Schools blocking Notepad++ due to "free beer" reference on home page.
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As the title say, there are schools preventing Notepad++ usage due to the reference of “free beer” on the home page of the website. I know it’s foolish, but it’s unfortunately true. The high school in my town is not allowing it so I’m sure there are others. I don’t know who to talk to about the issue, so I just thought I would bring it up here. Thank you.
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What sort of solution are you after? The term ‘free beer’ is used extensively in the open source community so even if it was removed from the homepage the problem still exists for other FOSS websites and it is the school that needs to update its filter settings.
In the meantime you can access the notepad plus plus installer from other sites such as:
https://www.fosshub.com/Notepad-Plus-Plus.html
http://filehippo.com/download_notepad/
http://downloads.tomsguide.com/Notepad-,0301-833.html -
Honestly, you can’t fix stupid.
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Sigh. In an ideal world, filters would be able to distinguish between websites like Notepad++ that mention beer in an innocuous way, and other sites that mention beer, but for various reasons may be inappropriate for school children. Of course, in that ideal world, there might not even be a need for filters to make that decision.
However, in the real world, many school IT administrators have much higher priorities than to evaluate each web site to determine if it’s appropriate for the children who attend there. Stupid is relative - what seems stupid to one person with a particular skill set and and priorities may just be what needs to be done for another person in a particular situation. (Disclaimer: I don’t work in a school; this opinion just makes sense to me.)
I might suggest you bring it to the attention of the administration, and if you have experience with filtering software, perhaps offer to help fine-tune the software. Fortunately, Notepad++ provides a minimal version that students who want to use the tool may be able to bring on a flash drive from home or the library (subject to other potential pitfalls that may prevent them from running it). Otherwise I think it’s unfortunate the students are unable to access a great tool, but not one of the world’s greatest problems.
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@Markus-Kemp109, certainly it is stupid to have to have a beer with Notepad++ but people do what people do. Certainly it would make sense to simply remove the comment but people don’t always want to be logical.
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@SamuelCalifornia Personally I wouldn’t cater to such stupidity, and yes that is stupidity. People who think childrens’ minds are so fragile they’ll just come apart at the mention of the word beer shouldn’t even be allowed in teaching. I cannot stand the sort of people who will try at great lengths to shield kids from the realities of life and pretend we live in a Disney cartoon. What, people drink beer?? Women have breasts?? Oh no, the humanity!!
