My teacher doesnt like linux

[phantom-overide]

Well its like this, im the only linux user in my class and my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it and the people who use it and every time he gives us a task to do hes like:"you may only use MS WORD and MS Excel for this task,and no linux,yes im talking to you no linux".Well its not my fault that he doesnt like but does he realy have to take it out on me?

[garethfoxwilliams]

Sounds like he's well out of order there. Surely Mac OS and Linux should be allowed for use in an educational establishment?

Would an enquiry from your parents help?

[Naiki Muliaina]

Bite him.

Or tell them Clippy ate your homework.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

Well its like this, im the only linux user in my class and my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it and the people who use it and every time he gives us a task to do hes like:"you may only use MS WORD and MS Excel for this task,and no linux,yes im talking to you no linux".Well its not my fault that he doesnt like but does he realy have to take it out on me?
My advice:
Get used to it. You'll have teachers and bosses telling you what you can and can't do for the rest of your life. As far as your IT teacher is concerned, I'd be a little worried about his competence if he has that much of an appreciation for different OS's, but that's not your problem.

It's also fine for him to expect you to use MS Office products as they are the standard.

It sucks that he is taking it out on you personally though. Definitely talk to your parents or an advisor/administrator you trust, if you think it'll effect your grade or your sense of well-being.

[gintovan]

Hehe, reminds me of my teacher I had in Web-developer class.
He used Mac and hated anything else, windows and Linux, he hated them :D

But NO of course he shouldn't take it out on you like that. I was lucky to get permission to use what I wanted as long as I got the work done.
But sadly schools can, and will in most cases (just as jobs will) require you to learn/use specific software.

EDIT: but yes you should talk to the adviser or something as Ctrl-Alt-F1 says, if he really takes it personal out on you.

[ticopelp]

If you're just writing up simple office documents it shouldn't make a difference? :confused:

Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised... when I was in college many years ago, one of my professors said she'd flunk anyone using the Internet to do research.

[Jaecyn42]

This caught my eye in particular.


IT teacher had a bad experience with linux

Is this a Secondary-Tertiary level educator or is this at the University level?

If the former, I suppose you will have that; but you should be able to make a fairly well-reasoned argument directly to the Administration that using Open/Libre Office over MS Office is fine for the creation of rote text documents and spreadsheets.

If this is a university level professor, he sounds somewhat incompetent. What's more, I can only guess that the the Dean of the relevant school (School of Business Information Systems/Computer Science/???) would take issue with such an unnecessary restriction.

I'd advise taking a closer look at your school's policies, though; seems like that could potentially be an infringement of a broader student right, depending on if/how your school defines student rights.

[Spice Weasel]

When no other options are available, stick it to the man.

**** you, I won't do what you tell me!

[kaldor]

I remember refusing to use a WYSIWYG editor and MS Frontpage to make a website one year. The teacher said "code is too complicated" and "doesn't matter".

I responded by learning basic HTML and made a website entirely using gedit and learned a lot. It looked good too.

I lost 30% of my year's grade for that.


People in schools tend to not want you to do things your own way. Do it their way, get it over with, and once you're out of school you can do your own thing.

[Jaecyn42]

I remember refusing to use a WYSIWYG editor and MS Frontpage to make a website one year. The teacher said "code is too complicated" and "doesn't matter".

I responded by learning basic HTML and made a website entirely using gedit and learned a lot. It looked good too.

I lost 30% of my year's grade for that.


People in schools tend to not want you to do things your own way. Do it their way, get it over with, and once you're out of school you can do your own thing.

Wow, that is incredibly bad teaching.

That's like giving someone a D for doing a book report on an actual book instead of the cliff notes.

FWIW, my XHTML/CSS Professor this semester insists that everyone learn the code properly and advises us all to use plain-text editors over WYSIWIG.

[98cwitr]

Tell him it's a free country and open office can save in Microsoft's formats. Tell him he's also a giant tool and should yank his head out of his ***.

[Simian Man]

When you work for somebody, there are always going to be requirements you don't like. Grow up and get used to it.

