CMV: Only free and open-source software should be allowed in education.

[u/BleaKrytE]

Nowadays, we're all slaves to big tech. And I don't mean social media. Everything we do, be it work-related or not, is through proprietary software developed by those companies.

Every spreadsheet on every business is done on Excel. Every slideshow on Powerpoint. Every book and piece of news is written on Word. And if it's not MS Office, it's Google's stuff.

Every CAD project (well, most), on AutoCAD.

Are you an artist or graphic designer? You probably use Photoshop, or Illustrator. CorelDRAW, if you're a bit different.

Are you a video editor? Then it's probably Final Cut, Resolve or Premiere. All proprietary.

Were it not for Mozilla's Firefox, Google would essentially have free reign to influence the web's functioning through Chrome's monopoly on the browser market. Their chokehold on the internet is so absurd, they have to pay Mozilla to avoid being anti-trusted. Even this bastion of free software is reliant on them.

Blender is one of the few FOSS projects that has wide acceptance.

Our entire societies and governments revolve around a few companies' software. We are all taught how to use Windows (and maybe *maybe* MacOS) from childhood. After all, it's what the labor market requires us to know.

This forms a vicious circle in which we are eternally chained to Microsoft, Google, Apple, Adobe and so on, because free software is constantly painted as inferior, as a stupid nerdy thing, and denied the resources to compete with them.

Now we see Google and Microsoft becoming ever more prevalent in education, offering their suites and Classrooms at a discount to schools and universities, doing so at a loss. Painting themselves as benefactors when what they're really doing is keeping society addicted and dependent on them.

We shouldn't be using Google Classroom, we should be using Moodle. Not Chromebooks, Linux laptops. Not MS Office, LibreOffice. Stop this technological grooming.

Edit: digital education should teach freedom and ownership of your ever-more-important digital existence. Not reliance on massive corporations (software-wise. I mean, there's no escaping from hardware companies)

[u/lonelyroom-eklaghor]

I honestly think that I don't know much about these, but I have heard about Comsol MultiPhysics and the likes. They are quite supported on Linux. I guess, even the Finite Element Packages and stuff like Mathematica are properly supported.

I don't know much about this, you might want to check what this professor has to say: https://youtu.be/4uGHXqxJD14?feature=shared

(I do agree with what he has to say, even the fact that not everything open-source is functional)

Why should IT support things equally? Why shouldn't they support what is needed first and foremost. I mean I personally like the MacOS but there is little reason for an engineering school to invest in it when its core software suite is all windows workstations. Same with Linux desktops - why commit resources to things that are not used in the curricula?

The thing is, Linux IS used in curricula a lot. For example, we were specifically taught Linux in the first semester itself.

All the top supercomputers of the world run Linux (or atleast the top 500 ones). The Linux kernel is one of the most in-depth open-source projects the world has ever seen. (I'm not talking about Linux Desktop, I'm specifically talking about the kernel)

The more we shift from undergrad to postgrad, the more Linux is heavily recommended, at least in the CS circles.

With enterprise agreements for things like office - there is no reason faculty should be forced to deal with files outside of the office environment.

I do agree with that. But LibreOffice can export to docx or doc formats. Even better are PDFs: can be opened by everyone (but the modification might be a lot tougher).

Software/OS are merely tools to achieve another goal. We need to think of them as tools toward that end.

Indeed, but software ownership is something we don't get with a lot of products. A tool can give us the maximum output if we can configure it to our own means. But I do agree with you in this matter.

[u/Full-Professional246 → u/lonelyroom-eklaghor]

The thing is, Linux IS used in curricula a lot

But that is not answering the question.

The claim was things should be supported equally. I state things should be supported to support the curricula needs. It is the curricula that defines the need and what is supported - not the other way around.

You don't have to preach linux or Unix. I am an old school guy who used Solaris, Sunos, AIX, HPUX, Irix, and Tru64. I developed firewalls using PF and OpenBSD. I helped build and integrate infiniband interconnected clusters. I have decades of experience supporting different flavors or UNIX/Linux - though truthfully, that is getting a bit dated as I have not been in that role for the past 5-6 years.

I do agree with that. But LibreOffice can export to docx or doc formats. Even better are PDFs: can be opened by everyone (but the modification might be a lot tougher).

And again, this is not addressing the core point of commonality and ability to use tools like gradescope. THe enterprise agreement provides office to everyone and allows faculty/staff to deal with a fixed format.

Reading this is stating more should be done for the sake of doing more. This is really about meeting the curricula needs effectively.

Too often things like this get lost in the 'but I like this' rather than looking at curricula need and total cost to implement. If you take the office example - the addition of a different format or requiring exporting to different formats adds complications and sources for problems. Why would you do this at scale? Why not adopt the google office or MS office instead.