BECTA report says yes to Linux and OSS

eGov report from http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/917

'UK schools should "seriously consider" switching from proprietary software to open source alternatives because of the "obvious" cost savings on offer, says the Government's lead agency for ICT in schools.

Research published by Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) on 13 May concludes that in nearly all cases, schools moving to open source software reduced the total cost of ownership per PC significantly. The highly-anticipated report, based on a study of 15 schools, shows that by using OSS, primary schools halved their costs. The relative cost per PC at secondary school level was 20 per cent less than that of schools running commercial software. The report states: "The use of open source operating systems for servers was generally seen as having a high level of relative advantage, having lower costs, superior reliability and greater ease of use than non-open-source systems." It adds: "In general the view appeared to be that open source office applications were easier or simpler to use than the non-OSS equivalents.'

"Teachers in the OSS schools view ttheir own skills and confidence in using ICT much more positively than the teachers in non-OSS schools do and lower levels of training could be expected" See Becta reports at http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/press_out.cfm?id=4681