Marc has been raving over the last couple of days about the RM Asus miniBook (product details) a sub-200 quid notebook computer that runs Open Office and Skype, and has preloaded links to webmail sites, Google docs, Wikipedia and more.
However, the OU Personal Computing Specification requires students to have a Windows machine, which effectively means the Asus "Access level machine" is not an option for our students...
Also in the news is the recent announcement of fast growing Apple Mac computer sales. I can see why this makes sense - after all, if the only apps you run are iTunes, chat, mail and Google (i.e. a browser), then why not opt for a Mac? What does Windows give you?
So is it time to call time of the required use of Windows machines? What are the barriers to platform independence for us?
One major issue for the OU in particular is that we ship quite a lot of software to students. Specifiying an operating system makes this easier to achieve (although in principle using Java should offer a degree of operating system independence; going forward, Silverlight and Adobe Air might also be interesting in this respect?)
Chatting to John Naughton last night, I asked about the history of the OU Personal Computing Specification/Requirement, hoping it had originally been defined at a functional level (unfortunately, it wasn't).
Maybe it's time for us to start thinking about what an appropriate functional specification should be (the listing on the OLA DVD could be a useful guide in this respect?)...
...and selecting software for future courses that are either platform independent desktop apps, or that run from the cloud through a browser...
Now I wonder, is Moodle on a Stick tied to Windows?
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Tags: platformindependence, asus minibook, access
Posted by ajh59 at November 14, 2007 10:40 AMI couldn't agree more. It is not just Mac users who lose out, the same frustrations apply to those of us who use Linux. This is where open standards are really important as then you do not have worry about the client machine, only that it can understand a standard. I'm not sure if Adobe Air or Silverlight can deliver in this respect.
Posted by: Liam Green-Hughes at November 14, 2007 12:08 PMThe smart move is to run OS X and virtualize whatever else you want with Parallels. No cheap though.
Posted by: AJ Cann at November 14, 2007 02:04 PMI've just ordered a OLPC laptop via a friend in North America. I guess that won't be up to spec, but I'm looking forward to having a play with it! (And, even more, to someone else having one, so that I can use the mesh networking features!)
Posted by: Emma at November 14, 2007 07:31 PMOf the general software needed for courses on the OLA CD (It's not a DVD yet, unless V9 is out) the only application that's Windows only is Lyceum. At a R06 meeting last week, we had a demo of Elluminate, which is web-based and allows application sharing - this would replace and improve on Lyceum very nicely from first appearances.
Posted by: Kate Sim at November 15, 2007 12:07 PM