Linux vs Windows - Conquering a Windows Based World

In September 2008, around 9,000 computers within the Swiss Educational system will have abandoned Windows in favor of Linux. It is happening in Geneva, and has been put in motion by the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Some advantages that were noted.

• Financial
• Software quality
• Students can work at home with same programs used at school

The original article in French can be found here, as well as the Google English translation.

Ironically, it seems that Microsoft initiated the switchover to the Linux alternative by launching its anti-piracy policy in the Philippines. The government them responded by seeking out alternatives. In a sweeping move 13,000 Fedora Linux and 10,000 Ubuntu Linux computers have have been deployed within Philippine schools in the country replacing old Windows PCs. It was discovered that the old Windows PCs were not being used because nobody knew how to use them

A quote from and independent open source consultant Ricardo Gonzalez who worked on the project.

“People in the government now understand Linux can do so much for so little outlay,” he said. “In a brand new computer 50 percent goes to the operating system and office suite, so how many people can afford that?”

This should be an interesting case to follow, to discover if Linux can be a useful learning tool in the education system.

To avoid vendor lock-in and avoid forced upgrade cycles of proprietary solutions the French Ministry has selected open source solutions to equip all of its local education authorities.  This would account for around 2,500 servers at 30 locations.

“In 2004, over 95 percent of the servers ran on Linux. Today we are close to 100 percent, since we withdrew the last AIX servers at the end of 2006,” said Affre.

Seems like a great success story to me, hope to hear about more of them!