Seems to be a big improvement over when I went to RMIT. On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 11:27:25AM +1100, Bianca Gibson wrote: > - doing your course with free software - Andy K > > At the moment, you can't do it with fully free software (at least at > Monash). Sometimes even required to use proprietary windows only software.
Same experience. It was mandatory that we purchased Microsoft Office for one of the projects I was working on that required MS Access. We also used Java extensively (which could not be considered free software at the time). > - free software tools > > Sometimes actively encouraged, sometimes not permitted. Never seen it > encouraged due to being free software, always another reason. Sometimes it > gets mentioned that it's free software, though generally referred to as > open source. My lecturer at the time said it was "pedantic" to refer to software as "free software" or call the OS "GNU/Linux" and refused to do so. He has since been kind enough to organise a talk by RMS at RMIT though, so I do wonder if he still feels the same way. I also recall speaking with a different lecturer in my first year who was flat out against free software. He had a Mac and kept raving on about it. I mentioned I used a PC at some point in conversation and assumed I ran Windows, but when I explained to him that I used GNU/Linux he suddenly seemed a bit upset and said "ahh.. you're one of those hippie 'Linux' users that wants to give everything away and do us all out of a job". :/ > - lab computer > > At Monash the IT lab computers dual boot windows and some distro I can't > remember, but they keep that distro really out of date and don't even > install dev tools on it in IT labs. One of my tutors last semester thinks > it's so no one will use it so they won't have to support it. Given that, > I'd expect active resistance to trying to get the tools we need on them. RMIT used Slackware for GNU/Linux studies, but it was limited to a single lab, and each student was expected to install it themselves (so the computers weren't readily in a usable state). I don't recall if these machines had public Internet access, but I suspect they did not. I also do not believe this lab was readily available to students outside of class like the other labs were. There was one lab room with machines running RedHat, but it was restricted to final year students, and even then you would be very lucky to ever find a free machine there. I put together a Gentoo install on a USB drive at the time, which I used to do my work on at the computers in the other lab areas without having to boot into Windows. One day, the helpdesk guys saw me on the security cameras there and they demanded that I shut it down. I asked whey, and they said it was against their computer policy, and that I circumvented their security. I asked how, since the computers were all USB-bootable by default, but I never got a useful answer. When I got home, I went through the IT policy published online and couldn't see anything about it. I further complained about this experience on my web page (hosted on my RMIT account) and linked to the policy in question. RMIT responded a week or so later by saying it was part of a different policy they had (just not one they published online anywhere apparently - something they just made up for all I know) and removed my complaint page from the server. They said it was offensive to all the staff and contractors at RMIT, even though I clearly explained what had happened and why I was upset. > - requirements on submitting assignments > - getting course requirements changed > - Ben F: does MS office naively support ODF? > > I don't know, but you receive a list of formats you are allowed to submit > in - for anything you would want to submit as odt it ranges from .doc only, > pdf only or both. At the time, assignment requirements had to be downloaded in .doc format. Initially I did not have a copy of MS Office, so used OpenOffice.org. Just as I was about to submit one of my assignment at uni, I used their computers (running MS Office) to re-check my assignment and the requirements list, and noticed that the entire last page of requirements had not rendered when I viewed it from OpenOffice.org at home, causing me to frantically finish off the parts I was previously unaware of before the deadline. In summary, it was extremely difficult trying to be a free software supporter while studying there. This was years ago so RMIT might be different now, but I have my doubts. -Adam
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
_______________________________________________ Free-software-melb mailing list Free-software-melb@lists.softwarefreedom.com.au http://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/mailman/listinfo/free-software-melb
