[NBLUG/talk] OpenOffice 1.1 ISO has arrived; time to gear up for the schools!

[Bill Kendrick]

On Tue, Oct 07, 2003 at 11:55:41AM -0700, Lincoln Peters wrote:
<snip>
> >Or god forbid the student graduates, and then 2 months later a new version
> >of Word is out.
> >
> >THE HORROR!
> 
> Good point.  I'll try to remember to bring this up when I see them again.

Yeah, I guess my point, to be more serious, was to state that arguing for
knowing a particular version of a particular product is a bad argument,
seeing as those products change all the time as it is.

Just as teaching "OpenOffice.org 1.1", as they are currently teaching
"MS Office version XYZ" would be just as bad...  Teach the concepts, not
the "click here, then click there, then click there."

I swear, I spent TWO WEEKS in training for some log analysis product that
Worldcom decided to drop tons of money on (and then sit on for a year
before even starting to use it).

The 'training' mostly consisted of 1., 2., 3. steps on what to click.
In the end, we had NO IDEA how the damned thing worked!  If I had been
asked to sit down and DO something with the product, I'd have been completely
lost.

*sigh*


> First, I have to get them to install it.  There is a lot of beauracracy 
> involved there, but I just talked to the superintendent of the 
> Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District.  As was the case everywhere 
> else I went, she was quite interested in a free, open-source, full-featured 
> office suite.  Now all I can do is wait for the CD's and flyers I left to 
> trickle down to the level where something will happen (unless I can talk to 
> some of my other educational contacts and bypass them entirely).

This could be where something like Knoppix could be handy.
Probably an extremely scale-down one.  No frills.  Try to ignore the
fact that it's Linux...  Just make a live OpenOffice.org CD
(that just happens to be sitting on a bootable Linux disc)


<snip>
> Excellent work!

Wish me luck!  I was walking through town yesterday and dropped off some
Tux Paint tri-fold pamphlets to some elementary schools that I happened
to pass.  The front-desk people seemed vaguely confused, a little interested,
and said they'd pass it on to the principal.

I wonder if they'll ever look at it. :^)  (This is why I want to do actual
LETTER WRITING to start...  Then maybe follow up with a phone-call,
perhaps to organize a sit down meeting...?   Maybe my plans are too grand :) )


<snip>
> Very good.  That would bring the cost down even more!

Yes, always keep your eye out on people trying to get rid of their 2-3 year
old hardware.  I think it's often cheaper/easier for them to find someone
to take it off their hands, than try to dump/recycle...  (I'm just guessing)


<snip> 
> And, of course, if their customers have any problems with their Linux 
> machines that are not hardware-related, they could easily refer them to the 
> nearest LUG.

You do have to be careful here.  While there are lots of people out there
like me, who want lots of people to use Linux, and who are happy to help,
there still seems to be a large percentage of elitists who can't stand
newbies, and get irritated when people post the wrong question, go berzerk
when they send it as a non-wordwrapped HTML attachment, and generally
scare away people who haven't yet made the leap yet. :^)

I admit, I seriously hate HTML email and non-word-wrapped messages.
I only blow my top, though, when people act like assholes on lists
(sometimes newbies do this, but usually it's the more technical people),
and when a newbie constantly posts "remove me from this list" messages
to the list. :^)

I try to be POLITE when newbies do faux pa things like HTML e-mail. :)


Wow, have I digressed!

-bill!