500million IT project for schools

anonymouscoward SG

Looking at the reports, it seems that Microsoft Office has been chosen as default productivity software. I wonder if we are gonna get a good deal out of this, reflecting on all the antitrust lawsuits that has been filed against Microsoft.

I heard from civil servant friend that NFK is just the tip of the ice berg. Our school systems also has the same structure that if an errant Principle is in power, abuse of authority can easily happen.

Maybe someone in MOE is getting favors from Microsoft.

FireIce SG

MS is chosen bcos of industrial standards

wat other apps do u suggest our generation will learn/

anonymouscoward SG

There's OpenOffice.. which is free. It is adopted by schools and government both in US and Asia. EU even specify OpenOffice as the default document exchange standard.

On contrary, there is no standardization on Microsoft. It's just popular... and ridiculously expensive.. I don't think MOE is gonna use pirated copies so they must be paying huge amount of money for it (even at discounted price)

I'm using OpenOffice on my Mac.. It supports OASIS format, PDF and all Microsoft Office format (more than Office XP itself on backward compatibility).

FireIce SG

there is academic pricing and volume licensing schemes whereby educational institutions can buy at a very very good price......so u dun worry......

due to compliance issues, govt agencies are not allowed to use open source

anonymouscoward SG

what compliance issues? OpenOffice is opensource.

you're probably right about the volume pricing but it can never beat free software. all those taxpayers money can be better well spend.

FireIce SG

ok, obviously u dun get it and will not get it

so i dun bother liao

thank u

anonymouscoward SG

Try explaining.. you might be surprise what new information you can learn. unless of course, you do not have a valid explanation.

Are saying that those government and schools overseas (including our own MINDEF) are not worried about compliancy issues when using OpenOffice?

You said due to compliance issue, govt agency cannot use OpenSource? What is MINDEF doing then?? How about legal sensitive US? Or the European Union??

When microsoft is name the default solution (read monopoly), how much discount do you think they are willing to give? or need to give?

remember that this is not a direct MOE-Microsoft deal. Microsoft is name default and all vendors needs to get the software licensing from you.

anonymouscoward SG

duplicate posting

dakkon_blackblade SG

Yes, MINDEF has already switched to OpenOffice, so I don’t see why the rest of the ministries can’t follow suit. Perhaps the issue is just that of unfamiliarity. Most people are already used to MS Office, so it might be a bit troublesome to switch to OpenOffice. Imagine the number of people who would need to be re-trained to use OpenOffice!

sbst275 SG

Still neighbourhood schools wun get priority

Stop this... They are creating a gap

ndmmxiaomayi SG

OpenOffice is rather similar to MS Office, I don't understand how people can have problems using it.

My school has tested some open-sourced programs, including OpenOffice. The results are pretty good.

anonymouscoward SG

BusinessTimes reported the IT deal to be worth 2billion instead of 500million as reported in StraitsTimes.. one of them must be right.

BusinessTimes also reported that the net gain from the bulk tender is approximately 30%... only 30%!

Bottom line.... someone must be getting a good deal from this and the taxpayers are paying for it.

banzie SG

If you are going to be a designer would you use a open paint program or a industry use adobe? I don't think I want my kids to learn from a bunch of useless software before going to the work place totally out of place...

Frankly my opinion of open office is... Beside its free its sux in many ways... When you are dealing with large datas and etc esp in excel you see the difference. Big Difference. If not for the cash I'll use a microsft office too... We should never spare too much on the education of the young. Where as in army... used by the PES E clerk on those low importance job... open office will do.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

Kids don't handle large amounts of data anyway. Besides, companies don't use Excel to store data, they use SQL. Excel is still used mainly for graphs and marketing purpose.

anonymouscoward SG

I guess you would be qualified to comment on of the European Union Infocomm Authority's failure to see that point.

Frankly, if you have actually use OpenOffice you'll know there isn't any difference. Also, I use GIMP (GNU Image Manipulator) and it gives me all the functionality of Adobe Photoshop. Totally free. I don't have to spend over $700 just to edit a graphic professionally.

Finally, not just clerks are using OpenOffice.. they include officers and generals too.

Anyway.. this is not the debating point. I'm just trying to make a point that our government should be prudent in spending tax payers money.

anonymouscoward SG

I REFER to the reply from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), on the use of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) for all government documents ('Suggested document format not practical'; ST, April 19).

It is surprising that IDA said that 'the Microsoft Office suite is used widely by PC users. Therefore, it is not practical for the Government to adopt OpenDocument as the only standard'. How many of these PC users are using 'unofficially obtained' Microsoft Office suite? Why is it 'not practical'? Is the standard lacking something?

As this is an open standard, the National IT Standards Committee could help input additional requirements so as to make it useful for the whole world.

I expect technical leadership to come from IDA through actively encouraging the use of openly published and globally standardised file formats, not generalisations.

The ODF has already been adopted as the standard for all government documents by the US state of Massachusetts and many others around the world. Singapore can be a standards setter and leader in this area as well.

We are observing 25 years of IT leadership and are rolling out the IN2015 vision. Is this vision going to be vendor-centric? Or will it be bold and forward-looking, with no more taxpayers' money spent on proprietary standards?

Harish Pillay
President,
Linux Users' Group (Singapore)