All entries for Sunday 07 May 2006

Warwick University – "an affiliate of M$"?

So I got looking through the IT services summer 2006 guide to training which is offered to students on the subject of computing. Well, I say computing, what I mean Microsoft branded computing. There are no less than 18 references to Microsoft products on one side of the A4 pamphlet. Why is it that our university seems to go out of its way to indoctrinate all students into their (proprietary) way of doing things? There are alternatives to M$ software out there… why doesn't the university consider Open Office… or Koffice (if they want to go all out for the open source and use KDE aswell… I'm a GNOME man myself)

Further; why do they insist on wasting so much money on buying the rights to use M$ software when they could get one source software, which would be more secure, faster and more stable for far less money. The FAA in America saved $15 million by migrating to Linux (see link). How many extra books could be bought for our library if we made that move within the IT services dept.?

: 07 May 2006 23:03 |  Comments (46) |  Close comments |  Report a problem