Slashdot Mirror
OSS Use Increasing in UK Education Institutions
zrq writes "OSS Watch has recently concluded its
2006 survey of UK Higher Education and Further Education institutions. From the report conclusion: A positive picture of the use of OSS (Open Source Software) emerges in both HEs (Higher Education institutions) and FEs (Further Education institutions). Although there are considerable differences between the two types of institutions, in general OSS is used more often than in 2003 and institutions have higher levels of skills and experience of OSS compared to 2003. This survey shows that it is likely that, in the future, use of OSS will continue and expand alongside the use of PS (Proprietary Software)."
Why use the acronyms if you're just going to waste further space by defining them? Either use the acronyms, or don't.
Or, for a change, define them correctly, putting the redundant acronym (RA) after the definition so we can read the summary without those ridiculous stumbling blocks.
I teach physics at a community college in California, and I wish I saw some evidence of the kind of progress the report describes in the UK. My school is virtually 100% MS. I bought my own Linux box to put on my desk, but the latest news is that IT is trying to push through a policy that would make it against the rules (and punishable by firing) to connect your own box to their network. If that happens, then I guess it's Windows or nothing for my desktop. I also have a couple of Linux boxes I use for labs, paid for with my own money, and I guess I'd have to pull the plug on those and take them home, too. All servers at my school are Windows boxes. The catalog has tons of MS-specific vocational courses. They seem to rely on Windows for pretty much all the real CS courses as well; there is one small Linux lab, run by a CS guy who is interested in Linux, but the upshot of this latest policy seems to be that he'd be forced to shut it down. Basically they seem to be so uptight about lawsuits, filesharing, MySpace, etc., that they want to lock down everything super-tight, which means MS only. Linux isn't even on the radar, really; the only people on the faculty who are kicking up any fuss are the Mac users.
Find free books.
I work in a UK HE establishment, sadly we seem to be bucking this trend since nearly all new projects are deployed on Windows. The VLE isn't Moodle. VNC is banned because it's "insecure". The VPN solution was purchased from a major network appliance vendor. Not too long ago, they stuck an alternative browser on the standard desktop... Opera. Yes, the pace of change in the UK public sector is slow to snail-like. There are some bright sparks who preach the Right Way, sadly they are few & far between. Wyself, I'm support small fry and I feel that that I'm not in a position to convince those that matter.
OK, here's how it works.
Schools in my area get Windows XP for £30 and Office for £45 per seat. I'm currently setting every PC in the school to dual boot XP and Ubuntu as there are just too many apps that are Windows based that teachers would be lost (or at least very confused) without.
We saved a fortune on Windows 2003 server licences and using E-Groupware saved £5 per seat exchange licences for 800 people. All of our servers run Redhat academic licences (£35 per server + no CALs) and have almost zero maintenance save the odd reboot when a kernel security upgrade comes along which takes about 3 minutes after school closes. Hell, I can VPN in, update the thing and reboot from home with confidence in the fact that the server will not have been stuffed by the latest updates.
All this will be irrelevant soon though as the the UK government has plans for the education system system in the UK called Building Schools for the Future. Look it up on Google and then be prepared for a sinking feeling.
BSF involves replacing every school building in the country using PFI (Private Finance Initiative) money and services. PFI basically means the lowest bidder and BSF schools so far have been mainly judged to be of poor or mediocre standard. More interesting to Slashdot readers though is the fact that ICT services will be removed from the control of the schools where it currently rests and will be tendered out to private companies on a county wide basis in order to take advantage of the bulk buying power that huge companies can obtain. One of the the lead trial areas however has yet to release the specs that companies tendering for the work will have to meet. This makes it very difficult for any company attempting to bid to see what it is they are required to provide. Funnily enough the County Council in that area has its own Educational ICT provider which is a strictly Microsoft shop.
If you look at the situation regarding BSF it looks like the ICT section provides a huge bias in favour of large corporations, particularly those based in Redmond.
Of course the payload of this will be the standardisation of ICT across large areas with no room for originality or independant thought but then that sounds that New Britain to me.
BTW, Check out the BSF PDF file that has an illustration of the perfect school design. It bears a strong resemblance to a factory production line. Raw meat in at one end, and a long stream of identical tasteless nuggets out at the other.
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.