Linux Makes the Grade

“Shuttling students to and from computer labs and managing their
time there restricted computer use so much that, analysis showed,
certain students had access cut to less than 35 minutes a week. It
was then that state officials knew each student needed a computer,
and Indiana’s one-to-one initiative was launched. But how were they
to pay for such a huge project that would have cost $100 million a
year in software licensing alone?

“Open source. The often-misunderstood technology (thought of as
“just free Web 2.0 stuff” by the uniformed) has been the answer in
Indiana—and a growing number of school systems across the
country—to shrinking school technology budgets and soaring
software costs.

“Today, more than 100,000 Indiana school kids (in all, 300,000
high schoolers are slated to receive one) have their own $298
computer and monitor with numerous free software applications, and,
in turn, schools across the state have secure, reliable,
sophisticated server systems thanks to Linux-based open source
technology.”

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