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Yes, congratulations. However, they are building on years of effort by the Kindergarten to 12th grade Linux project, and other such projects. The K12Linux Project was originally started for the Multnomah County Education Service District, using hardware donated by Intel. (Intel does some of its processor design in a big facility which is also in Portland, Oregon, USA.)

Perhaps 8 years ago, one of the founders of the K12Linux project told me that the total cost of maintenance of Linux was less than half that of Windows. (He gave a figure much less than half, but I don't remember the actual figure.)

My experience with Windows is that it is sloppily coded, and lots of things cause Windows to need maintenance. For example, the CPU hogging bug in Firefox, which seems to be worse in Firefox version 2.0.0.4, sometimes causes Windows XP Professional SP2 to become unstable and require re-starting the computer. When Firefox hogs the CPU under Linux, it is only necessary to kill Firefox. Linux remains stable.

If Microsoft paid schools $100 per copy to take Windows, the cost of Windows would still be far higher than K12Linux.

The K12Linux Project home page gives links to other Linux-in-schools projects, also.

A side benefit of Linux is that it is much more secure, partly because of its design, and partly because students are less likely to know how to tinker with it, I was told.

It is far easier to maintain a terminal server with numerous simple terminals, than separate stand-alone computers, too, and Linux is fast enough to be used that way.

I feel a little uncomfortable with what I said above, because I am vastly understating the savings of using Linux rather than Windows. Microsoft can't even make "Microsoft Genuine Advantage" work correctly; that is a GENUINE disadvantage of Windows. (I am using the word "genuine" in its honest sense, not in its abusive public relations spin sense.)

Another problem with a Windows system is hiring people who are willing to work with products from a company such as Microsoft that is so abusive. It's tiring to work with abusiveness.

Again, I still feel uncomfortable because I am understating the case. My company has had considerable trouble with error messages from Windows Update, for example. We've had about 8 different kinds of problems, some of which have required hours to solve. Judging from the many, many complaints on the newsgroup, there seem to be many other kinds of Windows Update problems we haven't had.

People who work in IT sometimes like Microsoft because the sloppy Microsoft products give them more work.

OpenOffice.org is probably the easiest one to implement, and it has the benefit of even returning money to the district in the form of lack of licensing fees.

K-12 Linux is harder to implement, but can save a district a *LOT* of money, because it makes hardware last a few years longer, and cuts out licensing costs. (And if you have a dedicated volunteer publicize an "install day" to the local Linux User Groups, you can get lots of install labor for free. Hell, it'll even have the side benefit, if you write Microsoft telling them of your impending switch, of having Microsoft donate software to you for the few computers that you want or have to keep on Windows.

(Disclaimer, K-12 Linux was created and is actively developed in the high school I attended, so I may be a bit biased; although I graduated way before the project started.)

The main problem is that it's not covered by the mainstream media. After all, what's more interesting to a publisher, an article covering something related to a major advertising account holder, or a topic that competes with or irritates said account holder? Cities and countries that go back to OSS tend to fall off the radar of the mainstream publishers. When was the last time you read about OSS usage in Korea (aside from Old People jokes) or Spain?

If you want a high profile case, then you can look at what's been going on in Oregon, and especially at Riverdale Highschool. Or you can check out these sites:

• K12 Linux
• LTSP
• Schoolforge
• Skolelinux

They are in middle school special education classrooms in my city, somewhere in the US. I know. I put the machines there and supported them for ~1.5 years (although there wasn't much support to be done... damn things don't break).

http://www.seul.org/
http://www.k12linux.org/

K12Linux

Have you looked at the K-12 Linux Project yet? Seems like that would be a good place to start.

Using expensive traditional PCs in classrooms just does not work. Using LTSP based thin-clients does. K12LTSP.org is the answer to the cost issues raised in this article.

Wikibooks.org is a new project that could save millions. Can you say open source textbooks? ;-)

Finally, there are valid points on how PCs are used in the classroom. After 22 years of teaching, here's what I think about it.

• Linux Terminal Server Project,
  
• Open Source Schools magazine, and
  
• Open Source Classroom
  
• Simple End User Linux
  
• SchoolForge
  

Is Linux a legitimate solution to school districts facing a financial crunch?

Absolutely. The k-12 linux project is the option I'm beating my principal's head against now.

Being in an inner city SoCal district, we can't afford new hardware and we honestly can't afford the licensing for the MS software we currently run. Converting our lab to linux might well be the /only/ legitimate solution to our current budget crunch given that the other proposed option is to close the lab.

Fortunately I work for an administrator who can see the benefits, so maybe, just maybe my students will continue to have the chance for a competitive education even given our lack of resources for technology.

• SchoolForge.net - "A complete Listing of Open Source groups working with schools."
  
• Open Source Schools -
  for the on-line Journal of Open Source Software in schools
  
• SEUL/edu - "the discussion group for those interested in using Linux for education. This covers all aspects of educational uses of Linux, by teachers, parents, and students."
  
