Re: Microsoft Reader... argh!
Greets,
I bit my tongue with this original post.. I just registered for school and
sat down with my wonderful councillor to finger out my schedule for the next
four+ years of courses. I don't plan to do computers for profit, just kicks
(needed for financial aid). As she started quoting off the courses, I nearly
passed out when well over half of them depended on M$ products! If my bride
hadn't been there, I might have gone over the edge.
This is a damn sad state when a university is forcing evil products on kids
without even considering pure products like debian!
I didn't pull out, but I insisted we would have to have some talks campus
wide about this evilness since at least one new student won't play with, nor
install M$ products on his machines.
Now with the trend of commercial linux distros charging by the license (one
license for one box), debian is needed now more then ever.
REF: http://lwn.net/2001/0628/
I want to applaud your efforts, and kind consideration of your students.
Three cheers for the good guy - - hip hip hip hurry!
tatah
On Sunday 08 July 2001 10:03, Mark Wagnon wrote:
> On 07/08/01 10:26:34 -0500, Andrew Perrin wrote:
> > I'd like to assign a book for a class this fall that is published only in
> > hardcover and in something called "Microsoft Reader" format. The MS
> > Reader format is about 1/2 the price, which matters (I don't like to make
> > students pay more than necessary, particularly at a public
> > school.). According to Amazon, the MS Reader is available only for
> > Windows. Does anyone else know about this gizmo, what the format is,
> > etc? I'm not willing to let Microsoft have a monopoly on my class, so if
> > in fact it's Windows-only I'll either not assign the book (and let the
> > publisher know!) or make them go with the expensive hardback.
>
> As a continuing student, I'm glad to hear that professors like
> yourself think about students' bank accounts. Thanks!
>
> Personally, I like to have access to a nice text with actual pages. I
> can take it anywhere and not worry about hosing my PDA/eBook reader or
> whatever, and I'm not be chained to my computer (although some in my
> family believe that's happened ;-) ). If the eBook was in HTML or some
> other format easily decipherable by other party's technologies, I'd
> say go for it, but since it looks like it's MS' attempt to secure the
> eBook market for itself, I would avoid purchasing/recommending it in
> that format. Can you imagine a world where trees are no longer cut
> down to produce paper for books (yay!), yet the only format available
> is MS' (boo!)? If MS disagreed with a publisher's views, they could
> yank their licensing. Scary stuff.
>
> I would write the publisher and let them know how you feel whichever
> way I went though.
>
> Just my two pennies.
--
Jaye Inabnit\ARS ke6sls\/A GNU-Debian linux user \/ http://www.qsl.net/ke6sls
If it's stupid, but works, it ain't stupid. SHOUT JUST FOR FUN.
Free software, in a free world, for a free spirit. Please Support freedom!
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