Office Politics

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 19:32:22 +0000
From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>

Office politics

Graham Stewart on one man's crusade to push open source software

Thursday February 12, 2004
The Guardian

The local public library seems an unlikely place to start a software 
revolution, but that's where one man has begun his campaign to encourage 
the use of open-source software.

Bob Kerr, a member of the Edinburgh Linux Users Group, has convinced more 
than 80% of Scotland's public libraries to stock OpenOffice - the free, 
open-source alternative to Microsoft Office.

Kerr has put together a CD package containing versions of the software for 
Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Once accepted by libraries, borrowers can take 
it home, copy it and use the programs free. In return, they get word 
processing, spreadsheet, graphics and presentation software that is broadly 
compatible with Microsoft's Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

It's a perfect match for public libraries, concerned as they are with free 
access to knowledge. And with no copyright restrictions, it's one of the 
few areas where Microsoft's proprietary software can't compete.


Full story at:

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1145674,00.html
--
School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/

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