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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.
as the economy tanks and first world countries slip into the second world, mass education'll have to cut costs somehow.
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But I could be wrong...though I firmly believe all the above points are correct.
IMHO any state school that isn't using Linux and OpenOffice at least for general purpose computing (ie. web browsing, paper writing, etc) is wasting the taxpayer's money. Properly locked down Linux machines should be virtually bulletproof.
Likewise, Java dev and Oracle, MySQL and PHP can all be done on Linux, as well as some school infrastructure (forums, webpages, etc)
The only place that Windows should be needed is for windows-based multimedia and graphics applications like Dreamweaver, Flash, AutoCAD, Automedia, Digidesign, etc
And many of those are also available on the Mac.
Other than that it seem like only Powerpoint, VBA, VisualStudio and SQL Server as well as Windows Admin classes (Active Directory, etc) would really require Windows machines or Applications.
-What's the speed of dark?
I think it's great that OSS is being employed in educational fascilities, but what I'd really like to see is more educators teaching programming/software engineering via examination of the source code. There's more than a few projects that are actually coded very well, I know I sure learn something whenever I look at the sources.
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.
Let me tell you how UK educational establishments think. Firstly they get whopping discounts from Microsoft on site licenses. ~£17K per year for a reasonably large organisation (~2000 desktops) and they can install whatever is the current version of Windows and Office on all desktops, and CALs are effectively free.
Most courses (and software used in courses) are written for Windows and Office. We still use Office 2000 because every time we try to upgrade you would think the sky is falling because a menu option has changed or the window looks slightly different. Lecturers are whiners and lazy when it comes to updating course material.
Where Linux is mainly used in UK education is basically anything that the staff and students don't get their hands on and where you need reliability - in other words servers. Firewalls, proxies, email relays, DNS, DHCP, web servers, moodle, storage, network managment, spam filtering, web filtering, streaming media - you name it, if it runs on Linux it will get used as quite frankly it's free, and there are no stupid user license issues. User licenses can kill a project at a University or large college for one simple reason - an organisation with say 2000 desktops will have around 20,000 students enrolled. Many commercial systems will actually expect you to buy a license for every user rather than every desktop. For example a commercial web filtering system like Websense expects a license for every user, regardless of how many can actually use the web at once - simply not going to happen, especially when there are just as good free solutions like the superb Dans Guardian.
I agree with you, however as we know, employers look at buzz words and titles rather than ability.
For example from a random job specification I just looked up:
Applicants are expected to have evidence of secretarial/PA experience at a high level and hold relevant typing, word processing and I.T. qualifications. Experience of using Microsoft Office is essential. You will be highly organised and have the ability to prioritise workload and work with minimum supervision. The post also requires excellent interpersonal, communication and organisational skills.
The bulk of Education is driven by employers and their needs. It's that simple. Microsoft knows this which is why they give education huge discounts as if education didn't use Office, then eventually we would have a workforce that had *shock horror* different skills and that understood that the computers != Microsoft Windows.
Some of the biggest gains for open source applications are still to be had, particularly in areas with strong relations with IT but historically less technical backgrounds such as in libraries (both public and coporate). The mother of a friend of mine witnessed some very 'wolly' thinking when at a meeting to plan the next generation of IT infrastructure for a large part of Londons public library system. She was representing the libraries in one borough of London (despite having next to no computing experience). On the subject of which office package they should purchase my friend had already primed his mother with a suggestion of Open Office. However, the technical advisor (who represented a company which resold Microsoft products) told the committee that such 'toy' free software may be OK for smaller endeavours but wasn't appropriate for a professional and highly important environment as theirs. They all agreed, the matter was dropped and several thousand MS Office license purchased. Now whatever the truth of their needs and the total cost of ownership etc I'm still a little concerned with the sidedness of that debate. Bascially MS Office was bought out of habit and convenience. My friend informs me that, having spent time working in the library with his mother, he thinks there is actually little argument to deploy anything more than a good electronic typewriter.
How do OSS representatives get to the table in situations like this? I guess the answer must be through ensuring that anyone at that table could represent OSS.
-- "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!"
The Open University now recommends OO.org.
There was a time when they mandated Office, but I guess enough students talked sense into them.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
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.