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NZ School Goes Open Source Amid Microsoft Mandate

Posted by kdawson on from the kiwis-and-penguins-sittin'-in-a-tree dept.

Dan Jones writes "Kiwis have built an entire school IT system out of open source software, in less than two months, despite a deal between the New Zealand government and Microsoft that effectively mandates the use of Microsoft products in the country's schools. Albany Senior High School in the northern suburbs of Auckland has been running an entirely open source infrastructure since it opened in 2009. It's using a range of applications like OpenOffice, Moodle for education content, Mahara for student portfolios, and Koha for the library catalogue. Ubuntu Linux is on the desktop and Mandriva provides the server. Interestingly, the school will move into new purpose-built premises this year, which include a dedicated server room design based on standard New Zealand school requirements, including four racks each capable of holding 48 servers for its main systems. The main infrastructure at Albany Senior High only requires four servers, suggesting an almost 50-fold saving on hardware requirements."

6 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Re:50-fold savings? by club · · Score: 5, Funny

    The school only has 230 students. I have a hard time believing they'd need 192 servers whether they used Linux or not.

    Here in NZ, we're so technologically advanced that we're skipping laptops and going straight to "one server per child".

  2. Re:50-fold savings? by Arancaytar · · Score: 4, Funny

    The school only has 230 students. I have a hard time believing they'd need 192 servers

    Ah, you've never used NT. :)

  3. Re:50-fold savings? by tsm_sf · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does anyone on /. Work in networking any more?

    The majority of /.ers are now young republicans (sorry, libertarians)in their first year of college, studying debate/rhetoric 101 and javascript. They've also just discovered ayn raynynnd. Still fat and greasy though, so at least we're keeping to some of our roots.

    --
    Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
  4. here's a solution for everyone by md65536 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Windows 8 to Feature Fully Virtual Monopoly

    "We already have some schools switching to other operating systems. This new version of Windows will allow them to do that while still claiming to be 'Windows only.' "

    fully sarcastic blog entry here.

  5. Re:Huh? by raju1kabir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Gladiators were taught to fight with heavy wooden swords so that the real sword would be easier to handle. Surely it is better to give students crippled operating systems such as Vista so that their introduction to real world technology is a pleasant one? Rather than go the other way around?

    Starting the students on Vista is more like training gladiators with swords made out of aluminum foil.

    --
    "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
  6. Re:Rubbish! by sensationull · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ah, yes, and of course the grammer and spelling of my speedy typing invalidated my point completely. Just what I would expect from an Australian.