Skip to content
← Obama CTO

I suggest the CTO...

Obama CTO

Categories

JUMP TO ANOTHER FORUM

(thinking…)

Standardize the Public Education System on F/OSS

Linux, OpenOffice, AbiWord, and a wealth of other, specialized educational software all exist for free. Switch now and gain more than just dollars...

  1. Save Cash.
    Public school districts pay Microsoft for Windows, Office and various groupware-related licenses, all with public money. Stop paying for software, and start spending money on everything else.

  2. Encourage Literacy and Open Access.
    Never worry about students' access to the tools they need for homework and learning: it would all be free, as well as safe from viruses and other malware. The burden of purchasing software (Windows, Office, etc.) would be lifted from the student.

  3. Plant Seeds for the Future.
    As time goes on, techno-literacy will only need to increase. Open software encourages curiosity and playfulness with technology.

41 votes
Vote

We're glad you're here

Please sign in to leave feedback
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close
You have left! (?) (thinking…)
argotechnica shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →

We're glad you're here

Please sign in to leave feedback
Signed in as (Sign out)
Close
Close
Submitting...
An error occurred while saving the comment
  • liamcross23 commented  ·   ·  Report

    Agreed, OpenOffice offers 100% of the usable functionality in the office suite and none of the fluff...

  • Blaenk commented  ·   ·  Report

    I have had many friends whom I've taught Linux to ask me why schools don't just use Linux and/or F/OSS on their computer. It's true too, less worrying about malware and it also runs much quicker, and is overall more stable. All of this for free.

  • reya276 commented  ·   ·  Report

    I totally agree, I think that going open source for the public school system is probably one of the best suggestions ever. I don't know about you but Ubuntu/Linux is my choice of distro I believe this too should be made widely available to all public schools. Also I think that the entire US government should move to ODF standard document format.

  • nerdychaz commented  ·   ·  Report

    Open source is the future of computing. Developers only need to remember to make their product user friendly, not geek friendly and F/OSS has a future.