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Then we end up with more and more schools using M$ because all the businesses use it, and more businesses using M$ because all the kids know it. This is bad for
by Liquix 6y ago
Then we end up with more and more schools using M$ because all the businesses use it, and more businesses using M$ because all the kids know it. This is bad for our kids, bad for creating critical thinking employees, bad for pretty much everyone besides Microsoft. If it gets bad enough the government has to step in and strong-arm them like they did with Bell.
I'd argue that anyone in a position to make these types of decisions for their organization has a societal obligation to consider the potential consequences of "just going with the flow" when it comes to contributing to an AWS/Google/Microsoft type monopoly.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoSchools are not in a position to change this. They can use whatever they want but then pupils will need to learn things like windows and Office (or Google AWS, Oracle, etc depending on what school we're talking about) when they leave school. So using free software as a matter of principle sounds like a wasted opportunity to teach pupils pragmatic and useful professional skills. This does not mean that schools cannot also use free software to broaden pupils' horizon, but exclusivity is not a good educational decision, IMHO. The question is rather why the vast majority of companies use Windows and Office (for example). This is where change has to happen first. That said, why does 'change has to happen'? Whether software is free software or not is not really an important operational and commercial consideration for a company when it picks software.