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.

Comments

Some other interesting "F/OSS in schools" articles

[codergeek42]

http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/schools.html

The switch isn't that bad

[Nf1nk]

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.

Re:My school uses Linux too!

[Lifewish]

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.