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- aliguana, on 05/15/2008, -8/+201As a British tax payer, I'd rather they installed 10,000 copies of OpenOffice in schools, and spent the savings on some more teachers instead. There is a lot to be said with giving kids the knowledge of the tools they will use in the workplace, BUT the cost is too high (even with MS bulk educational discounts)
- AndyStitzer, on 05/15/2008, -44/+223Openoffice is good
- YodaJones, on 05/15/2008, -17/+108If the United States had any balls they would do this also.
- int19h, on 05/15/2008, -10/+63Got to love the brits
- crackah, on 05/15/2008, -29/+83I dont agree. I would use office 07 over OO anytime. I just like it a whole lot better.
- bumcheekcity, on 05/15/2008, -10/+61A very good idea. Open Standards are the way to go. Credit to the EU for doing what they're supposed to and easing comminication and standards across the continent.
- estvir, on 05/15/2008, -8/+56Please provide proof Office 2007 is not stable.
- snurfle, on 05/15/2008, -11/+53OpenOffice is OK.
Let it mature a few years and it might make it to 'good'. - Archer007, on 05/15/2008, -25/+68Someone is finally kicking Microsoft where it hurts. About time.
- csulok, on 05/15/2008, -2/+37that's the hope.
- bratterscain, on 05/15/2008, -2/+36There's nothing socialist about it. They're basically stating, if MS can opt it, for the software to be compliant with other systems they use and if not, they'll take their money elsewhere. That's called capitalism, for those in the know. Can you say, c a p i t a l i s m ?
- Tenoq, on 05/15/2008, -3/+34Especially for the price. :D
- Firehed, on 05/15/2008, -10/+40It's down to personal preference. I've found the ribbon UI (at least on Windows) to be the best interface that Microsoft has ever come up with, but I certainly know plenty who hate it.
- r3zonance, on 05/15/2008, -4/+35OpenOffice is good for all the functionality that is actually used in Office 2007 (all 2% of it).
90+% of people use Word as a glorified typewriter anyway, so it doesn't really matter. - maasox74, on 05/15/2008, -4/+35And what exactly happens when MS decides that "enough is enough"? Will they leave the EU market? I for one am all for it :)
- snurfle, on 05/15/2008, -7/+35>"As a person who's smarter than a British tax payer. I'd rather schools..."
ummm... no comma.
>"Beside Open Office is horribly slow and ..."
ummm... Beside*S*, and maybe a comma...
I stopped reading right there.
You are NOT smarter than a British tax payer. - sputty, on 05/15/2008, -0/+24Have you tried opening/creating an ODF file in word lately?
- r3zonance, on 05/15/2008, -3/+26"The rest of the world uses Office like it or not, so it makes sense to teach students what they'll be using."
But that is the problem, schools aren't supposed to be teaching packages, just the concepts. For example, instead of word, you teach them proper "Word Processing", instead of Access you teach them "database techniques".
When I was at school it was all Acorn computes with Interword and Interbase, none of this Word/Access/Excel, even though the products existed. I can still use them all much better than kids today, because I learnt the correct WAY to go about using these TYPES of software.
As long as we "teach students what they'll be using" it will always remain that Office is taught, as they will continue to always use Offce over the generations. Remaining vendor agnostic is always the best option. Really kids today should be in a situation to help determine the way forward, rather than "fit neaty into a pre-defined groove". Otherwise how can we possible expect to progress. - dist0rtedwave, on 05/15/2008, -2/+24Yeah, I don't see how they can get the government to push Microsoft. Here is how I think it should work:
British Schools: "Microsoft, support open standards or we are going to teach all our kids open office"
Microsoft:"Oh crap, that would suck, then kids would be likely to use that for the rest of their lives if given a chance"
BS: "Heck yes they would, we mold their minds!"
M: "Fine jerks, have your open standards"
The end - jabela, on 05/15/2008, -4/+23Its free and does everything the kids need it to do.... That leaves money for more specialist software with real educational value.
- r3zonance, on 05/15/2008, -1/+19The US doesn't have the balls. Cos Microsoft is in the pockets of all the politicians, and has a tight grip of their balls. Microsoft squeezes whenever anti-trust and lawsuits are mentioned and the politicians back down.
