Running into reluctance to adopt open source

I am new to this site, so forgive me if I am addressing issues already hashed out...

Has anyone run into the issue of presenting free and open source software to IT and admin people only to have it rejected on the grounds that the licensed, expensive and restrictive software comes with technical supprt, while the free software does not?

I know free and open software more often than not has active user forums, usually hosted by the lead developers, and I know that the free and open software community is friendly and helpful, but some people seem to think that if you haven't paid for support it will be "more expensive in the long run".

Ed

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Permalink Reply by Randy Orwin on November 10, 2008 at 9:18pm

We are very much an open source shop using a wide variety of open source applications. As you move into the open source world in schools, we have found it is much easier if you start with applications that are not disruptive, meaning that they aren't replacing a commercial product. This is a good way to get open source introduced to both your tech staff and your teachers. A great example of this is Audacity for helping teachers do podcasts. For older students, introduce Freemind for building mind maps. If you don't have a learning management system, install a Moodle server and get some folks to work with Moodle. Find teachers that will pilot stuff and then let it grow from there. Once you have some apps running then you can think about introducing apps that are disruptive, like OpenOffice. Trust me, it is much easier adding new apps than replacing old apps with open source. We are just finishing a roll out of OpenOffice and it has had its share of ups and downs. The other thing that helps is getting folks to look at the glass as being half full instead of half empty. Just my two cents.

Randy Orwin

Permalink Reply by Pam McLeod on December 11, 2008 at 2:05pm

I'll reply from the perspective of a very overloaded K-8 Tech Director. Although I have a Windows environment, keep in mind that I landed here because I am researching more open source software - we are implementing a grant-funded research project of 1-to-1 linux netbooks in January for one entire grade level.

I have 180 workstations/laptops and 10 servers to manage. I like having an MS environment because the products all work well together and update themselves automatically. I call tech support maybe twice a year. I was a UNIX admin before landing in Microsoft environments, so I'm not unfamiliar with other environments, and I do think that students should be exposed to LINUX, Windows, and Apple.

I would never, ever reject a piece of FREE software that a teacher brought to me, which looks valuable and safe. On the other hand, I am at a small school with ~600 students, and I have time to speak with my teachers individually like this. Depending on the software, I might choose not to install it because it requires a manual installation and/or doesn't have an .msi installer. If my computer teacher wants to install open source software, I usually tell her to feel free (she is one of few with admin privs) as long as I don't have to do it myself. Many times, software that we use regularly will get put onto our image in the summer, or onto our Terminal Server, and then is propagated out slowly when machines are re-imaged.

Our list of FOSS is pretty long: Stellarium, Skype, TuxPaint, GIMP, Sebran, Pencil, Blender, Alice, Scratch, nVu, MySQL ... Combined with online apps, there is so much available for free that just about the only thing we do buy for student machines is MS Office and Kidspiration. I am so glad that I no longer have to buy those annoying single-CD titles for a single workstation, like Reader Rabbit.

But, I want my software to have .msi installers so I can push it out through Group Policy. Some online apps still work best with IE, and it updates itself automatically without the user needing admin privs (though lately it's been driving me crazy).

I have some old PIII 933MHz workstations which I've lately tried to turn into thin clients using Thinstation - all I want to do is boot them into an RDP session. This project hasn't been easy or straightforward, and my only tech support has been a couple of really nice guys from their email list who are in Europe (Holland and Norway). I can't get it working, the documentation is spotty, and I've given up for awhile. This is why I don't have time to do more linux implementations. I get lots of free help (try this,try this), and the community is REALLY friendly. But I don't have time to try a million things. No one in my statewide ed tech community has been able to help, so I couldn't even find someone to HIRE to do this job. Some times I just do need to be able to call tech support.

So, I'm not trying to start any arguments because I do understand both sides. I'm hoping to attend FOSSED this summer, we'll have ~65 linux netbooks in place in about a month, and we run lots of FOSS in addition to our Microsoft software. We are definitely a blended school, and that's where I like to be. Someday, I'd like to add some Macs, as well.

I hope that gives you a little perspective of what it's like from the other side. No other industry runs its IT people as ragged as K-12 education - the diversity and breadth of my responsibility here is unlike anything I've experienced before (I was previously in higher ed / research and Fortune 500 consulting).

Ed, if you can get some of the other teachers excited about a couple of software titles, and you can find those which have .msi installers available, you can get them on board, one app at a time. Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Sheila S. Beck on December 31, 2008 at 3:27pm

I think your school is lucky to have you.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Schwab on January 1, 2009 at 10:22pm

You might try the 2X Thinclient Server (http://www.2x.com/thinclientserver/) for your old PIII systems. I've been using it for several years to PXE boot old computers into RDP sessions. The basic version is free, uses web based management and integrates with AD. I started off with Thinstation and PXES, but found 2X to be much more user friendly.

Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on January 1, 2009 at 10:27pm

I've always wanted to see a 2x setup in action. How come we don't hear more about them?

Permalink Reply by Andrew Schwab on January 2, 2009 at 11:37am

I've put it in at 2 school districts now as an easy way to get old computers running as RDP thin clients since you can boot their client from HDD, CD or PXE. I don't see 2X advertising much and kind of fell into it by accident after playing with PXES which was later commercialized by 2X. I think they are focused on going after the Citrix market, since they sell an ICA client/server product.

Permalink Reply by Pam McLeod on January 6, 2009 at 10:45am

Thanks Andrew - I've had many suggestions for this and would like to try it some day. However, when I checked their website, 2X is free only for 5 workstations. Also, these machines' network cards will not PXE boot. Unfortunately, we've been in a budget freeze since August, so I have "cheap" options - it has to be completely free for me to try it this year.

Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on December 11, 2008 at 5:55pm

Love this discussion. Hope you'll start similar ones at http://community.k12opensource.com!

Permalink Reply by leewin on December 31, 2008 at 1:03am

I don't know where you are Ed but it seems to me there were some schools in the UK that had made the transition completely towards open source software and operating systems. Has anyone else heard of this as well?