Also if OpenOffice is so good, then you should be able to use it without his noticing. If it's not, then he has a valid concern in the first place. As for myself, I wouldn't trust it with my grade on the line!

[XubuRoxMySox]

If this is college, buck up and use what they tell you... but if this is high school or middle school, and you are expected to do this as homework, then the school should not require it unless they can supply you with a Windows computer and/or MS Office suite. You cannot be expected to spend hundreds of dollars (for the OS, the office software, and all the bloatware required to keep Windows from getting hacked/infected/screwed up) to satisfy a teacher's preference for one particular application when there are free alternatives!

-Robin

[JOHNNYG713]

Sounds like its time to Teach the Teacher! If he himself has no place in his head to learn, Than he should stop teaching! Learning is a life time experience! And one should always keep an open mind! sounds like he has closed his ! But at this point he is in charge ! Ask him If it would be OK to take his lead, and drop out ! Because you are having a bad experience!! :(

[davidvandoren]

my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it

He should not be your IT teacher. He should be the window cleaner.

[Bapun007]

Hehe. . .
I am lucky , my IT teacher is using linux .

[undecim]

1: Do work in Open Office

2: Save in MS Office formats

3: Reveal at the end of the year, after he can't change your grade anymore, that you did all the work on Ubuntu. Explain that Linux has come a long way in recent years, and Ubuntu works just as well as Windows.

4: Pray that you don't have that teacher for any future classes.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

When you work for somebody, there are always going to be requirements you don't like. Grow up and get used to it.

Also if OpenOffice is so good, then you should be able to use it without his noticing. If it's not, then he has a valid concern in the first place. As for myself, I wouldn't trust it with my grade on the line!

Yeah. I never use OpenOffice for school projects. I just prefer MS Office, and know that it's what is expected. However, I did use the Gimp in my photoshop class. :D

[mainerror]

It's also fine for him to expect you to use MS Office products as they are the standard.

This is exactly the problem why it remains the standard. Way way too many people think exactly that way and won't consider another option. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying MS Office is not good for its purpose but it should not be considered of being the sole option.


FWIW, my XHTML/CSS Professor this semester insists that everyone learn the code properly and advises us all to use plain-text editors over WYSIWIG.

In this case I can't spot anything wrong with it since you will definitely learn more by doing it by hand.


If this is college, buck up and use what they tell you... but if this is high school or middle school, and you are expected to do this as homework, then the school should not require it unless they can supply you with a Windows computer and/or MS Office suite. You cannot be expected to spend hundreds of dollars (for the OS, the office software, and all the bloatware required to keep Windows from getting hacked/infected/screwed up) to satisfy a teacher's preference for one particular application when there are free alternatives!

-Robin

Absolutely true!

@OP: I'd try to talk to him after class and nicely ask him to refrain from such comments and as him to explain you why he does not want you to use OpenOffice.

If this attempt fails then you can try to get in touch with the administration. Tell them what your situation is and that you don't think that it is fair to be treated like this as this is a case of discrimination.

[Zoot7]

His/her class, his/her rules. It's as simple (or as complicated) as that, like it or lump it.

[Ctrl-Alt-F1]

This is exactly the problem why it remains the standard. Way way too many people think exactly that way and won't consider another option. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying MS Office is not good for its purpose but it should not be considered of being the sole option.
What makes you think I haven't considered another option? I have and do use OpenOffice frequently. I use Calc more than anything because it's the only program that I really like. Writer is woefully inadequate for my needs.

Whether you or I use it or think other people should use it doesn't change the fact that it's useful for people in the corporate/IT world to be familiar with MS Office.

[mainerror]

What makes you think I haven't considered another option? I have and do use OpenOffice frequently. I use Calc more than anything because it's the only program that I really like. Writer is woefully inadequate for my needs.

Whether you or I use it or think other people should use it doesn't change the fact that it's useful for people in the corporate/IT world to be familiar with MS Office.

