Microsoft’s $3 initiative vs Open Source
Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu Linux, in a recent IRC interview was asked about the MS $3 initiative. Here’s what he said:
clever move. http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=business6_april24_2007. he gets it. free software is a far better platform for education than the $3 offer.
- far more applications, means you can teach many more things with technology, not just word processing and spreadsheets. for example, databases, programming languages, art apps, music, astronomy, statistics… you name it
- source code, means you can learn far more about how that technology works, important for super-star students who will rocket ahead of even their teachers
- localisations, means you can teach in your n indigenous languages
in short, education departments that really care about education have lots of reasons to choose free software rather than the cheap (and usage-limited) windows offer
I think this is very true, I would add that students will learn a lot more then just learning how to use softwares like Windows OS,MS Office and solitaire. Choosing Open Source they will have chance not only to learn how to use softwares that rock, but also they have the chance to see and may be some of them will learn how to make one! This is something like teaching how to fish instead of giving one for free!
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Welcome to Arstan's personal blog. This blog includes tips on Linux, Apache, MySQL, Shell Scripts. Hardware/software and internet technologies reviews and updates.
Mark is right, it’s a very clever move to keep M$’s dominance, but it’s also right that FOSS allow people to really use their computers and learn a lot of things but there seems to be a general problem that most of the teachers are from the M$ world, so I think that we need to do an extra effort to make FOSS hit the schools and the students.