[Wylug-discuss] OU's Microsoft policy

[Roger Leigh]

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geoff fielding <geoff.f at blueyonder.co.uk> writes:

> I would welcome any information, comments, suggestions etc to enable me
> to make a forceful complaint that cannot be simply dismissed, which I
> fear would be the outcome with my own limited knowledge.

I don't have any formal computing qualifications (I have a Biology
degree), and I looked at the OU prospectus with a view to doing a
part-time degree out of interest.  After reading the available
courses, teaching and assessment methods, etc., it was quite clear
that the OU had nothing to offer a free software programmer.

I'm (IMO!) a fairly skilled, self-taught C programmer, with 6 years of
experience, spending several tens of hours a week writing code for a
wide variety of free software projects, including printer drivers and
more general stuff, such as being a Debian maintainer.  I have used
(and written) stuff like C and C++ database bindings, used a lot of
GTK+, and was looking for something to extend my knowledge, and
introduce me to new and useful skills to complement my existing
skillset.  However, it was painfully clear that the OU courses were
nothing but thinly-disguised training courses for Microsoft systems,
not genuine CS degrees.

Just as an example: all of the programming assignments require the use
of Microsoft development tools.  Supposing I'd prefer to use GNU CC
and Make.  I can't.  As a result, the course is already useless: I
have no interest nor need to use Microsoft tools.  Even if I wanted to
take the course, my GNU/Linux desktop isn't even physically capable of
running it (it's a powerpc system).


Just as an example, here's some code I've written over the last two
weeks:
http://cvs.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/schroot/schroot/sbuild-auth.h?rev=1.2&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup&cvsroot=buildd-tools
http://cvs.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/schroot/schroot/sbuild-auth.c?rev=1.4&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup&cvsroot=buildd-tools
(the full tarball is here: http://people.debian.org/~rleigh/schroot/schroot-0.1.3.tar.bz2)

The code is object-oriented GObject-based C.  If I want to improve my
skills and theoretical understanding, where do I go?  The programming
courses at my local (Blackburn) college are a joke (VB for
beginners!), the OU is no good, and I don't have the time nor the
desire to study a full-time CS degree (I don't want a full-time job
unless I'm working on free software, but that appears to be a limited
only to a talented few).


Regards,
Roger

- -- 
Roger Leigh
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