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An Informal Study Of K12 Classroom Software Costs
PGillingwater writes "Rob Lineweaver has written a concise summary of how much it would cost (and the savings that can be achieved) to set up the (almost) complete infrastructure in the Harrisonburg City Public Schools. He estimates that using commercial packages instead of open source would have cost the K12 schools an extra $27,000 in software license costs.
More interestingly, he states that this is not only about cost. He says: 'This makes it apparent that not all of the benefit of open source software deployment in is the form of cost savings; much of the benefit is in terms of capabilities gained. In other words, through the use of free software, I am able to do more within my budget than I could if I only had commercial solutions available.'"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Problem: need support for software used by 13 year olds cheaply.
Solution: use OS software.
Possible issue: where do you get support?
Whiners: You cant, cause its all 13 year olds who know more than me and say "RTFM".
This software will be used by the very same people you say know the software really well.
Nevermind that the stereotype isn't true: I've never seen ANYBODY say RTFM on any of the following mailing lists: FreeBSD-commits, FreeBSD-hackers, Mysql, omniORB, etc, etc, etc.
Its just funny that you'd denounce the support for the software by saying the only folks you can find to support it will be the very same students that use it! HOLY FUCK, PROBLEM SOLVED, FREE SUPPORT if your stereotype is indeed true. Which it isn't.
As usual, Fort, you gotta make sure your trolls are a little more self consistant.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Honestly, an article about an informal study of software costs for k though 12? Has slashdot sunk so low that this is the best they can come up with?
While I certainly don't believe that class should revolve entirely around a computer approach, I do believe that hands on experience with computers and software is valuable to today's student. Attending elementary school during the heyday of the Apple IIgs I remember looking foward to the days we were allowed into the computer labs. Programs such as "The Oregon Trail" were fun to play but also taught valuable lessons in managing resources and decision making. In high school the computer labs and IT courses were excellent in preparing us for a future of working with data and expressing our thoughts. There is no doubt that computers are a valuable learning tool to students, and that cost can sometimes prevent updates and new software.
Open source products may help reduce cost for development programs, but what about programs such as Lotus Notes, the MS Office Suite, and programs made to help prepare students for exams such as Kaplan's SAT software. Are school systems going to start teach students to use *nix and different GUI's such as KDE, Enlightenmen and Gnome? This hardly helps students adjust to a windows oriented world.
Most software companies produce software with the goal of making a profit, and creating open source software can make this difficult to do. Instead of focusing on trying to outfit with open source, they should take what open source they can use and try to make educational deals with distributors, much like microsoft has an educational discount. In such a case it benefits the distributor to give such discounts as it gets students to grow up using their software, so that when they move on to the adult world, its what they'll want to use.