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Rob Beard wrote: > Grant Sewell wrote: > >>> I have difficulty trying to get away from the big M at university, for >>> example I got told for one of my assignments I had to call my ER >>> diagram "er.doc". >> I usually submit my stuff in both their preferred format and in my >> preferred format, zipped up with a readme.txt file explaining why I >> have done what I have done. It has annoyed some people but others have >> commented that they were completely unaware of the other options >> available to them. >> > > A colleague of mine was e-mailed a .docx file yesterday. I managed to > open it after downloading a 27MB update for Office XP (which in turn > needed another couple of megs of Windows updates!!!). I did tell him > though to ask the sender to either next time send the document in Word > 97 format, install PDF Creator (which is GPL) or install and use OpenOffice! > >> <gripe> >> I have run into a bit of a pickle myself recently... one of the topics >> I teach has something along the lines of "install and configure a linux >> machine" as part of the "indicative content" of the course. It is not >> actually an assessment objective, so it doesn't have to be tested, but >> it does have to be taught. All the machines easily available for them >> to work on have WinXP on them, as mandated by the IT Services dept, and >> installing a dual-boot would be a serious no-no, so they have to go >> down the route of virtualisation, which although it is a useful tool it >> doesn't really give fully native-install experience. >> </gripe> >> > > Sounds like you could do with some older machines to use as Linux boxes. > When I worked at Exeter College (ooh, going back 10 years now!) they > had a room full of old computers (386's) which the IT course trainee's > used to learn technical hardware skills on. It didn't matter if the > machines were trashed as they were being replaced with fancy new Pentium > 100's (I remember them well, running Windows 95 and Office 95). > > Sounds like that's what the IT Services dept should do for the topics > you teach, maybe provide a few older P3/P4 machines (surely they're > replacing some of the older ones with new machines?). They'd be fine > for teaching about Linux on real hardware and if they get trashed what > does it matter? > > Rob > I wonder whether there is any milage in writing to Jim Knight the Minister for Schools to ask why Schools are obliged to use MS Windows/Office rather than Linux and Open Office. John -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html