Source: Getting Wired (12/19/2008), Economist.com

How many of these computers run free, open source software? Consider Benjamin Horst’s (SolidOffice) perspective:

• Kerala, India – “Over 2,500 schools, colleges and other organizations in the state have already adopted open source and have been using it successfully for several years now.”
  Source: SolidOffice
• Australia – “OpenOffice Shakes Microsoft – Australian IT publishes “OpenOffice Skakes Microsoft,” reviewing and promoting OpenOffice to a mainstream tech audience.”
  Source: SolidOffice
• Germany – “Germany has decided to implement use of ODF. According to the announcement made by the federal government’s IT Council, German federal agencies will be able to receive, read, send and edit ODF documents beginning no later than 2010.”
  Source: SolidOffice

In the meantime, it’s fascinating to read about GNU/Linux in K12…

Paul Nelson and Eric Harrison met online when Nelson, a classroom teacher and technology director at a small school in Portland’s Riverdale School District, went looking for Linux help. “We were doing everything on the back end with Linux, but I was spending a lot of time keeping the Windows desktops running. I thought how nice it would be to use Linux on the front end too. I posted a notice on the local user group mailing list.” Harrison, then a Multnomah County IT Services support tech, befriended Nelson, and the two had an idea: make a specialized Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) distribution that would allow schools to use thin clients running Linux on old, inexpensive hardware.

This part was particularly interesting…

Nelson hopes that K12Linux will become a familiar name in schools all over the country. “The last great step is to be able to call up a vendor and say, ‘I’d like to buy a K12Linux lab,” he says. “You could do that with a reseller. Or call Dell, and they’ll know what you’re talking about, but you wouldn’t be able to search their Web site and find the price. Hewlett-Packard too. HP produces nice thin clients for $150 or $200, but they don’t market them. I don’t know why they don’t, but that’s the next step. Whoever takes that step will start to sell way more of them.”
Source: K12Linux Founders hand off project to Fedora Community

These testimonials in the comments of the K12Linux article are also worth reading:

I started using K12LTSP in 2003. It was magic. In a few weeks I will be making a presentation to a conference of teachers using a new terminal server. Using virtual machines, I plan to allow every teacher in the audience to be able to install their own copy of LTSP on Debian. Many schools are using older equipment which can work as thin clients but some new thin clients are around $100 and are fanless so it is making less sense to keep all those fans turning. Free the table top.

***

K12LTSP has made it possible for me to do quite a lot in my classroom with older equipment. Without it, there would be only one computer in my room. I’ve had kids working on spreadsheets, working on projects independently, and doing a number of things I couldn’t do otherwise. Money and supplies are limited. K12LTSP stretches them a lot. I’m glad to see this passed on so that I can continue to use it.

As more computers get out there, exactly what free software will you be using?

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