New government report gives significant boost to open source movement
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 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 primary schools' cost fell by half when using OSS. At secondary school level, the relative cost per PC was 20 per cent less than that of schools running commercial software.
Also, support costs in schools using open source were on average 50 to 60 per cent of those of their non-OSS counterparts.
As we previously reported, Becta's report indicates that open source software can offer schools a "cost-effective and efficient" solution for schools if effectively deployed.
"The potential cost benefits and savings clearly make it an option worth serious consideration", the report states.
Surveys of school staff also found that satisfaction with the reliability and performance of IT services was higher in schools using open source products.
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."
However the study highlights that a current lack of open source curriculum software, together with "real or perceived" incompatibility issues, are obstacles to the wider introduction of OSS in the classroom. Dual platform PCs running both open source and propriety systems may provide the answer, it suggests, although any potential costs savings could be wiped out.
That said, overall prospects for expansion of OSS in applications, content-specific software and at the server level "look good", says the report.
Becta underlines that schools need to look not just at cost when considering migrating to open source operating systems. The approach will require "a carefully planned and argued overall strategy", it says.
"The culture within the school and the context in which changes are introduced are crucially important factors."
Reaction
"This report underlines the massive opportunity that exists for all schools to get the best value for money from their IT budgets. The advent of Open Source Software solutions in education opens up the whole UK Education market for the first time in a decade to competitive choice, removing the inevitability of lock-in." Mike Banahan, Director of OpenForum Europe
"The whole FLOSS community welcomes this report. We believe that it will enable schools to develop a much richer environment for our children's learning and teaching using ICT. The move towards equalty of access to hardware and software is to be welcomed." Richard Rothwell, Chair of Schoolforge UK
Related Links
Open Source Software in Schools: A Study of the Spectrum of Use and Related ICT Infrastructure Costs (PDF: 705KB)
Case Study Report (PDF: 255KB)
Using Open Source Software in Schools - Information Sheet (PDF: 295KB)
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