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David Holden said the following on 10/09/2007 13:00:
<blockquote cite="mid:200709101300.57104.dh@iucr.org" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On Monday 10 September 2007, Kris Douglas wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Today I completed an assignment for IT in Linux. (We dont have any windoze
machines in the house). So I saved it in a format supposedly compatible
with Microsoft Office 2003, but...of course, microsoft's (lack of) support
for open document format has redered the rather hefty assignment useless to
the school. I think this is a pile of animal's fecal matter, the school
should cater for the people that are actually using some software that is
compatible with open formats available on the *nix platforms.
I intend to complain at my school today to see if I can get some form of
open solution for the software made available to us. But I am interested to
hear your oppinions on this issue, and if its actually worth promoting.
A rather peed off,
Kris Douglas
Softdel Limited Hosting Services
Web: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.softdel.net">www.softdel.net</a>
Mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:kris@softdel.net">kris@softdel.net</a>
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<pre wrap=""><!---->
Are the school requiring you to submit your assignment in a microsoft
compatible format, if so then this seems unreasonable unless they pay for you
to own a copy of MS office.
As it is I suggest you keep you your assignment as is and point you school to
where they can download free software to view it, e.g. open office.
Dave.
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But if Open Office will not write an Office 2003 compatible version of
this assignment, will it be able to read it on a Windoze PC? Would a
PDF version be acceptable?<br>
<br>
On a more philosophical level, if Linux etc is to make inroads into the
Windoze environment, it has to be able to read and write compatibly
with MS Office, otherwise no-one will ever give Linux a go.<br>
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