All schools In Denmark switching to Linux

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)."

Microsoft may have a strong foothold in the US...

[intermodal]

but as the US has consistently proved in the past decade and still not caught on to is that they're not the center of the universe. The loss of Microsoft's power will not be starting in the States, but rather in the countries with the good of the nation rather than the economy on their minds. UNIX has been a staple of Computer Science since the 70s (pre-70s i'd be hard pressed to consider anything on the frontier known as computers as a staple), and IMHO has a good number of decades left in it.

anyone here speak Danish?

[Gerad]

I've started to question the authenticity of some slashdot stories recently, especially after things like this [slashdot.org]. If the editors don't read stories posted in our own language... Anyone out there want to verify this?

Interesting tactic from Sun...

[i_am_nitrogen]

Isn't this what Microsoft has been repeatedly accused of? They the first hit free, get them addicted, and tie them into the costly upgrade path. While I like seeing more people using Linux and Open Source software in general (not the smallest reason being that, as a contributor of (small) projects to the community, I feel like a part of everyone's work is making it out there to the masses), I wonder if Sun intends to some day change its mind about OSS/FS when StarOffice has become ubiquitous.

Bait and switch will not work here...

[codepunk]

The GPL firmly kills any chances of a bait and switch. If SUN tried to tighten the screws they could switch to open office...

So it's not an interesting story at all--

[mmacdona86]

Sun is making StarOffice available free for Danish schools--that's pretty much all the story is. Not really news since Sun has been promoting StarOffice pretty widely. The schools are under no obligation to use StarOffice, and it sounds like there is no Linux involved at all (except the server from which you can download StarOffice)--it might all be StarOffice for Windows that is being talked about here.

Re:anyone here speak Danish?

[blakestah]

It is a lie.

Star Office will be ubiquitious. It also works with linux, but linux will not be ubiquitious.

In other words, they are moving to Star Office freely, or for a minimal price on CD. Hardly the same as a non-Microsoft workplace, more like non-MSOffice workplace.

Still, not a bad start.

Now if they could just set up a Christiania in San Francisco...

Why not use Linux in schools?

[saskboy]

There are all sorts of reasons to use Linux in schools. One being the Thin client model found at K 12 Linux [k12linux.org].

Re:But Why?

[WNight]

If students can learn an office suite and desktop environment like Mandrake, or Redhat, and they can't apply these skills to Windows, they don't deserve to graduate. Students taught on a Mac manage to transfer their skills to other computers with a day or so of orientation, so why do you expect Linux will be much harder? You do know it's not all command-line based, right? There are applications other than grep and vim.

Perhaps they'll be addicted to system stability and being able to move documents between programs... It might be hard to go back after that.

Re:yeah, but how long are they gonna stay with it?

[Chordonblue]

He's got a point. Remember that not-well-planned attempt to convert Mexico schools to Linux?

Yes, let's put RH w/KDE on 486's... Didn't work due to poor planning. I wonder of the over-exuberance of Penguinistas is to blame for that one.

Re:penetrating the soft underbelly ...

[Chordonblue]

Sun is smart - they are going to do this the right way. They are working on programs for education. It may be that they will release something around the same time Office 11 comes out.

OpenOffice.org - the development platform for StarOffice is only at 1.0.1. It is stable (at least for us), but there are still a few issues to resolve. Not the least of which is a usable version for the Mac. This is probably part of the reason they are waiting as many schools do use Apple (although these are decreasing).

Our school jumped on the bandwagon while OpenOffice.org was still in beta. We completely converted to Open/StarOffice last year. I think that part of this push (when it happens), should also center around competition. It should go something like this:

"How many of your tax dollars go to your local schools? How much of that goes to Microsoft? You might be surprised..."

Offer StarOffice for cost of media, give OpenOffice.org to the students / parents on request and you've got a winner.

If someone switches back, you'd hear about it.

[g4dget]

Microsoft's PR department would probably let you know if some big institution that switched away from Windows or Office came back to it. And there are plenty of computer columnists and reporters who would have a field day with that as well.

While individuals and small installations may go back to Windows, I suspect that for most large installations, the cost advantages and reliability of Linux are so compelling that they tend to stay with it.

Re:But why NOT?!

[Tony-A]

No more BS with students showing up with a paper they typed at home and not being able to open it at school.
That's the real payout. And everybody using the same version of the same software is *not* a viable solution. Home, Office, School. Different versions of different software. They all need to be able to read and write. The duo of StarOffice/OpenOffice will tend to ensure that "improvements" and "enhancements" do not introduce gratuitous incompatibilities.

Re:Editors on crack...

[Sloppy]

I guess people are as stupid and irresponsible in Denmark as they are here in America.

If it is the will of the Danish people to stop being assimilated by outside cultures or sending revenue to outside their jurisdiction, then all they have to do is Just Say No and stop buying that stuff. But noooo, they need a law to make themselves do what they supposedly want themselves to do.

Not a specific criticism against the Danish people, really. As Frank Zappa would say, we're "Dumb All Over."