Reasons to Avoid Microsoft

Show All

Education

• KDE on Linux now de facto platform for Brazil primary school education system (SMB Tech Advice.com, 2008.04.30)
  Brazil has made KDE on Linux the official computing platform of the primary education system. [...] [I'm] elated to see that 52 million young people will grow up in a free (as in freedom) environment where they will learn and flourish without the trappings of proprietary technology.
  

• Geneva schools completely switch to Open Source ((IDABC) Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens), 2008.04.24)
  About 70,000 students and their 7,000 teachers in the Geneva school district will gradually be moving to Open Source.
  

• Ubuntu breathes new life into school's abandoned hardware (Computerworld, 2008.04.08)
  Implementing a kiosk mode Kubuntu setup allowed Westall Secondary School, located in eastern Melbourne, to save money, exact greater control over security measures, and extend the life of older and discarded hardware without sacrificing performance. But according to [the school's IT support magager], the 'huge amount of flexibility' offered by the Linux operating system was the primary motive behind its adoption.
  

• Canadian school district serves up lessons on the power of Linux (ITBusiness.ca, 2008.04.07)
  For two large school districts -- in Canada and the U.S. -- Linux and other open source software is the plat du jour on the education menu. ... The largest Linux implementation is running close to 200 diskless clients in a single school. ... 'We get better support with open source software: online wikis, forums, mailing lists etc are much faster and better to get support than phoning up Microsoft and listening to someone read off answers from flash cards.' ... 'We give everyone FreeNX access to their Linux desktop from home so they can get all the same programs without having to install Linux at home.'
  

• 9000 PCs in Swiss schools going Linux only (ZDNet Education, 2008.04.06)
  Beginning this September, all 9000 computers [in Swiss schools] will run only [the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, and other] free and open source software. While officials are happy to be saving money on licensing, the Department of Public instruction largely made the move out of what they considered best practices for student education...
  

  
  Warning: Missing argument 6 for item(), called in /var/www/lugod/microsoft/index.php on line 637 and defined in /var/www/lugod/microsoft/includes.php on line 38
  

• One school district answers Microsoft's pricing with open source (CNET 'The Open Road' Blog, 2007.09.27)
  What if your local school district had to choose between Microsoft software licenses or education for your children? This isn't far off from the choice Windsor Unified School District in California recently faced... a $100,000 price tag from Microsoft (half the district's IT budget) and another $200,000 for security software from Trend Micro [... Faced with this,] the district's new IT administrator turned to open source...
  

• Ignoring open source is costing us dear (The Guardian, Opinion Column, 2007.09.20)
  Schools are not much better, a double tragedy because they not only don't benefit from savings but also lose the opportunity to train children in the skills of the future. Equally serious is the indifference of small companies. This, we were told, was down to a suspicion that anything that is free can't be any good. This is not a view shared by Google or Amazon - both huge users of open source. It was strongly disputed by a representative from Malmaison, the very cool hotel group which has put most of its operations on to open source for one simple reason: 'high performance and low cost'.
  

• EU Commission Study Finds You'll Save Money Switching to FOSS (Groklaw, 2007.01.12)
  The EU Commission's Final Report on its 'Study on the Economic impact of open source software on innovation and the competitiveness of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector in the EU' ... [concludes] a transition toward open source reports of savings on the long term cost of ownership... [and training] costs to migrate to [open source] are temporary...
  

• UK schools at risk of Microsoft lock-in, says government report (Computer Business Review Online, 2007.01.11)
  UK schools and colleges that have signed up to Microsoft Corp's academic licensing programs face the 'significant potential' of being locked in to the company's software, according to an interim review by the [British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, the] UK government agency responsible for technology in education. ... For a typical secondary school the cost of buy-out for desktop products alone would be the equivalent of a new teacher's annual salary, the report stated. Consequently most establishments surveyed did not believe that Microsoft's licensing agreements provide value for money.
  

