European Schoolnet: Free Your Mind… And Open Up to Open Source Computing

“The obvious reason is that Linux is a free operating system.
Whereas the price of other operating systems like Windows XP costs
around 300 euros, several Linux distros can be downloaded from the
Internet for free. The fact that Linux is free, in the sense of
‘free beer’, is what draws most people to it in the first
place.

“Linux is also free in the sense of ‘free speech’. It is the OS
of choice for people who want to decide for themselves what to use
and what to leave out. This is made possible by Linux’s General
Public License, commonly called the GPL. If you do not like any of
the many browsers provided with your Linux distro, you can easily
uninstall them and download another. By contrast, in a Windows
environment, uninstalling Internet Explorer can lead to system
instability or even complete failure of some programs. In other
words, you have little choice but to use the packaged browser,
e-mail client and other software.

“Linux is becoming increasingly popular among decision-makers
such as school principals because more and more software is
becoming available for Linux. In 2003, it is safe to say that there
is a Linux equivalent for every major software package available on
the Windows platform. For instance, Microsoft Office is easily
replaced by OpenOffice.org. All your email needs can be met by
K-mail or MozillaMail rather than Outlook or Outlook
Express…”

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