Re: Education strategy

[Alistair Davidson]

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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