• India State to Dump Windows for Linux (Washington Post, 2006.09.01)
  A southern Indian state plans to switch all school computers from Microsoft Windows to the free Linux operating system... computers used in some 12,500 high schools in the state of Kerala [will be switched to Linux].
  

• UK school switches to Linux (sourcewire, 2005.09.21)
  The Mall School in Richmond has replaced its aging Windows 2000 PCs with a state of the art Linux thin-client network, offering access to a wealth of educational software at a fraction of the cost of an upgraded Microsoft-based solution. Educational organisations, including BECTA, have recently been pointing out the enormous potential benefits to schools of open source software such as Linux. The Mall School is starting to make these benefits a reality.
  

• Back to School, Linux Style (PC Magazine, 2005.08.05)
  'This groundbreaking initiative makes it possible for schools to afford computers for every student, something that makes a huge impact on their overall educations.' A new shipment of computers is set to roll out to pilot school districts this month. If the Indiana Access Program is successful, a total of 300,000 Linux machines could be deployed in the near future...
  

• Schools ink deal for open source (Stuff.co.nz, 2005.07.18)
  The Education Ministry has signed an 18-month software licensing deal with Novell New Zealand, the ministry's first deal to provide open source software to schools.
  

• Detroit high school opens its desktops (NewsForge, 2005.05.26)
  The school had about a hundred older computers running Microsoft Office 97 and Windows NT, and some kind of upgrade was clearly required. It would have been an easy decision to simply upgrade to Microsoft Office 2000, but that would have required replacing all the computers with more powerful systems -- a large expenditure which could be better spent on other technology needs. Hansknecht had a better idea: OpenOffice.org. ... Realistically, upgrading the older PCs to Windows XP would require a complete hardware replacement. As an alternative, Hansknecht thought the older PCs could be converted to Linux terminals using software from the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP). Although it would be necessary to purchase Linux servers to support LTSP clients, no PC replacements would be required. The cost analysis was compelling -- the Linux option could be implemented for around $21,000, more than $100,000 less than the Microsoft Windows alternative.
  

• Linux in Italian Schools (Linux Journal, 2005.05.17)
  The reasons why [some Italian high schools] discovered and switched to free software are quite varied. Some simply needed basic network services, including e-mail, shared printers, Internet access control and so on. Others wanted to run their Web sites and maybe offer e-learning services through them. Finally, some teachers and other personnel turned to free software to help them produce didactic material for students or simply to manage unavoidable paperwork. ... Their conclusion is you do save money with Linux but less than you thought, because the costs and effort for the initial setup cannot be ignored. At the same time, the switch greatly increases productivity and reduces maintenance costs even more. Overall, the school is quite happy to have taken this path.
  

• Open Source worthy of 'serious consideration' by schools, UK agency advises (DesktopLinux.com, 2005.05.13)
  The project found that Open Source software "can provide a suitable technical infrastructure and a basic set of applications for classroom use." Somewhat surprisingly, the report also states that Open Source "productivity" applications were perceived as "easier or simpler to use" than proprietary equivalents. Also, staff surveys revealed an overall higher rate of satisfaction with reliability and performance in the OSS schools than in the non-OSS schools. Less surprisingly, the report discovered that the total cost of ownership (TCO) at OSS schools -- evaluated over the course of three years on seven points -- was 20 to 50 percent less per PC. Schools implementing Open Source alternatives spent up to 50 percent less on support and training than "non-OSS" schools.
  

• Ditching Microsoft can save millions (The Times Educational Supplement, 2005.05.06)
  Primary schools could cut their computer costs by nearly half if they stopped buying, operating and supporting products from [Microsoft], [British] government research has found. ... The association analysed costs at 33 schools which use paid-for software, and compared them with 15 which have pioneered the use of free programs, known as open source, and the pared-down hardware to run them. Average costs, including software, hardware and support costs, were 24 per cent less per computer in secondaries using open source.
  

