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> There is absolutely no good rationale to favor a private product in a school setting (at least in public schools, private schools can do what they want) and L

> There is absolutely no good rationale to favor a private product in a school setting (at least in public schools, private schools can do what they want) and Linux should be the obvious solution to teach computing in a neutral, non partisan way. Yes! Thank you. There should be a need to justify any deviation from this, too. There can be good reasons to use a private tool here and there. But the reasons should be evaluated clearly and alternative approaches should be considered.

jqpabc123 5y ago
There should be a need to justify any deviation from this, too. Hello, reality calling. The world is not neutral and non-partisan --- and you can't make it so without introducing your own non-neutral bias, priorities and partisanship. Nothing reflects this better than the universe of Linux distros. Which one should a neutral and non-partisan school choose? Be sure to justify your answer.
- eloeffler 5y ago
  It would be absolutely sensible to make a justified decision on this. For the context of Germany, I would imagine that this would be done by full-time employees of the ministries of education in the individual federal states. There could also be public spending to develop a fork of a popular distribution to provide tailored features for schools. The basic idea of making Open Source a requirement for selecting software solutions would just be a criterium added to the existing processes of selecting software/services.
  - jqpabc123 5y ago
    The basic idea of making Open Source a requirement ... Please explain how this decree is neutral and non-biased.
    - alexvoda 5y ago
      It is at least neutral in terms of not favouring one profit making entity instead of another. The Document Foundation and contributing developers are not better off or worse off if a public school district uses LibreOffice or not. It simply does not matter. They rely on donations for revenue instead of using monopoly powers to extract revenue by permitting the use of their software. Same goes for OnlyOffice and other FLOSS office suites. On the other hand, if a public school district chooses for example Microsoft Office, this is to the direct detriment of Apple iWork and StarOffice and Lotus(does it still exist?), etc.. This of course becomes a subject of public acquisitions which should be handled through transparent auctions. How often should the choice be made? Once a year, once 2 years? Should there be a round-robin strategy to switch from one provider to another in order to not favour one through network effects? All large software corps rely on the network effects of schools and piracy to further solidify their grip on an industry. Even if you claim that choosing the FLOSS option is non-neutral due to the network effect, in this case the network effect does not have the same ramifications it does for proprietary offerings. So even if the FLOSS choice may not be absolutely neutral, it is MORE neutral than any proprietary option.
      - jqpabc123 5y ago
        It is at least neutral in terms of not favouring one profit making entity instead of another. Racism is at least neutral in terms of not favoring one white European instead of another. Government should decree the need to justify any deviation from white and non-profit --- because they are clearly better in most cases.
        eloeffler 5y ago
        It does not make for a good argument to draw a crude comparison to racism. It shows that you see no difference between race discrimination that destroys lives everyday and software selection processes that you deem unjustified. I do not discuss with someone who pulls "tricks" like that in a discussion. But I do leave such comparisons unaddressed.
        jqpabc123 5y ago
seniorivn 5y ago
should it be on a per school basis? or universal across a nation?
- eloeffler 5y ago
  This depends on the way education is governed in each context. In Germany, education is governed by the federal states individually. They can leave these decisions up to schools (some even leave the desing of graduation exams to individual schools), others choose a more centralist approach. In the latter cases, the default use of Open Source software over closed, proprietary software or SaaS could be made mandatory, just like the use of certain books, the design of graduation exams etc.

jqpabc123 5y ago

There should be a need to justify any deviation from this, too. Hello, reality calling. The world is not neutral and non-partisan --- and you can't make it so without introducing your own non-neutral bias, priorities and partisanship. Nothing reflects this better than the universe of Linux distros. Which one should a neutral and non-partisan school choose? Be sure to justify your answer.

eloeffler 5y ago
It would be absolutely sensible to make a justified decision on this. For the context of Germany, I would imagine that this would be done by full-time employees of the ministries of education in the individual federal states. There could also be public spending to develop a fork of a popular distribution to provide tailored features for schools. The basic idea of making Open Source a requirement for selecting software solutions would just be a criterium added to the existing processes of selecting software/services.
- jqpabc123 5y ago
  The basic idea of making Open Source a requirement ... Please explain how this decree is neutral and non-biased.
  - alexvoda 5y ago
    It is at least neutral in terms of not favouring one profit making entity instead of another. The Document Foundation and contributing developers are not better off or worse off if a public school district uses LibreOffice or not. It simply does not matter. They rely on donations for revenue instead of using monopoly powers to extract revenue by permitting the use of their software. Same goes for OnlyOffice and other FLOSS office suites. On the other hand, if a public school district chooses for example Microsoft Office, this is to the direct detriment of Apple iWork and StarOffice and Lotus(does it still exist?), etc.. This of course becomes a subject of public acquisitions which should be handled through transparent auctions. How often should the choice be made? Once a year, once 2 years? Should there be a round-robin strategy to switch from one provider to another in order to not favour one through network effects? All large software corps rely on the network effects of schools and piracy to further solidify their grip on an industry. Even if you claim that choosing the FLOSS option is non-neutral due to the network effect, in this case the network effect does not have the same ramifications it does for proprietary offerings. So even if the FLOSS choice may not be absolutely neutral, it is MORE neutral than any proprietary option.
    - jqpabc123 5y ago
      It is at least neutral in terms of not favouring one profit making entity instead of another. Racism is at least neutral in terms of not favoring one white European instead of another. Government should decree the need to justify any deviation from white and non-profit --- because they are clearly better in most cases.
      - eloeffler 5y ago
        It does not make for a good argument to draw a crude comparison to racism. It shows that you see no difference between race discrimination that destroys lives everyday and software selection processes that you deem unjustified. I do not discuss with someone who pulls "tricks" like that in a discussion. But I do leave such comparisons unaddressed.
        jqpabc123 5y ago

seniorivn 5y ago

should it be on a per school basis? or universal across a nation?

eloeffler 5y ago
This depends on the way education is governed in each context. In Germany, education is governed by the federal states individually. They can leave these decisions up to schools (some even leave the desing of graduation exams to individual schools), others choose a more centralist approach. In the latter cases, the default use of Open Source software over closed, proprietary software or SaaS could be made mandatory, just like the use of certain books, the design of graduation exams etc.