Excellent Letter
I originally posted this to my local LUG and was asked to post here as well.
Enjoy
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Just wanted to highlight a very well written letter to our esteemed
leaders that I've run across for any of you who have not seen it.
Perhaps more of us should get behind this and send similar
correspondence to our MPP's.
I for one can literally feel Mr. Gates reaching into my pocket when
my teenage children come home from school and insist that they MUST
use MS Word to complete their homework assignments. The prospect of
expanding your horizons and opportunities with FOSS has no relevance
to this demographic. Being "forced" to use OpenOffice "just
sucks". As an experienced and reasonably tech-savvy adult I can
read between these lines. I recognize that their objection is for
no other reason than "it's different....(and I don't want to put
forth any additional effort to learn anything more than is
necessary)" [brackets mine].
I'm not sure how many of you in the group have school aged children
but I personally think it's a travesty that our scholastic system
will pedal high priced, and unnecessary software dependencies on our
kids.
I know that MS often offers cut rate licensing to school boards.
I'm also aware that there is a reason their tactics have been
compared to drug Czars. If dealers are offering our kids cut rate
crack in order to perpetuate a dependence upon graduation does that
make it right? Sure, it can be argued that they are most likely to
be exposed to MS applications once they are in the work world but
who honestly believes the MS empire will be around for ever?
Another 5, 10 years tops?
I believe children should be taught to use computers and
applications not specific programs. More importantly, in today's
environment of diminishing resources in our academic programs, I
also believe that it is our government's responsibility to seek
relief for the tax payer. Specifically on things that seem to be as
unnecessary as software licensing costs.
Okay, that's my rant for the day......boards been too quiet lately.
Mike