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Re: Education strategy
From: |
Alistair Davidson |
Subject: |
Re: Education strategy |
Date: |
Sun, 12 May 2002 13:16:09 +0100 |
Hilaire Fernandes wrote:
>
> > > The main problem is inability to run Windows
> > > based education software - WINE is a possibility but we have to get hold
> > > of
> > > the software to test and testing takes time. For the time being we are
> > > concentrating on low cost thin clients
> >
> > There is a lot of free educational software that could be substituted.
> > There is
> > also the important task of getting teachers to contribute GPL'ed content for
> > new free educational e-books etc.. Keep it free and maximise cooperation =>
> > productivity & efficiency. If you are being ordered to buy a particular
> > proprietary product then blow the whistle here and in the TES etc..
> >
> >
> >
> > > Getting education titles to run under WINE
> > > is a high priority but difficult for a small company.
> >
> > WINE is said to be very good now but most free software was written to run
> > on
> > GNU and BSD. (BSD licening is to be avioded due to propritization, vis Mac
> > OS
> > X.)
>
> I agree. In term of freedom it may not be a good idea to promote the use of
> Windows software
> under a GNU system. Althougth such Windows may be free it may not be easy to
> modify such
> software under a GNU system. What if the free education software was
> developped with VB,
> Delphi or any other non free development tool? Instead we could look at
> porting such
> software or write new one from the ground.
> This is what we are doing at OFSET. GCompris was written in the idea to
> replace software as
> ASIBOU (quite famous software in France) and DrGenius to replace Geometer's
> Sketchpad or Cabri.
> Of course more need to be done and we are always looking for new volunteers.
Wine is important because it lets people continue using their old
(albeit non-free) software after switching to a free OS. It increases
the chances of them using free software in situations where there's one
or two apps they use that don't have a diect equivalent under *nix.
--
Al
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