A petition to the prime minister has been started here to make the primary OS in schools free and open source.
Signatures are needed, as the site states that the petition is likely to be taken seriously if it has at least 200 signatures.
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I agree with this view and suport the petition.
Is this a petition to get the 'windows operating system' removed from schools or a petition to encourage schools to think outside the box when it comes to using 'windows software'?
If it is the former then I do not support the petition for the reason that there is (probably) not enough experts in the UK to support non-windows operating systems and nerworks. However I would support the removal of costly application software.
To play devil's advocate, I think you would be surprised at how many non-windows experts there are out there and growing all the time. If you get rid of OS licenses you can do innovative things like upgrade and manage all the PCs centrally all with the same OS version - BSF?. Extremadura in Spain did it with 80,000 desktops. That way you don't actually need many very expert people. In any case why would it need to happen overnight? BSF is not happening that quickly ;-). If it was done gradually think of the benefit of diveritng all those license fees into training for local people. Then the money stays in the local economy rather than zipping over seas to pay for luxury yachts etc. Probably what will happen is that more and more applications will be web based or cross platform then it really doesn't matter what OS you use.
I would argue that there are not enough "windows" experts to manage the current deployment of windows machines.
My experience is that you need 1 unix admin per 1000 desktops compared to 1 windows admin per 80 windows desktops - windows is resource hungry and that includes qualified admins - we cannot afford to support a windows monoculture.
Fred
The real issue is not about techs, its about not enough fully digitally literate people in decision making positions with the confidence to make a decision about change. They are far too influenced by powerful commercial interests and do not have the knowledge to make rational decisions about change. This simply reinforces the status quo and usually reduces the rate of natural change that would take place without their interference. Ironic given the rhetoric we get from on high about the value of lifelong learning, transforming education and preparing children for a rapidly changing technological society. That society is here now and the adults are the ones that can't cope with it.
This seems like an emotional-driven aim. Surely you choose the OS that runs the applications that the users have to run for their subject areas. In OCR’s ICT AS course work this year there was a development task that required Excel and Access and which could not have been completed using OpenOffice 3’s capabilities. Similarly music tech departments use Windows based applications and drivers for specialized hardware. Virtually every subject area can come up with a good reason to use Windows - at the moment. So unless you are supporting a user base of Web browsers and word processing it is just not an option as far as I can tell. I would contemplate a mixed network - but the impact on the support costs are likeley yo outweigh the client license costs.
Most change is emotionally driven with some basis in rationality. The change from Acorn to DOS in schools was not exactly based on technical merit at the time or available education apps, it was just confidence in what the world was moving to and projected economies of scale. A lot of people increased their costs by making that change at least in the short term. If what you say about OCR's coursework is correct, there should be a strong complaint because awarding organisations should not be setting questions that are dependent on commercial products unless it is a specific vocational qualification specifically targeted on that vendor product. Many people use Windows dependent apps - so what is new? What is required is a strategy to reduce that dependency. Not necessarily overnight change. The argument about costs depends on whether you see it as a short or long term issue. If you look at short term additional costs as an investment in the future the return on investment is overall more important then any short term total cost of ownership issues. Rationally, getting rid of dependency on a monopoly supplier and hassle associated with licenses, license keys etc is a no-brainer. The more interesting issue is a practical strategy to achieving it.
I've stated a new topic at http://opensourceschools.org.uk/do-you-have-use-proprietary-applications... for documented examples of exam boards requiring the use of proprietary applications.
Hmm the topic of this thread is a little emotional :)
If i have paid for 700 Windows XP licences why would I throw them in the bin?
Have you done the business case to prove that Linux has the equivalent to MS AD central management of users and computers and that it would be cheaper to implement?
I think a better proposal would be that the public agencies should have to justify not using OSS, when working on new projects?