Andreas Pour is well known to most everyone in the KDE community. Considering that KDE is the leading desktop for Linux, if you are investigating GNU/Linux workstations, you are sure to run into Pour’s work. He graciously agreed to participate in a series of exclusive interviews with Open for Business’ Timothy R. Butler. In other KDE news, the KDE Project opens the doors to 3rd party developers with the “Extra Gear” initiative.
Pouring Over the Facts: Andreas Pour on KDE
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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That was an exceptionally knowledgable and well-thought-out interview (really more an essay). I wish something like this made it to the general press. I could probably count on both hands the times I have seen free software mentioned in non-tech-oriented publications, and usually the term “linux” is used to refer not only to the entire operating system but the apps as well. Furthermore, it is invariably characterized as “rogue” software written by “hackers”, implying that it is somehow illicit to steer clear of Microsoft.
I am on the clinical faculty of the medical school at a large state university in Florida, and I was astonished to find that medical students are required to demonstrate that they own a purchased copy of Microsoft Office as a condition for enrollment. Last I heard, Florida was one of the states actively pursuing the antitrust suit against Microsoft. It seems almost unfathomable that a state could simultaneously pursue antitrust action while mandating the purchase of the monopolist’s products as a condition of attending a public educational institution.
Quote: “(…)And of course the new artwork – themes, icons, etc. – that will be released with KDE 3.1 is widely regarded as the highest quality(…)”
– That’s not even funny.
Quote: “I am on the clinical faculty of the medical school at a large state university in Florida, and I was astonished to find that medical students are required to demonstrate that they own a purchased copy of Microsoft Office as a condition for enrollment”
– I Find that hard to believe.
And that part in the interview where Andreas Pour goes ballistic about “proprietary prisons” and free software, makes him seem a bit…. errrr paranoid
“And that part in the interview where Andreas Pour goes ballistic about “proprietary prisons” and free software, makes him seem a bit…. errrr paranoid”
Open your eyes.
.02
“Open your eyes”
LOL – The truth is out there (x-files)
I’m sorry for being a jerk, but it’s “poring over…” not “pouring.”
Jonathan
Quote: “I am on the clinical faculty of the medical school at a large state university in Florida, and I was astonished to find that medical students are required to demonstrate that they own a purchased copy of Microsoft Office as a condition for enrollment”
– I Find that hard to believe
I found it hard to believe too, when the students told me about it. I’m not really part of the university, I am in a private group that is peripherally affiliated for teaching purposes, so I was very surprised. Basically, the standard lecture format is a MS PowerPoint presentation, and the students are *required* to own MS Office. If you don’t believe me (and apparently you don’t), check out:
http://www.med.usf.edu/is/
and look for “required software”.
If you follow the above link, you have to click on “Students”, followed by “Standards”, followed by “COM Students” to get to the part where they are required to have a purchased copy of MS Office.
Since I started using MS Office during my student’s years, I somewhat accumulated around 100mb of various docs in the xls and doc format (in 2 years of time).
Now I’m trying to migrate from MS software to OSS, and I’m facing the very problem Andreas Pour describes: the proprietary prison. How am I going to convert all my files ? Is there a tool for that in Open Office ? Maybe Star Office has one ? But what is the result gonna be like ? Am I going to lose my visual basic macros ? What about the many reports I had to format using cryptic Word tools ?
I could also talk about my CD database, stored in a proprietary format.
What else ? Well… think about WMA/WMV and ASF. I just discovered Mplayer can read them under Linux, but what if the formats changed ? And what about newer formats shuch as mpeg4 ?
It is no paranoia to think about the proprietary prison, hug0, it is just wise.
’bout the part on students obliged to produce a MS Office license, where I studied every computer bought through the school was bundled with an MS Office license, but if you could produce one yourself. I chose not to buy the computer the school proposed (it was a good deal, but I didnt have the 2000 euros they were asking for it), and I didnt have to buy a MS Office license. But i was almost the only one in 1400 students.
I know of schools that require licenses, mine was a nice exception.
“LOL – The truth is out there (x-files)”
If that’s as far as you can see then I can understand.
*sigh*
“SPECIAL NOTICE: Because of network security concerns, all computers connecting to the HSC network running Windows 2000, or Windows XP must have a special security configuration. This must include a student’s personally owned equipment if it is configured with these operating systems. All students with an 2000/XP computer will therefore need to bring the computer to Information Services for configuration, and. like faculty and staff members, will be required to sign an agreement to follow specific security guidelines at all times while connecting to any HSC network resource.”
– Is this what you were talking about David, it’s only about some network security configuration for 2000/xp, it doesn’t say anything about:
“(…) medical students are required to demonstrate that they own a purchased copy of Microsoft Office as a condition for enrollment”
“How am I going to convert all my files ? Is there a tool for that in Open Office ? Maybe Star Office has one ? But what is the result gonna be like ? Am I going to lose my visual basic macros ? What about the many reports I had to format using cryptic Word tools ? ”
If you’re not going to change the contents of the docs, exporting them to .pdf would probably work, or you could just open the docs again with ms office and save them to another format, .html or whatever.
Visual basic macros are a no no.
Quote:
“”LOL – The truth is out there (x-files)”
If that’s as far as you can see then I can understand.
*sigh*”
I realy don’t care, if an oss program is better then a proprietary one, i’ll use it, if not then i wont use it.
But either way, i can’t understand why writing proprietary software makes the one who writes it BAD and almost EVIL.
– Is this what you were talking about David, it’s only about some network security configuration for 2000/xp…
No, go down a few more lines. Actually I was talking about:
“Required Software:
Microsoft Office 2000 or XP Professional (Must be purchased.)”
Anyway, I didn’t even know if there was anything online about the MS Office requirement when I made my original post. I found out from one of the students who was on my service recently who mentioned that they are required to have notebook computers for the first two years. Among other things, the lecture materials are downloadeded by the students as MS PowerPoint presentations. When I asked the student “What if you don’t have PowerPoint” I was told that it was required.
Of course, there is nothing new about students being asked to buy certain textbooks or other proprietary products. However, it really struck home to realize that the Windows/Office monopoly has become so pervasive that using these products is becoming a prerequisite for getting a medical degree at the university with which I am affiliated. It seems somewhat more intrusive than requiring employees to use Office because the company says so.
Granted, I’m pretty sure that if someone decided to use OOo/Linux instead, it would be OK, as long as that person doesn’t come crying with support or file compatibility issues.