[Scribus] Scribus Nominated As A Finalist For Linux Format Awards 2004

[Louis Desjardins]

? (At) 11h43 +0200 3/09/04, Sebastian R?der ?crivait (wrote) :
>  > All the same, today I was thinking that Scribus is a piece of software
>>  that universities and secondary schools should be made aware of -- there
>>  really isn't anything like it in the whole Mac/PC world, as far as
>>  "free" as in "FREE" software that has these kinds of capabilities to
>>  generate flyers, newsletters, and other high quality DTP work.
>>
>>  Greg
>
>Unfortunally the every day situation is far away from this good idea. The
>teacher of my secondary school who deals with the computer realeted things
>told me some weeks ago when I proposed some Linux software that even the SuSE
>Linux Server has been replaced by a Windows solution. Linux on the Clients
>seems to be impossible for the next decades. I would be glad, if they at
>least teach the students in OpenOffice (on Win) instead of Word, because I do
>not know one student with an valid licence for Word / MS Office ... But most
>of then prefer searching the web for some MS Software cracks than looking for
>free software alternatives.

Schools' management and teachers are certainly aware that cracking 
software is illegal. I aknowledge there is still a lot to do in that 
area to make sure everyone understands that pretty well. Getting a 
free copy of Quark or InDesign might be easy for some people, it is 
illegal.

So, really, schools face a real problem when it comes to software : 
licensing costs and poor financial resources. This is the kind of 
problem we had to address at my daughter's school - and the whole 
schoolboard, 50 schools total. Linux is beeing implemented slowly but 
surely as we made the point clear there was no future pursuing in the 
direction of MS servers and stuff with all the licencing fees, 
renewal for each and every "service" we wanted for the students. We 
are talking of several thousands of dollar here. [I could say lots 
more, not the main subject here!]

About Scribus, I would strongly recommend the setup of an entire DTP 
introduction & intermediate school program using that software. On 
top, it would be legal! And on top it's localized in so many 
languages - with virtually no limits!

If we were to put a comparative list of what Scribus does and what 
the other DTP programs do, we'd be all amazingly surprised to realize 
Scribus is of very high quality and anyone using it can achieve most 
of what can be done with others. This doesn't mean there is not lots 
of work to be done to bring Scribus to professionnal level - we are 
almost there aren't we. This does mean Scribus has all it takes to be 
used in schools, for teaching and light production purposes. At the 
end of the program, students would have had all the opportunities to 
learn thoroughly all the main techniques DTP demands. I really wonder 
if Scribus lacks even one of them. Really. [Maybe my enthusiasm makes 
my eyes blink too much!]  And at the end of the year, students that 
want to be hired in DTP or prepress shops would have no problem 
stepping into Quark or InDesign. (One of the silliest arguments for 
not switching to Linux and OpenOffice was that companies work with 
Word and students must be ready for that... - and guess how many of 
those well-thinking know how to use a stylesheet ... or even only 
type...)

Such a DTP school program could also asks the students to participate 
in the development of Scribus and now we're getting into the real 
stuff : that's what Linux is all about!

Good day to everyone!

Louis

>
>Same on the JugenMedienCamp 2004 (jouth media camp) where I lead a Layout
>workshop on SuSE 9.1 /KDE /Scribus 1.2cvs machines. My idea was that
>Linux /OpenSource is perfect for students, since they are quite familar with
>Computers, learn new things faster then there parents, are looking for cheap
>software to fullfill there tasks like writing docs, making DTP stuff and may
>be impressed by the comunitiy feeling of Linux.
>
>But most of then were not realy interessted, didn`t want to play around when
>things are sligthly different from Win and offered me to burn a CD of
>InDesign for me, so I can use some real "cool" Software for free.
>
>The walls are very high here, but maybe there are more possitive examples out
>there - my sister likes my Linux ;-)  
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