• K12OS.org - "Discussion forums for help, news and information related to Linux in schools"
  
• Multnomah ESD - "has successfully moved most of its core network services to Linux." The folks who built the original K12 Linx, AFAIK.
  

There are all sorts of reasons to use Linux in schools. One being the Thin client model found at K 12 Linux.

• K12 Linux
• Linux For Kids
• Debian Jr

Your first stop should be Here

Your second stop should be here

Your third stop should be here

Your forth stop should be here

Your fifth stop should be here

Open Office would be my choice for an office suite (that or Star Office)

KDevelop is a decent enough development suite for use in a school, but with
this age group I would use this
project

For a good teaching language This
is a good place to start.

Hope this helps!

The Linux Terminal Server Project would be a cheap base for your plan - one central high-spec server, with a load of low-spec workstations displaying the served (remote X) terminals.

This is exactly what I wanted to suggest. It's the best solution, especially in terms of maintainance work and fault-tolerance. Make sure to see this clip (RealPlayer unfortunately) to see how adding new computers to your lab would look like if you choose the LTSP way. Take a look at this links:

• LTSP -- Linux Terminal Server Project
• K12LTSP -- Linux Terminal Server Project in Schools
• K12OS -- Open Source in Schools
• K12Linux -- Linux in Schools Project
• GNU and Education
• SEUL/edu -- Simple End User Linux/Education
• KDE Education Project
• Debian Jr. Project

Good luck!

At this point it can be argued that desktop-user=friendliness is more an issue of the distribution than the OS. Several user-friendly desktops have been developed. In at least one case, tests showed the system was easier to use for newbies than Windows.

The Multnomah Education Service District et al (including my old grade school)have been working on "K12Linux", a distribution designed (if I understand correctly) to be easy to install and use for non-techies in the K12 education environment. I read somewhere (can't find the specific article now) that in their tests students learned how to use the system in about a week, substantially sooner than with Windows.

If I read correctly, they are using a timesharing model with K12LTSP and using IceWM for its low server load, and OpenOffice.org for composing etc.

They may also be saving a lot of moolah, as MS wants them to pay licensing fees for all their computers, whether they have Windows on them or not. Read about this here.

Here is a quote from that page: " To give you an idea of the scale of the problem facing a large district like [Portland Public Schools], they have 25,000 PCs. A MS school agreement lease of software could cost the district over $1,000,000 a year. Just buying a virus package would cost $250,000 a year."

The new Riverdale High School is running entirely on Linux. Here is a draft case study for those interested. They run 35 diskless workstations assembled by parents and staff at a school computer work party!

• Linux Terminal Server Project
  
• SEUL for Education
  
• The Open Source Schools Portal
  
• Schoolforge
  
• The K12Linux in Schools Project
  
• The KDE Edutainment Project

Sorry, but k12linux.org, the web site itself, is not simple by any stretch of the imagination.
If your average English teacher looked at this, she would be scared out of her wits.

Try k12linux.org. There is a shite load of projects to bring Linux into the schools there.

Retail stores need an equivalent of K12 Linux for POS systems. If it is easy enough businesses will adopt it. Using something "like" LinuxPOS this could be done. In fact I am sure there has to be something like this already out there. There are all-in-one systems, like Beetle POS, but this is not open source.

K12linux.org is a great site for info and their Red Hat Distro. I have meet Eric and Paul a few times, really great people. They have developed quite a following because they are making implimenting a thin client setup really easy.

K12ltsp is based on www.ltsp.org which is in version 3.0 right now. I use this software to set up computer labs in non-profits in and around Portland. We are a NP ourselves) It is gaining maturity, system administration is barely more work than working on a box running programs locally. You need to have DHCP running on the server, TFTP setup, and allow it to serve applications to remote X-Clients, and that is about it.

Here are some links for further reading on what others have done.
umn
olinux
solucorp
askslashdot
gbdirect
tucows
XDM

This movement is gaining ground. Here's a ton of sites:

Start with Why Use Open Source Software In Schools to answer your (and your superior's!) questions. Note that Microsoft is trying to keep a stranglehold on this and their salesmen are playing dirty; but we as free software activists have one thing they can not have: integrity. Teach the truth about Open Source, explain that this is the true American way, show how we need to use it in education to teach kids the right way to do things (and to share with neighbors) to make a productive world, and we'll go at it. Academia can't afford to lose itself in proprietary software; as this site explains, with free software we've got a chance for a blossoming in academia.

The K12 Linux in Schools Project

A good example is St. John's School in the UK (attention, USA education boards!)

Open Source and Education tells you how to do it, what you need to know.

Linux in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Minds, Social Justice is an important article in Linux Journal about this.

K12 Linux Terminal Server Project for Schools is just one of the things you can do.

K-12 Linux, another good site about this.

A good technical primer on Linux in Education

If you use free software in schools you will also need free documentation and training materials. Here is a list of the best of it.

(Pls mod this up guys, I'm posting anon...)

The K12-Linux project, by PLUG (Portland Linux Users' Group) hosted at: http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/linux/.

k12linux.org proper.

There's the k12-linux mailing list here.

I want a rock.