- localzuk, on 05/15/2008, -2/+20Again with the stupid argument. Schools are there to teach transferrable skills, not individual software packages. People are taught how to use a word processor, not Word. They can then use those skills with Word, OpenOffice Writer, Google Docs etc... Why restrict them to a single vendor?
The Microsoft tax on the UK alone is huge. Sure, they charge less than for businesses, but it is still money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Your comments about ODF indicate that you have no idea what an open format is either. - welshie, on 05/15/2008, -0/+18Actually, BECTA are the organisation charged with specifying the IT infrastructure used in schools, and paid for by limited tax-funded budgets. If they choose to specify Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS instead of Microsoft Office 2007; providing the kids can learn what a word processor IS, and the sort of things you can do with it, all the better. Actually, schoolkids would probably benefit from having a choice of word processors to chose from.
Teaching IT in schools is about teaching concepts, not about which convoluted menu option you have to enable to enable the menu option that you want to use in a particular revision of a particular bit of software; odds are, that when they do leave school and have to use a word processor for real, it will look entirely different to the one that they were shown as school. Look at how the Microsoft Word interface has changed over the years. - maninalift, on 05/15/2008, -2/+20It's so weird how "Socialism" is still a dirty word in the states. The propaganda of the cold-war has not worn off, people still seem to think "socialism = communism = Stalinism". Or even "not a raving free-marketist = socialist=..."
Preventing a company from abusing it's market position does not mean that the next step is holding political prisoners indefinitely without charge... wait isn't that what the US does?
I'm not anti-US nor am I a rabid leftist I just wanted to make the point that socialism =/= Stalinism. - Tenoq, on 05/15/2008, -1/+18"It's hard to get a man (government?) to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
The US is too far into corporatism for that. - ElectricC0wb0y, on 05/15/2008, -11/+29I use Linux as my primary OS. I have OpenOffice and AbiWord installed in Windows. I love the open source movement.
That said, MS Office 2007 (not 2003 mind you) is just better. OpenOffice was close enough to Office2k3 that it didn't really matter, but MS really did them one over with 2007. Don't say that openoffice couldn't see it coming. Office2004 Mac implemented most of the features that makes 2k7 better.
Also, we need to teach our kids how to use the #1 Office software in the world. Especially the ones who aren't going to college. Believe it or not, there are kids out there that can't relate what they learn in OpenOffice back to Office2003 and def not Office2007.
+1 to UK for handing to it to the man, though. That takes guts! I know from experience and making myself switch to linux. - LetsGoHokies, on 05/15/2008, -19/+36From reading the comments, I am in the minority on this one. I really like Office 2007. I feel like once I got used to it, I have been more productive. It's easier to find things, for me at least. And I think it does support open documents, as I have opened them. Might have been a download or converter though.
- AzureRise, on 05/15/2008, -6/+22No you shut up.
- Phocion55, on 05/15/2008, -2/+16Damnit people, this has NOTHING to do with Word 2007 itself, the ribbon interface, or how shiny it is. This has to do with document formats.
- heir0fisildur, on 05/15/2008, -2/+15One of the complaints I've always had with Office is that it is relatively difficult to find things I need to use. When I switched to Office 2007, everything was in a new place, but once I got the hang of the new system I find things much quicker.
I think all the complaints come from people who have gotten use to an inferior UI for so long that when things are actually made better they complain because they don't know what they're doing anymore. Yes I realize in the short run this means productivity loss - but in the long run this is a step in the right direction. - wufoo, on 05/15/2008, -0/+13Doesn't mean it is not good. I would prefer a brunette but I won't discriminate against a blonde.
- AzureRise, on 05/15/2008, -4/+19The EU has kicked MS where it hurts a many times. Bill went limping away and now it's Stevies turn to get kicked.
- freediverx, on 05/15/2008, -7/+21The key difference, which you MS apologists keep ignoring, is that Microsoft has been found guilty of illegally abusing their monopoly over the desktop operating system. It's not illegal to have a monopoly. It IS illegal to abuse your monopoly power.
And let's not forget that Apple's large market share in music players and digital music sales was, and continues to be, driven by consumers CHOOSING their superior product over others. On the other hand, Microsoft's monopoly was created by business deals that practically FORCED users to buy Windows. It is only because of the tremendously poor quality of Microsoft's products that their monopoly is now starting to crumble at the edges. - inactive, on 05/15/2008, -2/+16...Be honest, are you a troll? Or do you really think WINE is a perfect, infalliable simulation of the win32 API?
