Hi Alan, Frankly, IMO this space is not strongly filled by OSS at this point. I know of a school district that is very strongly committed to FOSS (they sponsor FOSS development, even), and after it was all said and done they went with Powerschool recently. I know the Web2School folks so please bear that in mind, along with the fact that they are *not currently Open Source*. However, they're moving toward becoming Open Source, they already have Mac, Windows, and Linux clients, and the Linux server was in beta several months ago. Another downside: No web-based client (despite the name). They're planning to roll out a web-based client soonish...I'm not sure of the timeframe on that. One upside: I've never heard anything bad at all about them or their product. They're a small company but hundreds of schools here in the northeastern states use them and the people I've asked rave about the product and their service. Another upside: I've heard their prices are very, very good, but I'm not intimately familiar with prices in this space, so I can't say anything more than what I've been told. SchoolTool is definitely not ready (Tom Hoffman will tell you the same thing), and the same school district that went with Powerschool did so after giving Centre the best shot they could for 3 semesters; they couldn't even make it work well enough for /one/ of their several schools. And OpenAdmin was one of the first school admin projects I heard about from them, so I'm sure they ended up rejecting it with full knowledge of it's capabilities. Anybody who knows me knows that I wouldn't send an email like this lightly - I'm a hard-core ideologue for FOSS. But the current offerings in this space need to mature before they become feasible for situations like yours, and I would hate to see you *lose ground* by trying to argue for something that's clearly unworthy. My advice is to check into Web2School; it may or may not be an option for you. If you choose them, then if (there's no 100% guarantee) and when Web2School goes open source, suddenly your school *will* be running FOSS. In addition, you'll not be locked into any particular platform (like the atrocious "browser-based systems" that work only with IE :-E ) so you still have Mac & Linux options available when it comes to your SIS. I hope this helps. I don't mean to dump on SchoolTool, Centre, and OpenAdmin, but IMO they're not sufficiently mature for them to be taken seriously in an environment like yours and I'd advise you to fight a battle you have a better chance of winning (such as for Firefox (duh!) and Open Office (duh!)). Regards, Matt Oquist Alan E. Davis wrote: [Fri Sep 01 2006, 03:02:31PM EDT] > Spam detection software, running on the system "socrates.mojo.home", has > identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message > has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label > similar future email. If you have any questions, see > the administrator of that system for details. > > Content preview: My school principal is planning to spend 15K for > "Rediker" school administration software. I am appalled: we do not have > microscopes for our science department! I am a GNU/Linux user. Although > I can maintain my personal GNU/Linux systems, I am reluctant to attempt > anything at the school level. There are people at the school who are > interested in using, for example, Open Office, and some interest in > GNU/Linux except not enough interest to sit down and learn the system. I > have been using GNU/Linux for at least 12 years; but I am not expert > enough to go to the school administration and say, "XYZ free software > can do this and this and this." Everything I do with GNU/Linux, I am > over my head. [...] > > Content analysis details: (3.5 points, 3.0 required) > > pts rule name description > ---- ---------------------- -------------------------------------------------- > 2.9 FROM_LOCAL_NOVOWEL From: localpart has series of non-vowel letters > 0.1 FORGED_RCVD_HELO Received: contains a forged HELO > 3.5 BAYES_99 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 99 to 100% > [score: 1.0000] > -3.0 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list > > Content-Description: original message before SpamAssassin > From: "Alan E. Davis" <lngndvs@xxxxxxxxx> > Reply-To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2006 05:02:31 +1000 > To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [school-discuss] Approaching administration: ammunition needed > > My school principal is planning to spend 15K for "Rediker" school > administration software. I am appalled: we do not have microscopes > for our science department! > > I am a GNU/Linux user. Although I can maintain my personal GNU/Linux > systems, I am reluctant to attempt anything at the school level. > There are people at the school who are interested in using, for > example, Open Office, and some interest in GNU/Linux except not enough > interest to sit down and learn the system. I have been using > GNU/Linux for at least 12 years; but I am not expert enough to go to > the school administration and say, "XYZ free software can do this and > this and this." Everything I do with GNU/Linux, I am over my head. > > I need armament---information to present to tech people and to the > administration that can convince them that it's not worth it to spend > 15K, when a system exists that is being used, and is good enough for > our needs, that is Free or Open Source. We hae a M$ shop, bascially, > so firmly entrenched (even with awareness of Free Software) that Free > Software is not taken seriously. > > Any responses and links I will use to print materials out, to present > to our adminstration. "Rediker" is used at other schools, so I think > that it will be most useful to look at systems that can do what > Rediker can do, competently. > > Thank you, > > Alan Davis > Kagman High School > Saipan, N. Mariana Islands > > -- > Alan Davis, Kagman High School, Saipan lngndvs@xxxxxxxxx 1-670-256-2043 > > I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I > must share it with other people who like it. > --------Richard Stallman > -- Open Source Software Engineering Consultant http://majen.net/
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