[In a discussion about Matach, the Israeli non-profit (supposedly) institute that writes education software, but sells it at full price and doesn't make what it writes available to the public as free software] > Does matach does programs which can't be replaced by opensourced programs? The sad (but probably true) part of your question is the word "replaced". Does anybody know anything about Matach and can tell us a bit about them, their raison d'etre, and their funding? I was under the impression that Matach operates with government funds; In this case why aren't their programs open-source, instead of somebody needing to do free replacements??? Imagine a country where not only can schools use free software, but kids are actually free to use the same software at home without draining the family's budget. This is not only essential to sick kids, but also useful for parents who cannot afford private tutors, and for kids who want to learn at a slightly different pace or to reenforce the learning they'd done in class. Just like John Lennon, I don't think that every sentence beginning with "Imagine" is necessarily impossible... And don't even get me started on Matach's spellchecker, rav-milim ;) -- Nadav Har'El | Thursday, Jan 2 2003, 28 Tevet 5763 > My kids (all 10 of them) had to submit a portion of their homework > assignments in .doc format for the past four years. > I suggest that you actually go try to talk to these people about Linux > and see what happens. What you describe is a typical arrogance that appears to pervail in our education system, where kids need to mold themselves into the "system" and not the other ways around. Demands are made on kids without trying to think whether these demands are reasonable for all kids or actually beneficial to any of them. Recently Channel 2 news carried a story about large families (like yours) whose schools demand 500 shekels a year (or more) from each child for school trips. For the school it's much easier and nicer to force everyone to fit this mold and not "cause problems". But what does a person earning 4000 shekels and having "just" 5 kids, do? What does the same person do when his kids' school force his children to write homework on their home computer (so one computer is not enough for all the children, just like one desk is not enough for all of them), or to buy specific software that his childrens' teachers demand? Should this hypothetic guy be told to pirate commercial software? Is that any better than telling him "if you can't afford paying for your kid's school trips, why don't you just rob a bank?" There should not be a "digital divide" inside schools... -- Nadav Har'El | Thursday, Jan 2 2003, 28 Tevet 5763 > Many of the academic community who plan the content want to use features that > Microsoft offers that are not standard technologies in order to get maximum > visual effect - things that you can't do in HTML or even in Java. We are a > long, long way from providing the tools that they need to make cuting edge > educational content. This thread is really making me sad. Is that what the teaching-software people really think? That Linux (or whatever non-Microsoft solution) doesn't have enough "features" to help kids? Does a kid who still cannot read as well as his class need super-fancy Windows-specific features to practice the alphabet? Does a kid who can't remember the multiplication table need features not available in Windows for the "maximum visual effect"? Is Linux really a "long long way" from being able to tutor kids who are having trouble with their English, Algebra, Arabic, or whatever? Will a kid whose parents cannot afford buying him expensive books (like dictionaries and encyclopedias) care if Matach produced their dictionary or whatever on Windows or Linux? -- Nadav Har'El | Thursday, Jan 2 2003, 28 Tevet 5763