Open Source Software Poll

[KarlGoddard]

Just doing a quick vox pop on the use of OSS in schools.

 

How many of us actually utilise the full potential of OSS when compared with Freeware.

 

In other words how many of us actually modify / compile / redistribute OSS, as opposed to primarily using OSS because 'it's free'. Please be as honest as you can - don't just say you modify etc just because you think you *should be seen* to be modifying, redistributing etc

 

Thanks!

Edited January 25, 2009 by KarlGoddard

[kesomir]

I reguarly modify and use open source in school - I don't generally redistribute though. Your poll doesn't have that option so picked 1

[webman]

I've never had the need to modify any open source software we use, but I'm grateful for the freedom and ability to do this should the need arise.

 

But that doesn't mean we don't use the APIs or utilise modules that interact with the open source software we use. Thanks to these we've been able to give users single sign-on to email, and utilities to monitor remote screens in lesson and turn on/off email and internet at the click of a button (just a few examples). Without open source, these wouldn't have been possible, at least without additional cost overhead.

[kesomir]

I've never had the need to modify any open source software we use, but I'm grateful for the freedom and ability to do this should the need arise.

 

What about modifying some of the open source web apps? I would have thought you would be one of the bigger candidates for that webman.

[webman]

None that I can think of

 

I've created a module or two for Website Baker CMS; and things like room booking, intranet, login tracking have all been from scratch. I once tried to get LimeSurvey to export properly, but I just can't get it to work.

 

I'll soon be changing parts of Liberum to get custom report data out of it, but that's about all.

 

Which pieces of open source school software are people customising?

[kesomir]

most often I'd say it's small changes to fix slightly broken features or to to adapt something specific to one deployment.

 

eg,

 

LDAP code in various apps sometimes needs tweaking to work with AD,

fix domPDF A4 export,

Codeigniter modifications

moodle mods to help admin it etc.

vbulletin mods

etc.

 

There are the OS devs ofc like Paul (edusweep) that are customising their own releases all the time

 

I think modifications of this nature are much more widespread than changes to codebases such as ooo.