• eSN Special Report: Open-Source Software (eSchool News Online, 2005.05.02)
  Not only did the Linux-based labs cost half as much as the Windows-based labs to equip--but system upkeep is much easier, too... Ron Gerstenmaier, principal of Norton High School in Norton, Ohio, has a similar story. Norton High School has been using open-source software for six years now, according to Gerstenmaier. Not only does the school pay a fraction of the cost it would require to run proprietary software programs, but "we've never had a virus problem--and the downtime is zilch," he says. ... At a time when budgets are so tight, it would make sense that a growing number of schools and other institutions would turn to a solution that is free to license and distribute. But many schools are citing enhanced stability, too, as a primary reason for making the switch from proprietary to open-source software.
  

• Open Source Makes School Breakthrough (eGov Monitor, 2005.04.25)
  [A] landmark report will show that [Open Source Software] can be implemented successfully in schools and present documented examples of cost savings from its use. ... Among the key findings will be that primary and secondary schools using OSS substantially reduced the total cost of ownership per PC. Support costs - typically accounting for more than half a PC's total cost - showed the biggest reduction.
  

• Old computers good as new in Linux labs (Honolulu Advertiser, 2004.09.16)
  As pressure mounts to meet state-mandated educational technology standards, some Hawai'i schools with limited budgets are getting updated computer labs at a fraction of the typical costs. ... [A] dozen schools and organizations have opened PC labs using recycled computers loaded with free software for about $3,000, much less than what a lab using off-the-shelf computers and commercially-available software could cost -- up to $30,000. ... Peter Nakashima, the computer teacher at Liholiho Elementary ... said the open-source lab was the only chance Liholiho had of replacing its aging computers. ... [The Open Source] labs increase the life of a computer by a few years, because 8-year-old computers can run software just as quickly as newer ones using the open source servers.
  

• Software vendors hand aging products to open-source community, giving customers more control (InformationWeek, 2004.07.26)
  Students, faculty, and staff returning to Golden Gate University this fall will have remote access to database, printing, and E-mail functions from any Web browser, no longer having to connect through the school's network. The reason for this newfound freedom: open-source software.
  

• Cape schools get ten new Linux labs . in three hours (Tectonic, 2004.06.17)
  Cliff Chateau, principal of Duneside Primary, one of the schools that opened its own TuxLab yesterday, said that he and the entire school were very excited at what had been achieved during the day. 'This has shown how we can use old PCs to benefit our school.' Chateau said that although the school had previously had a set of PCs they were unable to use them because of limited funds and the costs of licensing and maintaining the systems. 'With the Linux system we are able to see how affordable it can be to install a complete laboratory. We are already considering putting in another 20 PCs as soon as we can, because the average class size in the school is 40 learners. And because the system is so affordable.'
  

• Ontario's school system gives StarOffice a shot (ITBusiness.ca, 2004.05.27)
  The province of Ontario [will] provide more than two million students with access to [Sun Microsystems'] StarOffice desktop productivity suite. ... A potential benefit of using StarOffice is that it is available on Windows, Solaris and Linux... The latter may be of particular interest to schools, she said, given the growth of open source software in public sector markets.
  

• Home users leap to Linux (Sacramento Bee, 2003.11.23)
  Soon Fowle will no longer have to worry about transferring files from work to home because her charter school recently started changing all of its 65 desktop computers systems to Linux. ... Once complete, Fowle said the new system will save the school tens of thousands of dollars in hefty licensing fees from Microsoft's software and upgrades.
  

Hosting provided by:
Sunset Systems
Sunset Systems offers preconfigured Linux systems, remote system administration and custom software development.

LUGOD: Linux Users' Group of Davis
PO Box 2082, Davis, CA 95617
Contact Us

LUGOD is a 501(c)7 non-profit organization
based in Davis, California
and serving the Sacramento area.
"Linux" is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.