Thought you'd might like to read this <div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Daniel Mons <<a href="mailto:daniel.mons@iinet.net.au">daniel.mons@iinet.net.au </a>> Date: Dec 1, 2007 12:37 PM Subject: Re: Linux in schools? To: Paul Garrett <<a href="mailto:pgarrett@homemail.com.au">pgarrett@homemail.com.au</a>> Cc: <a href="mailto:ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com"> ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Paul Garrett wrote: > Just think how many more machines (and the greater opportunity for > really valuable education opportunities) would be generated by deploying > even those (US) Everex $200 machines running Ubuntu.  The money saved > could be put into genuine IT education. It's about more that cost.  Free Software in schools is a huge boost for students as it means the number applications at their disposal are nearly unlimited. Standard school desktops might have MS Windows and Office and that's it.  Maybe one or two licenses of some other expensive proprietary software (I've seen some schools with a dozen licenses of Dreamweaver and Flash MX or AutoCAD, but not nearly enough for the volume of students). But certainly not With Free Software - there's a host of programming and development tools in a wide variety of languages and needs (OS design, application design, game design, or even just for learning basic programming skills for the young), math programs for young and old, graphic design, CAD, photo editing, video editing and professional Hollywood-level 3D tools for multimedia studies, software suites for physics and chemistry studies, office packages, project planning packages... the list goes on forever. The bigger picture is the freedom of distribution.  With non-free software if you were to give a student a copy of MS Office to take home, you are performing a criminal act (ironic how under non-free software it is criminal to help your students).  With free software every student may take home a copy of all the software they use at school.  This is a huge opportunity for students to continue their learning outside of their school environment and really explore the tools at their disposal.  Similarly the students are under no restriction to complete assignments and projects in grossly inadequate school computer labs. The "free as in freedom" message is much more important than the "free as in cost" message currently being pushed to education department decision makers.  Microsoft, Adobe and AutoDesk have been throwing free (cost) licenses at schools for years now as enticement to teach students their non-free software so that they take that "expertise" (read: "vendor lock in") into the working environment half a generation later.  What the education department decision makers don't realise is how much harm these free-of-cost but license restricted software choices are doing to the children they are trying to educate. -Dan -- ubuntu-au mailing list <a href="mailto:ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au" target="_blank"> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au</a> </div> -- Matthew Rossi I am for Macs, and the open source scene, are you?  Read my blog at <a href="http://www.mattr.co.nr"> www.mattr.co.nr</a>.  You can also find my podcast at <a href="http://www.penguincentral.co.nr">www.penguincentral.co.nr</a> Everything you can imagine is real. Pablo Picasso Spanish Cubist painter (1881 - 1973) <a href="http://counter.li.org/cgi-bin/certificate.cgi/455532">http://counter.li.org/cgi-bin/certificate.cgi/455532</a>