Starting the 2012-13 school year, student netbooks will have a new and improved software installed. The technology department collaboratively decided to change the software to help improve the netbooks. The latest software that the netbooks will have is open-source, Ubuntu 12.04 in addition to Libre Office instead of Open Office.

Many components were considered when finalizing the switch to the new software. What appealed the most important to the technology department was the practicality and impressive layout of the new program. Unlike the previously used software, the new one is open-source. This allows the technology team to change and mix around within the program to meet different needs.

Technology specialist, Tim Furman, said, ” we are simply impressed with the design and functionality.”

The new software is created by an educator in California, Jim Klein. Along with various others around the country, and world, the technology staff took part in the testing of this new software earlier in the year. The tech staff was able to contact and alert the creator about problems that came up with the performance of the software.

“Our tech leaders contacted Jim Klein with feedback about issues related to performance. That’s the collaborative nature of open-source, ” said Furman.

A key feature that is expected to help students, is the built-in restore capability. When students’ netbooks freeze or crash due to a program installation, they’ll be able to quickly restore their computer using a simple procedure. There is a training video being made by the technology team regarding the restoration procedure, which will be available to students in the upcoming weeks.

“We’re developing a training video,” said Furman.

One of the biggest differences about the new software is that previously used Open Office is now replaced with Libre Office. The new program corresponds with the software change.

Furman said, “We’re predicting improved performance with Libre Office.”

In the previous years that Open Office was used, students were often faced with technical difficulties. Transferring documents into Open Office did not work properly, negatively affecting documents for both teachers and students. Junior, Sahar Khalid, hopes that the new program, Libre Office, will work better than the previous.

“Hopefully it’ll make presentations better for teachers. Usually they get cut off, because they function as Microsoft Word,” said Khalid.

Sophomore, Briana Hester, is pleased with the decision to change the software.

“Open office never worked, so I just stopped using my netbook. It’s good they finally decided to do something about it,” said Hester.

Freshmen are already using the new software on their netbooks.Freshman, Alex Gillespie, is pleased with the performance.

” Everything works well, and Libre Office similar to Microsoft Word,” said Gillespie.