- bumcheekcity, on 05/15/2008, -2/+14AdBlock, fool.
- AzureRise, on 05/15/2008, -1/+13I'm curious. What do you think will happen when they've had "enough"?
- Theli, on 05/15/2008, -2/+14I used Office 2007 for a period of time and I actually liked the user interface, though in hindsight I must admit that it was more for aesthetic reasons than practical ones. There were several occasions where the lack of a traditional menu impeded my work flow.
I would think that if the choice for the British schools stood between Office 2007 and Open Office, I would choose the latter. Partially for economic reasons (lots of computers means high licensing costs), and partially because I think it's closer to older versions of Microsoft Office, which people are likely used to. - Theli, on 05/15/2008, -1/+13I think "good" pretty much covers it. It has some rough edges here and there, but it's definitely good enough for schools.
The schools could also provide free copies for the students to use at home. - NewsBandit, on 05/15/2008, -1/+12I have to say I've been using Office for some time and used it extensively in college, and not just to do simple things like write letters. Now I spend 9 hours a day in the Office Suite and i have to say that 2007 is the best thing MSFT has done on the PC front in a long time. Common features are easy to find, shortcuts are easy to pick up thanks to MSFT's new mapping of them to UI elements in a clear fashion.
I think most of the complaints people are voicing are the result of people too lazy to learn a new program. This hard-on for the old way is exactly what has created the Window's beast we have now. Nothing can change because people are used to it. At the same time people turnaround and praise Apple for its innovation. If Apple was the one making these kinda changes, people would be praising them as "changing the very way we look and think about word processing, or creating presentations, or crunching numbers.
/rant
The complaint i do have about MSFT 2007 is that it can be unstable on WinXP. I have it on my work machine (XP) and home desktop (Vista) and the vista implementation is far stabler. - r3zonance, on 05/15/2008, -1/+12I have had a job where people work with Word Processors for the last 11 years (software development, writing specs, test plans, user manuals etc.) and I almost never see anyone using a Word Processor correctly.
- Theli, on 05/15/2008, -0/+12"You do know that schools pay at most 5 pounds for the office licence? you'd be lucky to get one teacher."
Read the paragraph at the end of the article:
"The report's conclusions could end up costing Microsoft millions of dollars in lost sales in the U.K. public sector market."
Millions of dollars lost to Microsoft in this case means millions of dollars saved by the schools (and the taxpayers). - doctorfungi, on 05/15/2008, -2/+13It's got the best value for money out there. It's an excellent piece of software.
That being said, if price isn't a factor, I fail to see how anyone can claim that Open Office is better than Microsoft Office. - Tenoq, on 05/15/2008, -1/+12Yes, make sure our kids learn everything by rote too, so we don't have to deal with that pesky 'think for themselves' *****. That would really suck.
Moron. - inactive, on 05/15/2008, -5/+16Open Office v. 3 is finally incorporating error bars... definitely worth checking out IMO.
- Theli, on 05/15/2008, -0/+10I doubt Office 2007 is officially supported under Wine. Though it would make an interesting support call to Microsoft.
"Which version of Windows are you using?"
"Hold on, I'll check my preferences." - maninalift, on 05/15/2008, -1/+11microsoft documents are smaller and faster than any open standards? WTF?
Have you actually tried this? I haven't done a systemized test of performance in different circumstances but in my experience ODF are about half the size. Not that the size of your documents is of huge importance apart from the fact that it perhaps points to a more rational structure within the document format. - localzuk, on 05/15/2008, -1/+10They shouldn't be referring to it as a powerpoint. It is just a presentation.
- Theli, on 05/15/2008, -0/+9How are they screwing with Microsoft? They are simply looking at alternatives.
Are they screwing with Intel if they decide to equip their new computers with AMD chips? - Tenoq, on 05/15/2008, -1/+10We can only hope. Serious chance for open-source to gain a massive foot-hold in the global market. But I don't think MS would commit business-suicide like that.
- localzuk, on 05/15/2008, -0/+9You've hit the nail right on the head. BECTA is just doing it's job, trying to protect the interests of the schools in the UK.
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