… in a leader setting out the arguments for FLOSS in schools, about which we have posted several times in the past few days, with politics:
Yet Becta, the government agency that sets education IT policy, … works according to the framework principle, which in best civil service tradition sets out approved suppliers who are easy […]
… is still making news.
The allegation that Microsoft cut its prices to scupper the project is a new angle on the story. The inevitable denial is hard to square with this quote
The council gets a steep discount on Windows licences through a broader Education SELECT licence arrangement, paying £58 for a Windows XP […]
This item in Ars Technica highlights an essay by Rufus Pollock with the same title. We post ourselves, without added value or irony, to urge our readers to read Rufus’s essay (available here, free registration required).
was how we headed a recent post. According to this item in Linux-Watch not everyone in the FLOSS world is heeding Benjamin Franklin’s advice.
On a more positive note, this item alerted us that this week is UbuntuOpenWeek.
Could this be a story about the French parliament’s reported move to Linux desktops?
This item from the Antipodes sounds depressingly similar to the UK government’s slippery policies on open source - see our previous post for example.
This is the title of the Early Day Motion which John Pugh MP has tabled in the House of Commons. Media reaction is moving up the food chain.
In case you have not seen it, this message is in circulation within the UK FLOSS community:
Dear FLOSS supporter
John Pugh MP has tabled an Early Day Motion […]
Last time it was the EU dishing out money; this time it is the NSF.
A couple of weeks ago we said we couldn’t find anyone with a bad word to say about Firefox, but Jack Schofield may be the minority of one.
or, in English
And Agored is available free!
“Agored” is Welsh for “open” and “ddim” is “free”, as in “free beer” so guess what this story is about!
We mentioned our soft spot for Wales a while ago. Here is another great open source story from Ping Wales.
… else we shall most assuredly hang separately” said Benjamin Franklin in 1776 when the USA were the little guys facing the over-wheening power of the British government. According to Bruce Perens, the GPL encapsulates these sentiments for free and open source software facing a software patent aggressor. Who could he possibly have […]
According to a press release on Source Wire:
Steven Lucey, a director at Becta, has admitted that Becta’s ICT model for schools is unsustainable. Yet DfES advice and Becta’s procurement frameworks continue to promote high maintenance, fat-client solutions that damage the environment.
A way out of this conundrum is outlined here.
The first $100 laptop has been produced - story here.
A fascinating tour of its Linux interface, courtesy of YouTube, starts here.
… here and here and here.
BECTA’s response is here and a follow up to this response is here.
This story is only in the technical press so far; we are watching for a breakthrough into the main-stream press next week.
UK Members of Parliament have identified Department of Education and Skills (DfES) and Becta policies as favouring proprietary software vendors thereby blocking the adoption of Open Source software by schools and colleges. An Early Day Motion tabled by Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh, has called for a fair approach to ICT procurement in the education […]
… from Open Democracy.
In the last three days there have been over 200 postings on the Microsoft-Novell deal with much schadenfreude in the past 24 hours at the public differences between the partners. Yesterday the tone was much more panicky.
It certainly feels like it, with >50 posts on the divergent views of Novell and Microsoft in the past 24 hours and not just in the technical outlets (here and here and here and …) but also in the stock-price-watching part of mainstream media (here and here at least).
… about the Birmingham City Council Linux project launched with such high hopes, quite a lot of hype in the technical press and in the mainstream press and in Europe, blogged here a year ago, whose outcome is becoming mired in controversy.
… to quote from here.
Certainly this week’s highest profile take on the Microsoft - Novell deal is Ballmer on Novell, Linux and patents .
Some attempts at considered analysis are appearing, here and here and here, which concludes:
It could take months — even years — to fully determine the fallout from the Microsoft-Novell deal. But two […]
In the print edition of the Guardian, this story includes a picture of Phil Booth, described as a “scary computer expert”, showing his laptop which sharp-eyed readers will recognise is running Ubuntu.
Readers might also have seen this item on the BBC website which begins
The computer industry faces a skills crisis, the president of the […]