You must have gotten me wrong. I haven't said that you don't use anything else or that you haven't considered any other options. I was not talking about you in particular but about then statement itself.

I meant that the statement "it's the standard" is the root problem with the monopoly they hold.

And I totally agree with you that corporate/IT people should be familiar with MS Office as well but I think they should be familiar with other options too.

[Yes]

What are you supposed to be learning in the class? I'd assume he wants you using MS Office because that's what a lot of companies and bosses will require you to use, and he wants you to be prepared to use it.

[julio_cortez]

I've been using OpenOffice and Firefox for years (on Windows XP), then I got to this workplace and I have been given a PC with Windows XP, IE6 and Office 2003.

I knndly asked to install Firefox and I've been asked not to, same for IE7 (IE8 wasn't out yet). Same for OpenOffice. I've been told that "it's our domain policy to have all the PCs with the same software to make manteinance easier" and I could agree, but I explained them I needed Firefox and IE7 because they were what customers used the most (testing something on a browser then sending it out to customers with a completely different one is *not* a good idea).
Now I have Firefox and IE7 (already pushing for IE8), plus Safari and Chrome. Had to withdraw my request for OpenOffice though :P

I think that if the teacher know what he/she's teaching, kindly asking to use OpenOffice over Office shouldn't be a problem, provided that you explain him/her why you made this choice.
Why should he/she force you either to spend thousand of dollars in licenses or to become a criminal by pirating software?

[Spr0k3t]

Well its like this, im the only linux user in my class and my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it and the people who use it and every time he gives us a task to do hes like:"you may only use MS WORD and MS Excel for this task,and no linux,yes im talking to you no linux".Well its not my fault that he doesnt like but does he realy have to take it out on me?

Do the project twice. Save the finished product in something like OOo (or LibreOffice) as ".doc" and ".xls" files... then turn around and do the same work in those other programs. Turn in both and ask him to tell you what the differences are.

Now, if the class is a class on MS Office, then I have to side with the teacher... he's teaching you the course curriculum.

Some food for thought. When I was in college going through the standard office practicum, I fought tooth and nail with my professor who was against anything that wasn't Microsoft. I did exactly as I suggested above by turning in the work twice and marking the differences between the two. Later I was asked to teach an hour on the subject of alternate operating systems and their office productivity software.

[samalex]

Though I don't agree with the instructor's stance, I agree with other posters that you'll have instructors with a superiority complex who try and enforce their tech ideologies on the masses. And given he's the instructor there's not much you can do other then use the formats he asks for in class, in this case MS Word and Excel.

My suggestion though would be to use Open Office and save the documents in Word and Excel format, then verify they open fine on Word and Excel on Windows and give him that. There's no reason he should throw your work out if it's in the format he demands, regardless of how you created it. If he does then there's room for you to argue the point since you've met his requirements of MS Word and MS Excel.

It's almost like if he has a beef with Ford he can't tell students they can't drive a Ford to school... the end result is what's important not how you achieve it.

Sam

[DoubleClicker]

Well its like this, im the only linux user in my class and my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it and the people who use it and every time he gives us a task to do hes like:"you may only use MS WORD and MS Excel for this task,and no linux,yes im talking to you no linux".Well its not my fault that he doesnt like but does he realy have to take it out on me?

If he wants you to use MS Office than tell him to buy you a copy. He has a right to require you to use MS programs in his class, but he has no right to expect you to spend your own money, to satisfy his prejudicial requirements.

[dondiego2]

Haven't heard back from the original poster yet. Curious to here the outcome.

[Simian Man]

Haven't heard back from the original poster yet. Curious to here the outcome.

He only posted this four years ago.

[kevin11951]

He only posted this four years ago.

Years?

Do you have a time dilation device we don't know about? ;) If so, could I borrow it?

[chriswyatt]

All my IT teacher's have always sucked. One of my teachers used to say "log into Word". I never found that Microsoft Word login screen.

[Simian Man]

Years?

Do you have a time dilation device we don't know about? ;) If so, could I borrow it?

Ha ha, I meant hours :).

