[Gllug] EDUCASHUN NEWS

[Gordon Joly]

******

EDUCASHUN NEWS (Private Eye 1082, 13-26 June 2003)

MICROSOFT's annual renewable licences continue to drain cash from the
UK's education system, where the company enjoys a virtual monopoly
(Eye 1062).

In Germany, however, the Munich city authorities offer an interesting
example. By this time next year there won't be a sniff of Microsoft on
any of the 14,000 computers used in city administration, which is to
be switched to the open source Linux system with no annual fees to
pay.

The very idea put Microsoft in such a flap that CEO Steve Ballmer paid
a personal visit to Munich's mayor Christian Ude in March. But the
city stood firm. A number of other German cities and public agencies
are believed to be watching Munich carefully and considering a switch
themselves.

Meanwhile in Birmingham the education authority has cautiously put a
toe in the water of open source software, using Star Office on the
computers in its new Laptops for Teachers scheme. Star Office, a
word-processor, spreadsheet and presentations package, is not strictly
100 percent "open source (the definition is complex but ensures that                                   
the source code for any open source software can be redistributed with                                 
no fees payable, can be incorporated into other software and must be                                   
easily available - usually by downloading from the Internet).  It is                                   
given to all educational establishments for free by Sun Microsystems                                   
and has no annual licensing fee. The cash saved already - and the                                      
scheme only just started - has paid for more than 100 extra laptops on                                 
the scheme.                                                                                            



-- 
Linux User No. 256022///
http://pobox.com/~gordo/
gordon.joly at pobox.com///

-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at linux.co.uk
http://list.ftech.net/mailman/listinfo/gllug