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Question of the Day: Have you ever been to an airshow?
Why do schools use Windows?
- Thread starter GreGorGy
- Start date
graviti
Senior Member
I disagree. I find the equation editor in OpenOffice for example, far simpler to use. And I've never had any problem with formulae in Calc. They are slightly different to Office 2007, but that's to be expected.
Personally, to a degree, I agree. But the same argument goes, what can be done better in Windows than in Linux, apart from OS dependent programming. For example, the GNU tools for network troubleshooting in Linux, (which are now also available for Windows) are superior to anything out the box in Windows. I'm thinking dig, nmap, etc. Then there's projects like Wireshark that started in the Linux world, and migrated to a cross platform project. I think the world is moving to an OS independent model, and thus it comes down to personal choice. Pay or no pay. Windows out the box "works better" for newbies, but Linux is fast catching up/taking over in that regard. Two years ago, what I teach now had to be done on a Windows machine. Now I run exclusively in Ubuntu, to prove to the students that there are options out there. Not necessarily better, but at the same time, not worse either. Linux is about choice, and that's the position we are finally in. We do have a choice now.
Nothing actually and it is more expensive to write applications for Linux. Most users cannot do an installation on Linux themselves which means there is a cost involved in the installation as well.
Gimli_
Expert Member
You are obviously speculating, have you even tried installing ubuntu desktop before?
Roger.Wilco
Senior Member
Why is he speculating? Compared to just running a setup.exe file in Windows, installing some apps on Linux can be difficult for certain users.
Gimli_
Expert Member
You make some excellent points. We need more open minded teachers like you.
I find my kid (grade 2) switches easily between what he learns at school on a windows box to what he has to do for homework using my ubuntu desktop with open office and chrome browser. All it takes is showing him the differences between the two and then he just carries on without any prejudice. Granted it is only grade 2 and the level what they have to do is very limited, but the point I am making is that at his age he doesn't have any preference as long as it does what he wants it to do. As he becomes older, and having had exposure to both, he will be able to make his own choices. I don't even know that it would matter in future with everything moving to the cloud in any case (ex. Google Docs as apposed to Open Office or M$ Office, or things like Chrome OS).
How is it difficult to go into your package manager, search for the software you need, or browse for it according to type, etc, and then click on it to install? Dependencies are all done automatically, no need to go and hunt for some .Net framework to get something to work. It just do.
Gimli_
Expert Member
Maybe you have also not tried...
Installing the operating system is as easy, if not easier than installing windows (ubuntu desktop).
Installing applications on your desktop is as easy as your 'add-remove programs' you have in windows, except you have gazillions of applications in the repositories. (find the app you want, select, click on install, boom! magic downloads it from the repo and it is installed, run! )
Yeah I agree with that statement.
When OpenOffice decided it's going to switch . with , I lost all respect for it, when it wouldn't open some suppliers excel sheet I was :wtf:, When I hit the macro wall OpenOffice got itself permanently deleted.
By all means learn OpenOffice Calc to get experience with writing some formulas but don't waste your time with it because eventually you will be using Excel.
@graviti Dude get out of that fx wizard habbit.
Roger.Wilco
Senior Member
All sounds great in theory, sadly it just doesn't work that way. I've had a lot of issues with installing some apps from the package manager. And the error I get never tells you what exactly is wrong. Then it's back to google to search for the error and fix it before I can continue.
Linux is fine for techie people who don't mind playing around and fiddling, but it's still not ready for the general public.
F
Fudzy
Guest
+1 I think Linux should be demonstrated but if you want to prepare your child for mainstream computer use it's Windows FTW
DarthCat
Expert Member
ive tried linux but had too many problems with drivers and when i updated it, it stopped to work. and all my games and programs works on windows
Simple...Its used by most companies for their workstations around the World. The amount of people supporting the operating system technicaly is far more than linux. Most of the basic applications are written for Windows. Then also marketing as Microsoft supports alot of schools it knows and understands that if a child is tought on a Windows PC that child would more than likely need one at home with the needed MS Office applications.
Make sence?
murraybiscuit
Executive Member
personally, i think it also comes down to fud.
people are happy with the thorn-in-the-shoe issues around windows because they are familiar with the problems.
they don't want to make all those same mistakes again on a new platform, that would be too risky and would require too much effort.
i think at some level there's people who love to work on computers and others who see them as a necessary evil.
it always amazes me just how vast the group of users is who fear technology and see it as something that they have to interact with to get certain tasks done.
people are happy with the thorn-in-the-shoe issues around windows because they are familiar with the problems.
they don't want to make all those same mistakes again on a new platform, that would be too risky and would require too much effort.
i think at some level there's people who love to work on computers and others who see them as a necessary evil.
it always amazes me just how vast the group of users is who fear technology and see it as something that they have to interact with to get certain tasks done.
GreGorGy
BULLSFAN
So then it makes sense that we assume that the computer education at school is much like life orientation: you are not being taught to be a computer-anything just a user. Schools are not teaching development but rather use of a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software. Basic literacy.
And once you have mastered windoze, moving to something more civilised is easy. evolution I suppose.
And once you have mastered windoze, moving to something more civilised is easy. evolution I suppose.
Roger.Wilco
Senior Member
No, they're teaching programming, networking etc. as well, just on the Windows platform.
SilverNodashi
Expert Member
It sounds like you were trying to install something which wasn't packaged properly for your OS. Windows packages sometimes have this same problem, and can be a pain in the neck to get working as well if the developer didn't package it properly.
Just cause the developer of a 3rd party app messes up, does it make the OS bad?
Just in my general personal experience, Linux performs better, hangs up less, and causes me less headaches. But for most people it depends on what you are used to.
F
Fudzy
Guest
I'd love to know that answer too. When you look at job application it's usually asking for experience using Adobe x or Microsoft y. You don't often see jobs asking for experience with open source IDEs etc.
graviti
Senior Member
What are you on about? I don't use wizards, as a rule. I've never had any real issues with Calc formulae. When I'm talking about equation editor, I'm talking displaying Maths equations, such as a nicely formatted version of (2x^2 -13x -7)/(2x-7). All of this in MS-Office is cumbersome. OO Writer does it beautifully.