Iceland moves to Linux for public sector

[linuxforall]

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/business...push-40154870/

The scheme has been running for a few months and will continue for a year in total, according to Bjorgvinsson. So far, five of Iceland's 32 secondary schools have moved from Windows to Ubuntu Linux, he said. Some of these have also migrated from Microsoft Word to open-source document software

[Hungry Man]

lol my highschool used Ubuntu to save money. Students hated it.

[linuxforall]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

lol my highschool used Ubuntu to save money. Students hated it.

Of course they did, they can't play their favorite games on it.

[iceni60]

"The biggest problems come from open standards," he said. "Those who have moved to free and open-source software are sending, for example, ODF documents, which not everyone can handle [when using proprietary software]. There were some schools that couldn't send documents to the Minister of Education."

i like that quote.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by iceni60

i like that quote.

Well, that quote underlines the dirty games played to keep proprietary "office-ware" as the "standard". I had an unpleasant argument elsewhere with a salesman. Pity.

[linuxforall]

A simple note of saving in docx can fix all that and now even MS Office handles most ODF formats.

[funkydude]

Originally Posted by linuxforall

A simple note of saving in docx can fix all that and now even MS Office handles most ODF formats.

Indeed. It's a shame when certain people can't understand this simple fact, then resort to making up nonsense like "propaganda".

Originally Posted by linuxforall

Of course they did, they can't play their favorite games on it.

Games? You think schools give students admin privileges to install games? It's got nothing to do with games, it's familiarity. If they grew up using Ubuntu they'd be fine.

[EncryptedBytes]

Originally Posted by funkydude

Games? You think schools give students admin privileges to install games? It's got nothing to do with games, it's familiarity. If they grew up using Ubuntu they'd be fine.

linuxforall's remark was meant to be tongue n' cheek. While I agree a lot comes to familiarity and the reluctance to learn a new operating system. That being said, linuxforall is right to some degree pulling from my own experiences many students used the machines as gaming machines and were really adept at fooling staff. I hope highschools now take computer networks seriously, though back when I was there simply locking down the account was not enough, many of us found ways to get games installed on the machine through other vectors. Of course this was back with Windows 2000, I’ve been out of that era for awhile.

[linuxforall]

Originally Posted by funkydude

Indeed. It's a shame when certain people can't understand this simple fact, then resort to making up nonsense like "propaganda".



Games? You think schools give students admin privileges to install games? It's got nothing to do with games, it's familiarity. If they grew up using Ubuntu they'd be fine.

Yep, propaganda that free and open source is bad is the trademark of the one who is loosing out all this business.

Games are what people use the other OS, thats why kids love it. Its tailor made for em

[mack_guy911]

i guess student going to love linux tweaking and repairing it kinda game no

[Hungry Man]

The kids mostly hated it because
1) They weren't used to it
2) Formatting gets screwy when you go from Windows to Linux or vice versa. Open a file in Word and it may not look the same as when you open it in OpenOffice/Libre. This was also the problem I had when using AbiWord.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by Hungry Man

The kids mostly hated it because
1) They weren't used to it
2) Formatting gets screwy when you go from Windows to Linux or vice versa. Open a file in Word and it may not look the same as when you open it in OpenOffice/Libre. This was also the problem I had when using AbiWord.

That's part of the game. Convince people that appearance is more important than, or as important as, function.

[linuxforall]

Originally Posted by vasa1

That's part of the game. Convince people that appearance is more important than, or as important as, function.

Right on dot, convince people refined grains, white rice which is bland tastes better than natural color and people will forget about their health. Same goes for OS.