<p dir="ltr">I graduated in 2008 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering using nothing but Open Source software. At the time it was still Open Office, but I used it flawlessly (Writer... Calc... Impress...) And I used SciLab instead of Matlab (although there was a Linux version of Matlab, not to mention Mathematica, Maple, Pro-E... etc.) The only thing Linux didn't have was a good alternative for Minitab.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But I digress... Calc can do almost everything Excel can... Almost. And for the purpose of college it most certainly can.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Hell, you should see some of the garbage graphs that Minitab produces and they are the industry standard in the real world.<br>
-- <br>
Šraig Žau</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Nov 6, 2013 3:23 PM, "Pete Wright" <<a href="mailto:pnwright@gmail.com">pnwright@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>I know what the answer to that question should be, but I am old enough to know how ignorant I am (plenty), so this is a legitimate serious question, not troll-bait.<br>
<br></div>My 16-year-old high school junior is in a State of Washington program (Running Start) that lets students start college early, which she is doing, carrying a full load of college courses plus a couple of high school classes.<br>
<br></div>She is bright and reasonably computer literate, but she has been writing for years and when the rest of the computer environment doesn't let her work as fast as a word processor does, she gets frustrated. She also has some health issues, so just letting her sink or swim on her own is not the best option; hence my effort to help her.<br>
<br></div>The most recent bump she has hit is a biology assignment to make graphs out of data; the examples (samples) are provided as txt files and the instructions are to use Excel. Our first attempts to do the job with Libre calc and/or base failed. Her instructor, via email, just says "use the computers at school if you don't have Excel."<br>
<br></div>We don't own MS Office and because of her health and living more than am hour away from campus, using the school's computers are not often a good option.<br><br></div>So, should she be able to do in LIbre what she would be able to do in MS Office? (I am assuming the college does not make much use of the fanciest bells and whistles that probably differentiate the two suites.)<br>
<br></div>I can and do teach kids and adults how to use Gimp and Libre Writer instead of their high-priced counterparts, but when it comes to spreadsheets and such I barely know a range from an operator, so your responses can be basic to the point of primitive without danger of insulting me.<br>
<br></div>I am interested in broad general answers to the broad question in the subject line, but would like to hear finer-grained answers about the graph-generation issue, as well.<br><br></div>I tried a few years back to organize a local organization to persuade our schools to use Open Source software instead of proprietary stuff, but the teachers were all either Apple-only or totally computer illiterate. When the others gave up, I did too, and the effort fizzled. But I remain dedicated to using and proselytizing Open Source; just not very good at it.<br>
<br></div>Helplessly yours, Pete<br><div><br><br> <div><div><div><br><br><div><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br>--<br>
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