Transferable skills to improve your employment prospects, to widen your skills base and to allow you to access the vast range of free software / applications. If the title of this article attracted your attention, read on!
For many years, Clarborough and Welham IT Group has been providing ‘office’ applications experience using both Libre Office and Open Office suites that are like Microsoft’s Office365 but are free examples from the vast open-source world.
Libre Office is now the IT Group’s basic office suite which has components that are similar to Microsoft’s Word, Excel and Powerpoint and can both read and write files in these Microsoft file-types.
Greg, the leader of the Group, has a vast network of contacts in both the private and public sectors. Libre Office allows him to seamlessly communicate across these networks no matter what the organisation’s computer systems.
This leads to recognition that office suites are all very similar so moving from one to another is more a case of self-confidence than direct experience. The use of open-source applications (which means, among other things, free to users) is ideal for home users but also to businesses trying to free themselves from expensive licences from the likes of Microsoft.
This leads on to probably the most significant development in the IT Group’s plans: a move away from Microsoft Windows 10 to the open-source operating system (OS) called Ubuntu Linux.
Many readers with computers more than a few years old may well have tried to update them from Windows 10 to the latest Windows 11 systems only to receive a message telling them that this isn’t possible – get a new laptop or PC first!
The high cost of this led to the IT Group following Greg’s personal route of having one of his PCs converted to Ubuntu Linux. It now works alongside his Windows 11 PC and both carry out similar tasks as well as communicate with each other. The IT Group had all eight of its Windows 10 laptops converted locally to Ubuntu Linux with Libre Office among its selection of installed applications as well as Gimp, the open-source equivalent of Adobe Photoshop for editing pictures. The cost of this was tiny compared to buying new laptops.
There is a free, hands-on, introduction to Ubuntu Linux on these laptops which will take place in Clarborough Village Hall on Saturday 9th September at 10.00am to 11.30am.
Further on, five-week blocks of 90-minute classes will resume on Saturday afternoons (1.15pm to 2.45pm) from 14th October to 11th November at a fee of just £30.00 for the full five weeks. Further classes are planned from Spring 2024.
To find out more, or to book your place, contact Greg on 01777 700918 or email clarboroughwelham@gmail.com.