[Linux-aus] Academics and FLOSS

[Dave Davey]

Dear LAers:

I've had a long association with Australian academia.  As you probably all
know, the use of Unix and descendent Unix-like systems is well established
in universities, especially in the teaching of computer science and
engineering, and for servers of all kinds - web, mail, print etc.

But on the desktop the story is quite different.  There are some disciplines
where Unix-like systems are important, e.g. mathematics and engineering,
but these are exceptions.  In the biomedical disciplines and the humanities,
and in administrative areas generally, the desktop is dominated by
Windows and some Macs.

Even though IT support staff will often have Linux on their desktop, they
cannot effectively promote Linux to academics because the Windows
environment is effectively essential to productivity and communication.
This is because the use of non-open software such as MSword, and more
importantly EndNote are de-facto standards that are even required in
communication with the ARC and NHMRC, and with the majority of journals.

I have managed to operate in a personal MicroSoft free zone for nearly 30 years,
even when acting as a journal editor.  But if I receive a document
from a colleague, author, granting agency, journal etc. in MSword format
with literature citations and references inserted with EndNote, I still
struggle.  OpenOffice silently ignores the notes.  Kword will interpret
them at the expense of quietly ignoring the majority of special characters
(Greek, math etc.).  But even though with outrageous extra effort I
can read such a document, and for example successfully take it through
to the on-line journal publication stage, I can't add, correct or even
remove an End-Note and return or forward the document to someone else.
Despite my persistence with, and overall satisfaction with, modern
open source systems, I really have no hope of promoting them to my
typical academic colleagues.  Critical missing functionality presents
an on-going obstacle and challenge to the FLOSS movement.

I've raised the EndNote problem with some of you privately (to no
advantage I'm sorry to report), but I think it is time that this and
related problems must get some wider exposure.  The reason I say that
is that I have just read that MicroSoft is taking renewed interest in
the educational sector, at least in the Australian context, but probably
everywhere.  They must know that the dominance of open source in computer
science, and amongst university IT staff, is a major impediment to their
marketing, because graduates at least know of the alternatives.  If FLOSS
is to succeed, the missing links in an academic desktop environment
are essential.  But identifying the problems does not achieve this.
How do we develop the solutions?

cheers

Dave

-- 
David F. Davey
D'Entrecasteaux                                       Phone: +61 3 6267 4852
378 Manuka Road                                      Mobile: +61 417 206 368
Kettering                                       CDMA mobile: +61 428 674 852
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Australia                                            daved at windclimber.id.au