[98cwitr]

all my IT teachers were awesome. I remember in my Software Security class giving a presentation using Fedora (w/ ophcrack and some hefty raindow tables) on a USB drive to crack Windows SAM databases and demonstrating (and explaining) how to do it and what was actually happening. My class was clueless, the teacher applauded (literally), and I had to had to have a "sit down" with the systems admin of the college, promising I would never do it again :p

[Spice Weasel]

You stepped into a Security class without a pentesting live USB? :)

[BrokenKingpin]

I had a C++ professor in college that would only allow us to use Linux, it was awesome. I also had a professor who only would allow us to use Windows, so it went both ways. In the end I leaned both environments quite well.

In the IT word you will get bosses and professors that will have a strong preference, and you just have to live with it.

[Megaptera]

Well its like this, im the only linux user in my class and my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it and the people who use it and every time he gives us a task to do hes like:"you may only use MS WORD and MS Excel for this task,and no linux,yes im talking to you no linux".Well its not my fault that he doesnt like but does he realy have to take it out on me?

Sounds like bullying to me! No place for that these days, not from professional teachers.

[newbie2]

Schools have a social mission: to teach students to be citizens of a strong, capable, independent, cooperating and free society. They should promote the use of free software just as they promote recycling. If schools teach students free software, then the students will tend to use free software after they graduate. This will help society as a whole escape from being dominated (and gouged) by megacorporations.

What schools should refuse to do is teach dependence. Those corporations offer free samples to schools for the same reason tobacco companies distribute free cigarettes to minors: to get children addicted (1). They will not give discounts to these students once they've grown up and graduated.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html


1. Poisoning education: Today, most children whose education involves computers are being taught to use one company's product: Microsoft's. Microsoft spends large sums on lobbyists and marketing to corrupt educational departments. An education using the power of computers should be a means to freedom and empowerment, not an avenue for one corporation to instill its monopoly.
http://en.windows7sins.org/
:rolleyes:

[lisati]

Being able to gracefully deal with situations when expectations put out by the teacher/boss/admin/whoever collide with what you'd like to be doing is something that doesn't always come easy. Good luck.

[Roasted]

My advice:
Get used to it. You'll have teachers and bosses telling you what you can and can't do for the rest of your life. As far as your IT teacher is concerned, I'd be a little worried about his competence if he has that much of an appreciation for different OS's, but that's not your problem.


While this may be true, I would absolutely not back down. If OpenOffice can do the job at hand, there is ZERO reason to "have" to use MS Office.

I had a similar situation at work. We had this program that was just... awesome. It was going to bail us out big time for imaging all of our new Windows systems. We were short staffed and had a severe deadline. I had an answer. The answer was to run Ubuntu. Why? Because this program is Linux based.

=IF (i, computer technician) run *Ubuntu* = win (solution to problem)

Without it, we had no alternatives. I used it. With the help of others in the department, we made it happen. We got the job done. And now OSS/Linux has a bit more respect in this department.

I *understand* if you need to get a book report in via doc format and your teacher says use Word. I got that. I hear ya. Loud and clear. But if there is no other reason why you can't use OpenOffice, I would absolutely use OpenOffice. If there's a feature you need for the project only supported by MS Office, then use MS Office. Otherwise - why? People making decisions like that based on spite with no other educated answers rages me, and I would do everything in my power to continue using what I liked, as long as it got the job done.

[TBABill]

Maybe the teacher knows deep down inside that if you use Linux you'll just finish WAY ahead of everyone else because they are waiting on Windows to load and act :)

[newbie2]

If there's a feature you need for the project only supported by MS Office, then use MS Office. Otherwise - why? People making decisions like that based on spite with no other educated answers rages me, and I would do everything in my power to continue using what I liked, as long as it got the job done.


