Tim Green wrote:
Unfortunately schools felt the pressure to teach the industry standard (IBM compatible, followed by "Designed for Microsoft Windows"), and RISC OS and Mac OS faded away.
Fortunately Mac OS is on a resurgence in the home environment, and Linux isn't going to go away.
Tim.
And a major part of that "industry standard" is Microsoft Office. Not only is familiarity with the world's dominant office package almost a prerequisite on many CV's, but also .doc and .xls files are still the de facto formats for exchanging data in the business world (though this is clearly changing with high profile shifts toward OASIS and PDF formats).
The ever improving functionality and interoperability of OpenOffice, StarOffice, Abiword etc. which run happily on non Microsoft platforms help allow businesses to choose non Microsoft platforms, which in turn should allow schools to do the same.
Safe