Re: [school-discuss] Slashdot--All schools in Denmark switching to Linux

[Knut Yrvin <knuty@skolelinux.no>]

mandag 23. desember 2002, 15:49, skrev Doug Loss:
> http://www.jp.dk/itogc:aid=1585658/
>
> Could anyone here who reads Danish give us a translation?  We should
> invite the involved parties to join Schoolforge!

by Radagast (2416) on Monday December 23, @12:44AM (#4942988) 

Free software for school use
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.

- Knut Yrvin