All schools In Denmark switching to Linux 424
Someone who can read Danish writes "According to this story
(in Danish) Denmark has taken the first steps to start using Linux and Staroffice in all schools (1.1 million students).
Sun has agreed to provide Staroffice for free, or on
a CD-ROM for 10 Danish crowns ($1.5)."
Editors on crack... (Score:5, Informative)
The article speaks mostly about Sun's StarOffice and how students will be offered it, not that every school will switch to Linux...
I'll leave translation to someone who has stronger danish skills than me though.
Translation (Score:5, Informative)
By Keld Louie Pedersen
Denmark's 1.1 million students and teachers can now turn their backs to Microsoft corporation. At least when it comes to office software.
A deal between the Silicon Valley company Sun Microsystems Incorporated and UNI-C means that the country's students and teachers can download the office program StarOffice 6.0 from Sun at no cost and freely install it on their home computer. Alternately, they can buy it on CD-ROM at cost, 10 kroners per CD. The schools can buy StarOFfice in packages of 50.
Sun has made the deal with UNI-C according to the guidelines announced by education minister Ulla Toernaes (Left Party) on October 30th, on how educational institutions should act when offered free office software. Amongst the requirements are that such software donations are without cost for the state, and that UNI-C Denmark's information technology center should be responsible for distributing licenses.
UNI-C's expenses are covered by the 10 kroner the distribution of CD-ROMs brings. Sun makes a server with the free Linux operating system available for those students and teachers who want to download StarOffice 6.0.
"UNI-C exists to help the Danish educational world, so we're naturally very pleased to be able to distribute this type of initiative from Sun", says Dorte Olesen, director of UNI-C.
The world's undisputedly most wide-spread office system is Microsoft Office, although this does not exist in a version that can be used on computers with Linux as the operating system.
Because of Microsoft's dominance in both office and operating systems, several government institutions are working on creating alternatives, primarily the combination of Linux and StarOffice.
If all 1.1 million students and teachers make use of the offer, the total value will, according to Sun Microsystems, be around 200 million kroners.
k12ltsp (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone interested in doing something along these lines, and avoiding M$'s protection racket ("y'know, for a few dollars a year per station, I could make sure that you don't get hassled by software license audits"), should check out k12ltsp.org [k12ltsp.org]. With corporate donation programs starting to pass along some decent hardware to schools, a kick-ass lab can be had for just the cost of the networking infrastructure.
Re:yeah, but how long are they gonna stay with it? (Score:1, Informative)
Not Linux, star office (Score:4, Informative)
It does not mention anything about schools switching to Linux.
Re:This just in. Denmark part of Axis of Evil (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I wish... (Score:1, Informative)
As a side note, several years ago, after Croatia passed some kind of anti-piracy law, MS Croatia started selling licenses for existing MS software that businesses owned (or else). Clever scheme-- most businesses were running on pirated MS software, and these guys just came in, waved a stick, and got instant revenue. I wouldn't be surprised if they did something similar in other ex-Yu republics.
I am hoping that enforcement of anti-piracy will cause people to switch to truly free solutions, though your post is discouraging.
[OT] Re:Universities in the US... (Score:4, Informative)
Penn State and Pitt are "semi-private" Commonwealth affiliated institutions. They get interesting tax status, charge in-state students less, and get some Commonwealth funding.
Then there are the more traditional state colleges: Lock Haven, IUP, Shippensburg(??), etc.
Re:This just in. Denmark part of Axis of Evil (Score:4, Informative)
Denmark, whose main exports include those silly little wooden shoes and tulips, was unavailable for comment.
Clarification of a few things... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm from Denmark, I can read the article, so I figured I'd clear up a few things:
An entity, which is called UNI-C, has reached an agreement with Sun Microsystems about distribution of their StarOffice package. Schools, teachers and students will be able to get the software for free if they download it (from a linux server, running on the danish school network known as Sektornet) or for a fee of ~ $1.50 on a CD.
UNI-C is a semigovermental entity, that does networking for the public school system and the universities, hosts the DIX (Danish Internet eXchange) and things like that. Danish law says, that for a public school to accept free software, the software must be of no expense to the state, and its ditribution must be handled by UNI-C.
So, in conclusion, no, every school in Denmark is not switching to Linux. They may switch to StarOffice, on some platform.
But hey, it's a step in the right direction...
Oh, and merry x-mas everyone.
