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How Schools Can Get Free Software
RicJD writes "The BBC is reporting on a school in England which has found a way to save money through Open Source Software. It goes on to explain the idea behind OSS, and briefly how they've incorporated it into the school system. Could this be the way to show the UK government that savings can be had through OSS?" Likely an adoption spurred by the education report we reported on earlier this year.
http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html
This is the third time I have tried to switch to linux, The first two times went badly and I gave up
(if you care Redhat in 2001, and Suse in 2003).
I have tried Ubuntu and the installation went smooth, the applications work easy, and haven't even seen the comand line once.
Everything works, that wasn't true before, The installation was easier than the last windows install I did, and for a school enviroment being somewhat incompatable with most games (and Viruses) seems like a huge plus.
I think It's ready and everything works just the way I am used to, (except that the status bar is at the top wierd how much that bugs me).
The kids shouldn't have any problems doing what they are supposed to with the computers.
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
This only reinforces the indestinction most have of "free" and "Free". Recently Forbes was lambasted for blurring the lines between the philosophy an fiscal realities of F/OSS. Free does not mean no cost. Ideas not money.
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
Why? Because with F/OSS the students will be able to afford the same software that's being used in school. How many elementary students can afford SQLServer? Or Visual Studio? Or even Microsoft Office, to use your example.
Remember in the long run it is the administrative costs that will outweigh the hardware/software costs. And for that, Windows has a much lower administrative cost.
Actually, the BBC article specifically states that the school IT administrators now have enough time on their hands that they can help out in local primary schools as well (if I'm reading the article correctly). It's hard to see how that tallies with the higher administrative cost you mention.
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
If you look at http://cutterproject.co.uk/Casestudies/orwell_cost _benefit.php
it shows exactly how a single high school saves 40,000 pounds a year (approximately), or $70,000. It's not rocket science; the biggest saving is in staff costs by not needing more technician support.
Interestingly, licence fees are only a moderate part of it.
I could be alone here, but having been a sysadmin for a small college using all Macs, I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to support as many Windows computers as you probably have in your school. I'd have nightmares just thinking about it. I think a lot more knowledgable people would be much more interested in running a school that operates in a Linux environment. Overall, it's just easier to keep the machines all up and running.
As for the tools being different in the Windows world and the Linux world, I can't really see all that many differences. Learning OpenOffice would be just fine imho. When you learn things like word processors or spreadsheets, you're mostly learning about how to organize information. Sure, there's always the part about teaching where everything is in the program, all the menus etc. If it's taught well, though, someone who learned on OpenOffice should be able to work with MS Office without much trouble. As for Access, I'm not sure what options there are for teaching that software. If I heard right, Base (the Access replacement in OO.o) is supposed to be a decent competitor. Maybe it would suffice. Again, they should be learning more about how the data is organized rather than absolute specifics.
At http://www.lofar.org/, he will have to write a ton of software to work the radiotelescope. No-one will do it for him.
But he'll give it away free, libre, gratis. If there's a bug, he wants to know. If someone else wants to make a bigger radiotelescope, he'll want to use it.
Going to court on the back of copyright or patent law to stop someone using it will be the last thing on his mind. Or his employer's.