Re: [school-discuss] StarOffice in Edu.

[Anna Johnson <anna_m_johnson@yahoo.com>]

On today's wire.  
Sun To Unveil Linux-Based Applications
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20020918/bs_nf/19436

"For example, in an effort to promote its StarOffice
software in the education market, Sun recently
announced plans to donate the program to schools
around the world. The software suite's user interface
is similar to that of Microsoft Office applications."

Sun promotes through donation when they should be
attending the conferences, co-writing case studies,
and placing ads and articles in the k-12 and higher ed
magazines.  Call me skeptical, but I have a feeling
their software donation is going to be laying around
unused in a classroom cubby hole.  Donation without
teacher and administrator professional development, is
a waste of $$$$.
Anna




--- Anna Johnson <anna_m_johnson@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Visibility.  I don't see Star Office on the
> bookshelves in the campus bookstores or talked about
> at the edu conferences.  I also don't see any
> advertising for it in any of the standard edu
> pubs...especially k-12.  Most teachers and
> administrators don't know about it.  And if they
> have
> heard about it, they assume it doesn't run on
> windows.
> 
> I also think that a lot of the open-source apps have
> been particularly successful at marketing the
> back-end
> technologies as opposed to desktop apps.  
> 
> One more thing, free often means substandard to a
> lot
> of people.  Educators are tired of getting the
> leftovers and now that they have the IT $$$ to spend
> on technology, they want to purchase something
> that's
> marketed as being "prestigious and
> state-of-the-art...use what the leading corporations
> use so your students are prepared for the
> future...."
> 
> I obviously don't agree with the "free"
> association...just relaying the feedback I've heard
> over the years.
> 
> Good to hear from you Chris!  :-)
> Anna
> 
> --- Christopher Reed <reed@affero.com> wrote:
> > I read today in a release on zdnet "Sun expands
> > StarOffice giveway" (see link 
> > below) that Microsoft has 90% of the office suite
> > market in Edu. 
> > 
> > I'm curious why a free product like StarOffice is
> > not more prevalent in 
> > education. Is it an issue of support? Usability?
> > Laziness (people don't want 
> > to switch ffrom MS Office)? Or other?
> > 
> > I appreciate your thoughts.
> > 
> > Chris 
> > 
> >
>
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-09-17-009-26-NW-SW-PB
> > 
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