3 ms·

You can tell this person is out of touch and doesn’t actually have any experience of the systems they’re complaining about, because they think people are still

You can tell this person is out of touch and doesn’t actually have any experience of the systems they’re complaining about, because they think people are still using IE and Word over Chrome and Google Docs.

ocdtrekkie 4y ago
I mean, you're both assuming you know the local education systems of the author, and Microsoft is still very much taught in plenty of schools, and also... Chrome/Docs has the same problems, but even worse.
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  > Chrome/Docs has the same problems, but even worse Well exactly - if you want to tackle this ‘problem’ then first you have to understand why LibreOffice isn’t a replacement (because you need to replace Google Docs not Word.)
- jeffbee 4y ago
  The author doesn't even bother making a case for what these "problems" might be.
djaychela 4y ago
Not that long ago (5 years) I was teaching in a school that still used Internet explorer. I commented to the it guy that I used Firefox. His response was "I'm not having that rubbish on my network". A lot of school IT staff I've met in the UK are not at the cutting edge. Many of them are older, have an out of date skill set, and don't get regular training - there's just not the budget for it, and many schools would baulk at paying market rates for talented, up to date support staff / management.
drcongo 4y ago
My kids' last school still sends Word docs out as email attachments. I raised with them the fact that this is not a portable document format, was regularly unreadable on my Mac, and discriminates against the poorer families. Turned out the head mistress' brother works for Microsoft so this didn't go down well.
- notjulianjaynes 4y ago
  >unreadable on my Mac >discriminates against poorer families I agree just funny. I'd argue PDF is equally problematic as it is often designed for A4 paper format, and this not easily readable on mobile devices, which poorer families are more likely to have as main computing device.
  - drcongo 4y ago
    PDF is, it's true, also appalling. What I was actually asking the school to do was just write the shit they put in Word docs in the actual email. There was absolutely no need for it to be in an attached document, it was just words and pictures.
    - bobbylarrybobby 4y ago
      It's funny, isn't it, that email is the single most portable "document" format in existence.
- tipsytoad 4y ago
  Is this really an issue? It can easily be imported as a Google Doc which is totally free.
notjulianjaynes 4y ago
I worked for a time as a substitute teacher in a school system where the kids were given individual Chromebooks beginning in middle school. Many staff expressed concerns over the privacy implications of having a cloud-tied indenty from such a young age. This was also a school who won an award for it's cyber security. More than once I found full student rosters with username/password printed out sitting on the teacher's desk. I suppose this is a different rant than school's should use FOSS. I don't think schools should impose a digital footprint on their very young as students. I have no children and no longer work in education.
alaricus 4y ago
It would not suprise me if a lot of schools still run Windows XP.

ocdtrekkie 4y ago

I mean, you're both assuming you know the local education systems of the author, and Microsoft is still very much taught in plenty of schools, and also... Chrome/Docs has the same problems, but even worse.

chrisseaton 4y ago
> Chrome/Docs has the same problems, but even worse Well exactly - if you want to tackle this ‘problem’ then first you have to understand why LibreOffice isn’t a replacement (because you need to replace Google Docs not Word.)
jeffbee 4y ago
The author doesn't even bother making a case for what these "problems" might be.

djaychela 4y ago

Not that long ago (5 years) I was teaching in a school that still used Internet explorer. I commented to the it guy that I used Firefox. His response was "I'm not having that rubbish on my network". A lot of school IT staff I've met in the UK are not at the cutting edge. Many of them are older, have an out of date skill set, and don't get regular training - there's just not the budget for it, and many schools would baulk at paying market rates for talented, up to date support staff / management.

drcongo 4y ago

My kids' last school still sends Word docs out as email attachments. I raised with them the fact that this is not a portable document format, was regularly unreadable on my Mac, and discriminates against the poorer families. Turned out the head mistress' brother works for Microsoft so this didn't go down well.

notjulianjaynes 4y ago
>unreadable on my Mac >discriminates against poorer families I agree just funny. I'd argue PDF is equally problematic as it is often designed for A4 paper format, and this not easily readable on mobile devices, which poorer families are more likely to have as main computing device.
- drcongo 4y ago
  PDF is, it's true, also appalling. What I was actually asking the school to do was just write the shit they put in Word docs in the actual email. There was absolutely no need for it to be in an attached document, it was just words and pictures.
  - bobbylarrybobby 4y ago
    It's funny, isn't it, that email is the single most portable "document" format in existence.
tipsytoad 4y ago
Is this really an issue? It can easily be imported as a Google Doc which is totally free.

notjulianjaynes 4y ago

I worked for a time as a substitute teacher in a school system where the kids were given individual Chromebooks beginning in middle school. Many staff expressed concerns over the privacy implications of having a cloud-tied indenty from such a young age. This was also a school who won an award for it's cyber security. More than once I found full student rosters with username/password printed out sitting on the teacher's desk. I suppose this is a different rant than school's should use FOSS. I don't think schools should impose a digital footprint on their very young as students. I have no children and no longer work in education.

alaricus 4y ago

It would not suprise me if a lot of schools still run Windows XP.