The real roadblocks to Linux in education

Just when we thought that Linux and Open Source had a green light in the education sector!

And that problem has nothing to do with the value-for-money or fitness–for-purpose of the software. It has everything to do with fighting an uphill battle against entrenched ideology and frightened government bureaucrats.

A recent report published by the UK government shows how adopting Linux and other open-source solutions could save education possibly tens of millions of pounds every year.

The UK government’s ICT agency, British Educational Communications and Technology Association, suggested that schools could slash their total computer costs by up to 50 percent if they “stopped buying, operating and supporting products from the world’s largest software company”. Incredible and sobering information.

But what does this mean in the Australian context? Will we see Australia’s state departments of education suddenly jump at the chance to save hundreds of millions in computer system costs? [Read the rest]