its course do use free software, many others require the use of proprietary packages. What's more, some of these packages are all but impossible to get running under WINE - the OU is the only reason I still have Windows installed on my laptop (dual boot, of course).

I am on a bit of a crusade to get the OU to accept submission of assignments in Open Document format. Although all students are supplied with a copy of Star Office (unfortunately not Open Office), which uses ODF as its default format, assignments are only accepted in the following Word Processor formats:
  • MS Word,
  • MS Writer (do they mean the WP component of Works?)
  • Wordperfect (5.1 or earlier - just for a bit of nostalgia)
Oh, and I could submit in plain text or rtf formats, but some assignments require diagrams and screenshots to be included.

I'm not convinced that boycott is the answer.

Last edited by Robhogg; 08-31-2008 at 08:59 AM.
 
  


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