Still not convinced? Consider this: The Bangkok Post reported that file format incompatibility allegedly hindered government recovery efforts after the 2004 tsunami. Since then, the Thai government has made open file formats an immediate priority. But open standards have not been relegated to “developing” nations. In the U.S., for example, victims of Hurricane Katrina who requested aid on the FEMA Web site had to use Internet Explorer. Got Linux? Sorry, out of luck.
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/TechGovernment/News.asp?id=40593
:rolleyes:

[Danny Dubya]

Well its like this, im the only linux user in my class and my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it and the people who use it and every time he gives us a task to do hes like:"you may only use MS WORD and MS Excel for this task,and no linux,yes im talking to you no linux".Well its not my fault that he doesnt like but does he realy have to take it out on me?

The IT teacher has a right to ask you for homework that he is properly able to review and grade, if an incompatibility between MS Office and OpenOffice, for the specific task you were given, is the issue at heart here.

He does NOT, however, have a right to be rude to you and personally attack you. That deserves a trout-slap.

[KiwiNZ]

Well its like this, im the only linux user in my class and my IT teacher had a bad experience with linux and hates it and the people who use it and every time he gives us a task to do hes like:"you may only use MS WORD and MS Excel for this task,and no linux,yes im talking to you no linux".Well its not my fault that he doesnt like but does he realy have to take it out on me?

If you are submitting printed material it does not make sense. If however he /she is assigning work to be carried out in MS Word or Excel eg working with Macros or VBA or what ever and you need to submit the electronic material then it makes sense to specify that it must be done in the applications required.

[98cwitr]

You stepped into a Security class without a pentesting live USB? :)

nope, had it the whole semester...just finally decided to put it to "better" use...got an A though

[oldsoundguy]

This was touched on and is worth repeating/expanding.

Schools (even Universities) are governed in their curriculum by the market.

Training in something that is not salable to a prospective employer is doing a dis-service to the student.

As long as MS is still a majority system, teaching MS software will continue to be the norm. UNTIL there is advanced classes in other systems that are ELECTIVES, that will continue. And, budgetary restrictions will hold that down until there are sufficient students to justify the expenditure.
The only way the deans can become aware of the need is to ASK! (and be prepared for a no in most cases)

[lobralleo]

I feel like I am catching some sort of inconsistency here: the teacher says "You may only use MS Word/Excel, no Linux", however the two things are only partially correlated.
One could use MS Windows but another office suite (so neither Linux nor MS Office); on the other hand, one could install MS Office under Linux using Wine, so MS Office, but without using Windows. It looks to me that the teacher sees the difference between OS and productivity software in a sort of confused way. I understand that the association Windows+Office is straightforward, but one would not expect it from an IT teacher.

Assuming that you have a valid copy of MS Office, you could try and install it with Wine (Office 2007 works fairly well as far as I know) and use it for your assignments, just avoid telling the teacher that the OS running your machine is Linux (as others were suggesting, you could keep it for a "final showdown" at the end of the year ;) ).

As an added note, you might "challenge" your teacher in a friendly way to prove him that Linux is a valid and reliable OS: you say that he had a bad experience with Linux a while ago, perhaps back when even installing was a pain? You could show how easy is nowadays to install and use Ubuntu for everyday tasks (and more, of course!). I believe that it might provide a nice topic for discussion (after all, it is an IT class).

Let us know how it goes!

[roggenschrotbrot]

Too many people in this thread saying "Take it in the a** and grow up!". No wonder the world is in such a bad state. NO ONE is willing to challenge authority.

seconded. to be honest i never understood why an it class should teach a single program instead of the paradigm anyway.

[lisati]

It's a good idea to keep things respectful between you and "authority figures." An intelligent discussion where everyone involved can end up better off is infinitely better than an aggressive outburst that could get you kicked out of school (or worse).

[beew]

This caught my eye in particular.



Is this a Secondary-Tertiary level educator or is this at the University level?

If the former, I suppose you will have that; but you should be able to make a fairly well-reasoned argument directly to the Administration that using Open/Libre Office over MS Office is fine for the creation of rote text documents and spreadsheets.

If this is a university level professor, he sounds somewhat incompetent. What's more, I can only guess that the the Dean of the relevant school (School of Business Information Systems/Computer Science/???) would take issue with such an unnecessary restriction.

