A good reason to go open source at school
,----[ Quote ]
| Maybe Edubuntu is an option for New Zealand schools.
|
| Something like that, with Open Office as the main productivity tool
| has to be able to do what most kids need anyway. Keep some Macs and
| Windows PCs in each school to run those programs that require them
| ie: Encarta, Microsoft Student or third-party Windows-only programs.
| With a lot of schools using open source software, an IT service
| industry will emerge to support those schools that have made the
| switch. They may even get better support as a result.
`----
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/blog/story.cfm?c_id=1501198&objectid=10442422
More here:
Victims, villains and heros
http://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2007/0529.shtml
Another Microsoft Windfall
http://blogs.pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/tux-love/2007/05/another_microsoft_windfall.html
Related:
IBM System i hangs on in NZ e-govt
,----[ Quote ]
| He adds that the SSC is using older-generation Intel cards
| inside its existing i810 and using 32-bit Linux rather than
| the 64-bit Linux the platform supports natively.
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/8D60A4A7144138DFCC2572E6000DB7F1
Copyright law reinforces monopoly, Open Source Society warns MPs
,----[ Quote ]
| The New Zealand Open Source Society is opposing those parts of the
| Copyright Amendment Bill that would make it illegal to circumvent
| technological protection of copyright.
|
| The society argued, before a parliamentary committee, that such measures
| would reinforce Microsoft's market power.
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/DFF5E36288E85D11CC2572DA00352758
Open Source rising in N.Z. education
,----[ Quote ]
| On staff we have people who contribute to a variety of different open
| source projects, both through work and on their own time. It's not
| unusual for a lunchtime curry to end up in a fierce argument about
| the merits of different version control systems, window managers,
| distributions of GNU/Linux, different Open Source licenses, and of
| course, emacs vs vim. As we interview potential staff members, it's
| not unusual to ask them to fix a bug on an Open Source project, and
| submit a patch for review. And of course, when we hire new staff,
| they arrive on their first day to an Ubuntu workstation.
`----
http://www.opensourcereporter.net/nzedu.html
US open source-based company takes on Oracle
,----[ Quote ]
| US-based EnterpriseDB will open an office in Sydney partly to service
| the New Zealand market and its one local reference site, the Inland
| Revenue Department.
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/B88D0868D9A1F4EDCC2572AE001A180E
Standards NZ disappointed at Open XML fast-track
,----[ Quote ]
| Standards New Zealand is disappointed at the go-ahead given to
| fast-track consideration of Microsoft's Open XML data format as
| an ISO standard.
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/5CB3B2EB34E54949CC2572A7001114D2
NZ objects to Microsoft Open XML standard fast-track proposal
,----[ Overview ]
| Standards New Zealand, our representative organisation in dealings
| with the ISO, objects on the grounds that Open Document has
| already been approved
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/82AF97DEBBAFD057CC2572990006C14C
One laptop per child
,----[ Quote ]
| The XO is now being sold for $150, which is expected to drop soon to
| $100, but I was still thinking that it sounded a bit pricey for the
| developing world. I saw a comment online to the effect that that
| isn't much at all, when you consider that you're not going to have
| to print expensive text books for its young owners.
|
| Instead, the materials the children need can be cheaply loaded
| onto their laptops and written work can be transmitted to the
| teacher for marking, without the need for any paper. Makes sense
| to me.
`----
http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?from=rss_IOLTechHome&iSectionId=2883&iArticleId=3722631
Charities' Microsoft decision riles open source group
,----[ Quote ]
| Late last year, the Charities Commission, established to develop a
| formal register of charitable organisations, went to tender for
| service providers to implement a Microsoft-based online
| registration system. However, the decision to use Microsoft's
| software was never put to tender.
|
| [...]
|
| Harrison says taking registrations for charities would be equally easy in
| either Microsoft or open source technologies.
|
| "In fact, Apache has a better than 60% market share in web servers, so it
| seems unusual that the recommendation of a consultant would eliminate a
| majority market player from the project,? Harrison says.
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/2DDACAC8F60F0EFCCC25726F000A64BA
Red Hat restructures A/NZ channel
,----[ Quote ]
| "Currently, a large number of businesses in A/NZ are using or porting
| to Linux, reinforcing the enormous opportunities to develop certified
| products on Linux. As the market leader, Red Hat is 100 percent
| dedicated to bringing compelling open source solutions and support
| to the market," he said.
`----
http://www.crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=71980
Open-source database elected to update Kiwi voters
,----[ Quote ]
| Speaking at this year's Linux and open source conference, held in
| Sydney recently, Catalyst's Finlay Thompson said the Electoral
| Enrolment Centre runs New Zealand's electoral system and receives and
| sends a "massive amount of correspondence", including sending ads to
| get people to register on the roll.
|
| [...]
|
| Catalyst had been using PostgreSQL to manage the .nz domain and
| recommended it for the electoral roll.
`----
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/072965C09248DA04CC257268000C6C7F
|
|