[LINK] Microsoft on the outer of schools funding

[Jan Whitaker]

At 09:08 AM 4/12/2008, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>NSW said using open source software meant zero cost, as opposed to the
>$405 it typically spent on each machine.

I'm of two minds on this. From what I've seen of *nix, the learning 
curve may be a bit higher than an out of the box Winders install. 
Then again, that may just be because I've become accustomed to the UI 
and approach. I'm also someone who doesn't think MacOS is necessarily 
all that intuitive.

BUT if students can become bi-lingual or even tri-lingual in terms of 
platforms while they're young, that's excellent. It would demystify, 
deglorify the operating system and turn it back into 'just another 
choice', a good thing. There seems to be plenty of software for all 
those environments, too, and students on a budget when they leave 
school or go to uni will be able to continue to do things through the 
FOSS approach without a lot of additional expense. Another good thing.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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