Story: UK's Elonex releases £99 OLPC rival

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Linux not too cool for school

Open Office can save in Word format; I've been palming people off with OO-generated Word documents for years, and nobody's ever spotted my cunning deception. So your kid can do her stuff on her Linux computer and the teachers won't know any different.

It's not unreasonable for teachers to insist on a single format, and since the schools in the UK are so badly advised on IT by their suppliers (for reasons I wish were only incompetence, but fear otherwise), that single format will be Microsoft. It is unreasonable that Microsoft doesn't support OO formats, of course, but that's not something St Trinian's can do much about.

So do what I do, when dealing with organisations that are too retrogressive to cope with open formats: give 'em what they want, but on your terms.

(MS Publisher format appears to be thoroughly closed, so the school is forcing you to buy Microsoft software. You may have a case to complain about that. )

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