Please let this mean the next developer edition XPS is going to be amazing. The current generation is pretty good already but where is my high dpi screen? I hope they are aiming at Apple's turf and I wish them luck.
While I support ODF, your statement is not true. Google Docs/Drive supports
Now it is possible the OOXML implementation Microsoft uses could vary from the ISO standard. Microsoft could change it, obscure it, and add proprietary extensions to harm interchangeability with Google Docs and other competitors.
I hope it makes Android and iOS fully dependent on a desktop (windows only) computer and heavy weight BES server (windows only). I sure hope it changes the software so to do anything on the phone itself I have to memorize commands that aren't in any menu option.
I can't wait to have BBM. That will teach those bad employees who think they can choose their own xmpp client with Google Chat.
Sorry, disgruntled BES admin rant. Just shut it down a few months ago! Life is great!
This is the real benefit with Google Apps. When Google Apps is down...I don't have to do anything! Life is good.
On large scale a LMS is cheaper than printing tons of paper. Electronic white boards are a convenience to teachers they don't help students in any way. Electronic attendance means you don't need a secretary tallying everything up. But for the teacher it's not better, it's just different.
I can't think of any technology that actually helps students learn better, outside of directly learning about using computers. This isn't a bad thing as long as your IT costs are justified by savings and aren't harming student learning.
Last night AD went to year 2000. Linux clients joined to AD freaked out right away with scary security warnings. A reboot fixed them right away after AD time was set right. Or setting time manually.
Windows had authentication trouble so Shares, Printers, etc stop working for clients. For some reason I had to rebooting them many times fixed them, no idea why one wasn't enough. Had trouble reported all today even though it was only off for 2 hours last night.
Hard to believe Windows doesn't do sanity checking on this stuff.
Engrade is not open source. The OP asked specifically for open source. That said Engrade is a fine program and has a API that could easily integrate with a open source school information system, I speak from experience doing this myself.
It's a fair point that they keep a few things closed source - in particular the ability to host multiple schools in one instance. Their install requires basic knowledge of ruby and git which would rightly frighten some people off.
I still think it's a good contender and is for the most part open source. I would agree Moodle can do more, but I think Canvas can do what it does better and is vastly easier to use.
Are you looking for a school information system (SIS) to store all teacher grades and print reports? Or a gradebook for individual assignments?
I made a SIS in django https://github.com/burke-software/django-sis that would let you make spreadsheet templates (with the teachers students already in) for teachers to enter grades and then upload them to submit their grades. It has a very customizable report builder for report cards that lets you edit the template in Libreoffice and throw in some variables and other magic (for student in students: do this).
For a gradebook I'd suggest Canvas. Moodle is an option, but IMO their gradebook is not very good. Canvas can't do school wide report cards by itself but has a nice API for integrating it.
Friction is a drag.
