UK Schools Told to Dump Microsoft

kubla2000 writes "The current issue of the Times Educational Supplement is running an article in which they cite a report by the British Educational Communications and Technology Association telling primary and secondary schools in the UK to dump Microsoft Operating systems and products in order to save millions. In a report to be published next week, obtained by The TES, Becta will highlight schools which have turned to free software instead of the market leader's products. Becta does not name Microsoft in its analysis. But almost all schools use some of the company's products. Their conclusion? Schools running OSS are saving 24% on average per pc versus those running proprietary systems."

Comments

Re:Discount

[Anonymous Coward]

"They're are?" Man, I need to lay off the coffee.

Re:Chicken or the Egg?

[Anonymous Coward]

>what will they do when their prospective employer asks

I'd go for "Are you fucking kidding?"

Re:Does it all come down to money

[sunspot42]

What happens when microsoft do make the best tool for the job?

Hell freezes over.

Re:Into the minds of the young

[Anonymous Coward]

Lately I was absolutely amazed how much my 14 year old cousin associates 'Windows' with 'Computer' and vice versa. He had absolutely no idea ..

Here I was about to offer to do some volunteer work for once in my life, and you ruined it!

Re:Does it all come down to money

[Anonymous Coward]

"Just saying to dump them because of cost to save 24% sounds appealing at a first glance, but then replacing teachers with babysitters at half the wages would save 50%."

They already did that. Now they're simply replacing the babysitters with ones that save additional 24%.

This is a joke, of course.

That's a shame

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that Windows is going to have a brand new Red Screen of Death, and they're gonna drop it? That's a pitty...

Re:Discount

[Tx]

I don't know about that, there's ovbiously a lack of OSS spelling tools. The word you're looking for is "syllabus".

Re:Great opportunity for OSS

[21st Century Peon]

What do you think schoolkids do on the computers? Everything I ever did in a school IT lesson I could have done in an out of the box linux distro at the time, even more so now.

They look at online pr0n, IM each other incessantly, and race each other to "First post" as Anonymous Coward on Slashdot.

Re:Or they buy it.. :(

[Taladar]

If you use visio you probably use the wrong tool (visio) to create the wrong tool (diagrams) for the job.

Re:a step in the right direction

[Frankie70]

the SuSE machines are definately the most popular amongst the kids (aged 10-11); partially due to the selection of games that came with the distro



Yes, right, that's good selling point for Linux - more games are available on Linux than windows.

Re:Does it all come down to money

[kswtch]

Do kids these days even know multiplication tables without reaching for their cell phone's calculator app?

multiplication tables?

Re:Discount

[tehshen]

And the word you were looking for is "obviously". Get ispell or something.

Re:But should we be dump it?

[rohan972]

When my child leaves school I want her to be able to get a job. When my child leaves school, I want her to be able to own a business. She uses linux now. Please have your child submit her resume in open document format.

Re:Does it all come down to money

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, and what's up with books? Back in my day, we used to chant the oral traditions until we knew them all by memory. Do kids these days even know the first five books of the Bible without reaching for their paper copies?

Re:Great opportunity for OSS

[carlos_benj]

Acorn or Linux would just make them unemployable...

Now there's a new twist. It used to be the things you didn't know or couldn't do that made you unemployable.

HR: "Well, everything looks to be in order. You have all the skill sets we're looking for."

Applicant: "Oh, yes. And I am also quite proficient with several Linux distributions."

HR: "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. That negates everything else you know. I doubt you could qualify for a job flipping hamburgers now that you know those things."