Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Open-Source
First let me say that this is in no way a knock against Prof. Quinnell. that being said, POS2001 is one of the many classes in which the teacher requests certain formats for papers and other assignments, namely Microsoft Word. Aside from the fact that Micosoft has had a stranglehold on all things computer for too long (they even had copyrighted all fonts on word, so Times New Roman was a misnomer if you didn't use Word), this shows a quasi-discrimination against old-school formats like notepad, or anything on MAC. Anyway, I thought I would link this and let you see for yourself the flaws inherent in the widespread use of MSWord. Do yourself a favor and support open-source software like OpenOffice. it's the wave of the future, and you'll want to beat the crowd.
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2 comments:
Matthew, keep in mind that Microsoft has been convicted of illegal monopoly-promoting practices. While it is true that they create products that are widely liked, they also got that way by engaging in illegal and unethical practices.
My use of word is based on two things:
1. It is the only system supported by the college and the only program allowed on college computers.
2. It is the most widely-used and widely-available software. That means more students will have access to it than anything else. Decisions that I make must take into account the most good for the most students and there is no question Word is the only decision for word processing.
Besides, most of the complaints about Word are overstated. Almost everything listed at the link you provided will not be a problem for 90%+ of users.
Be careful with your language, Michael. Words that you would not use in class should not be used on the blog.
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