Bo
Lets get our facts straight. (Score:4, Informative)
UNI-C [uni-c.dk] is not "University of Copenhagen". It is a state-run pseudo-company which offers IT/networking facilities for the educational sector. Amongst other things they host the Danish Internet eXchange (DIX [www.dix.dk]") where ISPs can peer on neutral ground, and they offer a free life-time email-address to all danish teachers.
There's not a word about Linux in this anywhere.
Sun has offered StarOffice at a hefty educational discount. UNI-C helps them implement the scheme in a manner which saves Sun a lot of logistics.
There has been increasing focus on Open Source in Denmark recently, ignited by a independent report [teknologiraadet.dk] which concluded that if the political goals about using the Internet to improve the public sector are to be fulfilled, one can do so $500M cheaper over the next 10 years using Open Source than M$ software.
M$ is not happy about this, but their FUD doesn't seem to stick anymore.
A single Danish city-council, Hanstholm [hanstholm.dk], has taken a bold step and switched to StarOffice, and they're getting a lot of positive attention. (If you want to hear more about this, attend Nordu2003 [nordu.org])
Yes, I think this is all signs of a healty development :-)
Re:Editors on crack... (Score:3, Informative)
Denmarks 1,1 million school students and teachers can now turn their backs to Microsoft Corp. At least when it comes to officeprograms.
An agreement between Sun Microsystems and UNI-C implies that the students and teachers at all levels can download StarOffice 6.0 for free and install it at their homecomputers at no cost. Alternativily they can buy a cd-rom at the pure cost which is set to 10 danish crowns (1,5$ or so). The schools can buy StarOffice in bulk (50 cd's).
The agreement has been made with UNI-C according to the rules of guidance that the minister of teaching Ulla Tørnæs (liberal party) published the 30. october. These rules describe who schools and universities must act when offered free office-programs. Among the demands are, that such gifts are truely free to the state and that UNI-C, the danish IT-center for research and education must distribute the licenses.
UNI-C get their expenses covered by the 10 crowns that the distribution of the cd's earn them. Sun provides a server with StarOffice and Linux so that students and teachers can download these programs for free.
UNI-C is here to help the educationenviroment in Denmark, so we are of coure happy to be able to provide such an initiative from Sun, the CEO of UNI-C Dorte Olesen states.
The most common office-system in the world is Microsoft Office which does not exist in a version that can be run on a Linux OS.
Due to the dominance of Microsoft within office-programs as well as OS more and more public authorities are working to create alternatives, primarily the combination of Linux and StarOffice.
If all 1,1 million students and teachers were to take the offer of Sun, the total value would be approx. 200 million danish crowns (28 million $).
Sorry for bad language, spelling errors and misprints.
Re:Rotten (Score:2, Informative)
Sun made the offer, where Schools, teachers and Students can get StarOffice for free
In 1.5 years I'm going to be a teacher in Denmark and I like StarOffice
I use OpenOffice.org right now
Thanks Ulla Tørnæs
Quick translation (Score:2, Informative)
Free software for school use
Denmarks 1,1 million school pupils, students and teacher can now turn to back to microsoft. At least with respect to office programs.
A deal between the silicon valley company Sun Micrososystems Incorporated and UNI-C causes that all the school pupils, students and teachers can download the office program Startoffice for free and install it on their home computwer. Alternatively they can buy it on a CD-ROM for the price of frabrication: 10 kr per CD (This is about 1 $). The schools can buy staroffice i packages of 50 cd's
The deal that Sun made with UNI-C follows the directions laid out by minister of education Ulla Tørnæs. They were made public October 30th, and they describe how institutions of education must act when offered office programs for free
One of the demands are that such donations do not cost the state any money, another demand is that UNI-C (The IT-center of research and education of Denmark) must administrate and distribute the licences.
UNI-C will have its expenses covered through the 10 kr that the CD's cost. Sun will provide a server with the cost-free OS Linux for the pupils, students and teachers who wish to download StarOffice 6.0.
>>UNI-C exists to help the danish education world, so of course we are happy to be able to mediate such a special initiative from Sun, says Dorthe Olesen, administrative director of UNI-C.
The most used office system in the world Microsoft Office, does not have a version for Linux
Because of the dominance of Microsoft in office and operative systems, a growing number of state owned institutions work on creating alternatives - primarily a combination of starofice and Linux
If all 1,1 milion pupils, students and teachers use the offer, the total value is about 200 million kr (20 mil $) (says sun)