Re: [seul-edu] OSS for schools

[robin <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

Randy Edwards wrote:

> > I hate to say it but if people can't work out how to use OpenOffice /
> > StarOffice then they really shouldn't bother with computers at all.
>
>    I agree 100%.  But it's not politically correct to say that. :-)
>
>  
It's also not realistic, although I sympathise with the sentiment.  Many 
people who neither like nor understand computers, simply have to use them.

What I find amazing is the myth that there are people around who can use 
MS Word but couldn't possibly understand OO Writer. Most people at the 
shallow end of the datapool use a tiny fraction of the functions of any 
word processor - in fact most of them would be able to do all their work 
in Wordpad.  This means that some of OpenOffice's strong points (such as 
styles) will be lost on them, since they don't know how to use the Word 
equivalent, but the kind of things they do are not only identical in MS 
Office and OpenOffice, most of them are the same in any piece of 
software (e.g. Ctrl-C to copy).

Robin

--
"I can say: 'Thank these bees for their honey as though they were kind people who have prepared it for you'; that is intelligible and describes how I should like you to conduct yourself. But I cannot say: 'Thank them because, look, how kind they are!'--since the next moment they may sting you.
- Wittgenstein

Robin Turner
IDMYO
Bilkent Univeritesi
Ankara 06533
Turkey

www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin