Introducing the MS Kowtow 2007
Last week, in my Introduction to Engineering and Design class, I had a lab. While I don't normally take issue with schoolwork that is easy enough that I already know how to do it, I take issue with this lab in particular because of what its objectives:
The objective of this lab is to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to perform specific exercises and learn which programs are best suited to particular tasks. Your goal, after having completed the assigned tasks, is to have a basic familiarity with these three software tools.
I wanted to post "don't feed the troll," but I am the troll, and lolcats are more awesome anyway.
Perhaps I'm preaching to the chorus with a domain like mine, but seriously, what the heck is with the continual kowtowing toward Microsoft? The excerpt from the lab manual is actually tame relative to the way the professors and TAs talked about Microsoft products. You'd think there was no other way to write a report or draw a graph or make a slideshow than use Office. Am I to fail the lab because I used OpenOffice.org instead of MS Office? Do I need to pay the hundreds of dollars necessary to install the latter on my computer just so I can pass a class in engineering and design? I would understand if it were a class in "The Workings of Office" or some such thing that depended on the program itself. I can write a paper just as well in Notepad as in Word, because it's the content that matters, not the bloody interface used.
And, the nonsense doesn't stop here. Maybe I walked into a class on over-engineering, because for the semester-long final project we have to -- no, must -- use Microsoft Project to track our progress and organize our group of 2-3 people, when we see each other around anyway. Honestly, plain e-mail feels like overkill for this, but Microsoft Project? A tool for tracking a hundreds-strong project, with complex dependencies and other requirements?
%@#&!
Plus, it's closed source, and we were assured there is nothing else we could use instead. So, naturally, I took the liberty to take their words with a bit of salt, and found Gantt Project, a free alternative. I really don't know why I can't just use this instead. I mean, let's compare screenshots. Gantt:
MS Project:
I think it's ironic that the first image that came up when I searched for "ms project 2007 screenshot" was one of MS Project showing a project imported from Gantt. Maybe the college only needs us to use MS Project to justify the heaps it must be spending on its Microsoft licenses. Which could be easily done away with if it used something, I don't know... free?
Maybe that's also why the compsci department gives out Visual C++ and has it as the "environment" even though it's evident the professors really don't have a special preference for it. What happened to cheaper, just as efficient and compatible stuff, like Eclipse? g++?
%@#& %$ @#&$% #$%^! @#$%^@ %$@#$ %! #@#!
So, I'm wondering... Is all this because of a contract? Because of plain ease of choice ("put a check next to all the Microsoft products!")? Or because people actually believe that Microsoft products are worth the cost, or that because they're all written by Big Brother they're automagically the best choice?
Office is actually only $60 for students to buy and install, not 'hundreds of dollars'.
=D
My compsci teacher won't let people use windows. We get an automatic downgrade if he can tell we coded in windows. Obviously some people still do and go and sanitize their code, etc, but its easier for us all to use linux/OSX.
Office is only one of the pieces of software as part of a $300 pack that NYU-Poly wants me to install. I'm not buying it.
And, Craig, nice.
I'm curious, what else Microsoft do they make you buy? Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Groove, Publisher, Access, InfoPath) is $60, and you can buy Windows 7 for $30. Not saying that Microsoft products should be the only ones taught in class, mind you.
I would think NYU has a site license for Microsoft products, hence why they standardize on them. Integration between the products is fairly nice in my opinion, and the interface is also quite polished. OO.o has a while to go, but that may just be me.
My personal belief is that as long as the assignments are completed and up to standard, who cares what programs we used to do it? I use microsoft office because I know how to use it. Others use Linnux because of the same reason. Let us use what we are comfortable with until we take a class on how to use the other products.
Actually, NYU is doing you a service by expand the potential companies which would hire you by 10-20x. Only a handful of companies really wants to hire someone who can't use MSWord and Powerpoint to communicate with their workmates.
"No, I won't use those," just means they can find someone else to do the job.
RK
If I have to use them, I will. I however don't intend to go work at a company which wants me to know "Microsoft Word" as a skill. I just think it's screwed up that they say "MS Word" and "word processing program" are interchangeable. I'm not going to "learn MS Word", I'm going to "learn word processing". That means that regardless of Microsoft's future I will be able to write files in a generic word processing program. Also, since usually programs of the same function use similar terminology and interfaces, that means that learning to use MS Project means I can use Gantt project to almost the same efficiency, and vice versa. They shouldn't make it (at least, sound) exclusive.
*smile* From sitting in the class with you, I can see where you're coming from. However, I think that you miss some of the point. Microsoft is EASY. Everyone and his brother and even his six year old knows how to use MS office and the like. it takes effort to port over, no matter how small, and to a lot of people that's daunting. They can't ask their nephew how it works if it's something different, they have to look at the impressive, but slightly daunting forums, or find some other method of help. it's irregular and it's not the status quo.
as for our professors forcing us to use it, I would say that they wouldn't care whether you used Gantt or MS Project. I would bet 10 to 1 they don't even realize that they sound like they're forcing us to use Project. They just haven't used anything different, because they were taught this, they know it, and 90% of us definitely have it. (I don't). they're engineers. not Computer science nerds.
Nice post, and I like the pictures.
Have you tried talking to your professors and telling them what you have told us?
They won't change their course because of a whiny open source smart-pants. Plus, I don't think it really matters what the professors think, and it's more of an administrative decision involving software licenses in packs, and other stuff. It would end up being my word against that of people trained to sell their product.
And if you will accuse me of cowardice, be that way.
Cleverly splicing your text with images to make it look like you had a long post. Very sneaky. I approve.
Also a good post