Daniel, Good points indeed. Next time please reply to the thread that YOU originally started. You start way too many threads and then never reply to them yourself.
Your points regarding transparency on government procurement of software and stimulation of policies are correct. Its unfortunate that we are in this current state. I believe the work you are doing in your classroom is admirable and you should get other teachers on board of your project. This CAN'T be a one man show. However I still believe that MITTS have the right to bounce you off their network if you don't fall within their 'security' policy. However, don't stop there. Ask them what Linux alternative they approve instead of what you using (I believe its Ubuntu) and we move from there. I insist that the first step for these kids is to shift them to cross platform (ideally opensource) software. There is lots of edutainment available to push this argument. Right now there is a huge effort in porting all KDE educational software to Windows and Mac. Please read up here for more info: http://edu.kde.org/windows/ . The current status of the project is Release Candidate and should be made available to the general public on January 27 2009 (soon). Software includes Language learning, Maths and Sciences, Geography and last but not least tools for educators to prepare their tests. This software was (and still is) built with the help of educators. Last but not least, Microsoft only provide the OS, not the educational software. Its trivial to defeat the argument of keeping a Windows OS if the software is capable of running on any OS you throw at it. Given the latest shift from Nokia to change the license of QT under the LGPL, that means that its now piss easy for any developer to write his software once and make it run on any platform without paying a cent. Now, both QT and GTK are licensed under the LGPL. Software availability on other platforms can only increase. Regards, Raphael On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 6:45 AM, daniel <[email protected]> wrote: > *Well I'm happy that the mailing is alive....... > > I can't argue from the technical point of view of computers or software > issues as I'm not an expert. > > But I do have some personal experience with lawyers. Any way, in any issue > it's the court which has the final say no matter what other people say! > > Well, the EU has been finding microsoft guilty on various accounts. Please > do check WHY microsoft was found guilty and what are the consequences for > Malta now being part of the EU. In a few short words, any government cannot > tie itself to a particular software with the exclusion of others!!!!!! If > the government does not pay attention to our argument he will soon be FINED > by the EU !!!!!!! The taxes you pay will obviously go for this blunder!!!! > > Secondly, I presume that all of you work in the private sector. So I > presume a very important difference might NOT have been noticed. We are > speaking about government property. Hence all citizens have the RIGHT to > know what's going on. Before they accuse me, I have the right to know what > went behind closed doors between Mitts and Microsoft. I was astonished that > not even our European Parliament representative knows about it!!!! > > When we discuss government things it's not a private issue. Why did the > government go for microsoft in the first place? He is using the money paid > by TAXES, not like a private company which is more free in this aspect. > > Secondly, if the teacher, here we are not speaking about an employee in a > private company) according to the New curriculum (maybe some of you are not > aware of some important changes in the education sector as they have been > bombarded with negative results such as the Cospicua one!!), has to be more > investigative and critical in his approach. Now how can he be of a good > example when he himself is tied to just one OS? Is not this the old concept > of indoctrination ? > > What's so funny is that when we have government employees who simply heat > their seat all day it's ok, but if somebody is using the PC for the good of > the students, then we come down with all force. Well I have experience > already when I had PQ (parliamentary question). I was the only teacher who > went out of the syllabus because I had nearly illiterate children. So I did > what the common sense what have told you too: teach them the alphabet so at > least they would learn letters. Well a parliamentary person asked (PQ: > another big difference from the private sector, you can't have PQs!!) why I > was teaching them elementary things in year 6 !!!!! > > A final thought: How can I be a security threat when he constantly > monitors every step that I make with my PC? > * *-- * > > _______________________________________________ > MLUG-list mailing list > [email protected] > http://linux.org.mt/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-list > >
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