September 2003 — Features
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Making the Switch to Open Source Software
Luckily, the open source community - those volunteers who work to bring software to the masses at no cost - are quickly filling the gap. Like many others, I have written educational software for our school that I will make available as open source later this year. In addition, there are a surprising number of open source educational applications available for the high school grade levels. Since many professionals (especially in math and science) are using Linux, the open source software available for the upper grades often matches or surpasses that which is available from a vendor.
When exchanging files, difficulty comes from software vendors using closed formats to store documents that lock their customers into using their products. While applications such as StarOffice do a good job of reading and writing files stored in these proprietary formats, the conversion, unfortunately, is not always perfect. Most affected are files that depend heavily on tables, graphics and other positioning techniques. Until vendors start using open standards, the sharing of files with colleagues that use proprietary software will at least sometimes offer a challenge.
One of the challenges I faced with great satisfaction was actually learning how to use Linux. I have seen Linux often described as a more difficult operating system to maintain and use. If you only know how to use Windows, this is true. However, once I learned how to use Linux, I found it was much simpler to maintain and configure. I have saved myself many hours this last year due to the stability of Linux and the ease with which I can manage our computers, servers and networks running the operating system. The biggest challenge was learning how to operate the system; yet, what an enjoyable challenge the learning process was.
Unfortunately, not all educators embrace this last challenge as I have, or share my passion for computer technology. While my students and I have enjoyed learning something new, there are those staff members who like things the way they are and would rather not change. I have seen this in every school I've helped switch to open source. Once someone is in the comfort zone of familiar software, it can be a real challenge to convince them that change is good. This is where high-quality staff training comes in, because if your staff knows they'll receive the support they need when they have questions, they will be more gracious with the switch.
While it has been a bumpy road, our switch to open source software has shown itself to be the perfect solution to a problem that more and more school systems find themselves facing. If your school is looking to offer more in the way of modern software, while reducing costs and gaining freedom and stability in its management, then I highly recommend open source software. It has certainly surpassed our expectations.
Advantages of Open Source Software
- Cost - Open source software can be obtained at little or no cost, and future upgrades are also obtainable free of charge.
- Freedom - Under the GPL, the end user is free to install, use, distribute and modify open source software with very few restrictions. This greatly reduces the burden of system administration and eliminates the risk of software audits.
- Quality - Because the source code is open to peer review, open source software is known for its superior quality and stability.
- Contribution - Anyone with programming experience, including educators and students, can contribute to the collection of available open source software.
- Platform Independence - The majority of open source software is available for a number of hardware platforms (not just the PC), which results in greater flexibility in hardware choices.
- Acceptance - Open source software is gaining acceptance worldwide on a daily basis, with many businesses, governments and organizations already using it.
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