use three different operating systems (Windows, MacOS and Linux) and
it is the only solution that will run on all three. I have found that
OpenOffice 3 is much improved over the older versions.
Even at the bargin price, and we have never been offered that price
from Microsoft, equipping all of our computers with Office would cost
use a considerable sum. When the issue came up a few years back I
simply took the scholarship list into the committee and asked them to
pick the three children that would not be getting a scholarship so we
could pay Microsoft. That brought about a quick end to the
conversation of using Microsoft Office.
In the end student should be able to take what they learn in one word
processor and apply it to any other.
Greg Kearney
On Feb 10, 2009, at 2:17 PM, Keith E Gatling wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 3:45 PM, Jason Johnson <jasonpj@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I would pay $29.95 for OpenOffice. I agree that there are things
>> it does
>> not do as well as Word (e.g. tables) and it can be slower. There
>> are also
>> some issues that would not be tolerated from word (e.g. wysiwyg
>> loss of
>> spacing after periods). But there are three issues to factor in:
>>
>> 1. Once out of college, most students will not have access to
>> preferred
>> pricing. This means $140 (list) or nearly triple what a school
>> pays for the
>> home version. And to get the full version will be around ($400).
>> Those are
>> very different costs that we implicitly steer students as a side
>> effect of
>> offering them access to the gold standard.
>
>
> Actually, if you consider what used to be called the Student/Teacher
> version
> of Office, it's available for $150 and gives you three, count'em,
> three
> licences of Office to be used within one family. That means $50/
> person. Not
> at all unreasonable. I know that people are defining family rather
> loosely
> in order to get that price, but that's another issue, and nowhere
> near the
> $400 you cited. When Microsoft finally came up with student/family
> pricing,
> I could finally recommend Office to people in good faith.
>
> 2. There will be a small number of students who are frustrated
> enough to
>> consider improving the product. Because it is open source they can
>> make it
>> better. There will be a smaller number still who have the talent
>> and will
>> act on that impulse. But that is the promise of working with open
>> source.
>
>
> But is open source for everyone? Not yet, I don't think. If open
> source
> doesn't provide anywhere near the usability of "closed source," then
> it's
> worth asking why you're using it on a production basis.
>
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