I'd advise taking a closer look at your school's policies, though; seems like that could potentially be an infringement of a broader student right, depending on if/how your school defines student rights.

I doubt that it is university level, probably highschool or some technical college.

I have taught a semester (math) in a fairly big technical college here and I can safely say that all my colleagues (save one) were incompetent. Just to prove the point I gave a list of homework problems to my students they took them to their other teachers and half of them couldn't solve them. so I got told that I was being too difficult, but believe me those were not hard questions and I practically told them the solution, they just had to fill in the gaps, but they do require some thinking and analysis instead of just plugging numbers into formulas which is typical for the "math courses" there)

At university they teach concepts and problem solving and it is not common for professors to limit the tools you can use to get the job done unless there is a special pedagogical point to it,--say it is a course on java so you have to solve the problem with java. But in colleges it is quite usual to have some poor excuses of teachers who can only teach out of the textbook,--and it has to be a particular one and a particular edition too. In where I taught there was actually a whole course on MS Office 2007, it is unbelievable.

[Dustin2128]

Bite him.

Or tell them Clippy ate your homework.
This.
I also liked the 'do one instance in OO and the other in MO, point out the differences' idea.
I can't stand people like that....

[MasterNetra]

heh, just do the documents and spread sheet in OO and save it as a .doc or .xls (or whatever excel format) if he reduces your grade simply because you used something else despite the file being completely compatbile with MS Office and opens and functions fine. Report his butt. If Admin doesn't do anything, take it up with your parents, if he keeps up with this crap and the school does nothing and parent's complaints don't do nothing, (and it is bad enough...) time to get a news group in on this. Shame the school and teacher like they deserve.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

If the OP knew of the teacher's experience with Linux, then there was some previous history to this event that we do not know about.

I find the following posts to be intuitive.


Being able to gracefully deal with situations when expectations put out by the teacher/boss/admin/whoever collide with what you'd like to be doing is something that doesn't always come easy. Good luck.


It's a good idea to keep things respectful between you and "authority figures." An intelligent discussion where everyone involved can end up better off is infinitely better than an aggressive outburst that could get you kicked out of school (or worse).

[earthpigg]

1: Do work in Open Office

2: Save in MS Office formats

3: Reveal at the end of the year, after he can't change your grade anymore, that you did all the work on Ubuntu. Explain that Linux has come a long way in recent years, and Ubuntu works just as well as Windows.

4: Pray that you don't have that teacher for any future classes.

this. but, try opening it on the school's computers using MS Office before you turn it in just to make sure.

i'm having a similar, but less extreme, experience this semester myself. it's an 'intercultural communication' class, full of words about tolerance and understanding. the notion that folks can consider ethical questions as relevant when it comes to computing is completely alien to him, and he isn't really interested in hearing about it.

[renkinjutsu]

When you work for somebody, there are always going to be requirements you don't like. Grow up and get used to it.

Also if OpenOffice is so good, then you should be able to use it without his noticing. If it's not, then he has a valid concern in the first place. As for myself, I wouldn't trust it with my grade on the line!

Technically, the teacher is working for the student. No?

[cra1g321]

Remember this, hes only a teacher.

hes there to teach you, not to FORCE you to use certain software. I only use MS office when i have to, for example when im in tech(no openoffice there). Im going to start using openoffice/libreoffice at home and get used it.

Maybe this teacher is an idiot, who deleted his windows partition while trying to install linux or something, then goes and blames it on linux.


:twisted:**Solution** :twisted:

You could use a portable version of OpenOffice using a usb pen drive. Then just save your work in the MS formats like the other guys said.
He said no linux, but that doesnt mean no FOSS :P
Heres a link to the software i use (you will need to set it up using a windows OS) - http://portableapps.com/

when im in tech im able to run google chrome/firefox, openoffice, vlc player from my usb pen drive.
Far faster and better than using the tech's old internet explorer and terrible office 2007

[Chame_Wizard]

Keep using the Penguin .:P

[overdrank]

On that note thread closed.