Why assume all FOSS people are not educationists. The bid downloadable from http://theingots.org/community/node/3768 is copyleft licensed so feel free to download it and see for yourself whether the people involved are educationists - Hint Schoolforge-UK is nearly all teachers and techs working in schools. TLM is an Awarding Body Accredited by OFQual and endorsed by the Sector Skills Council for IT and Telecoms specialising in qualifications in IT for schools.

A quick look at AlphaPlus's website suggests that this is a modern organization that is very much keyed into NuLab's way of doing things. This isn't political but more about a management style, a reflection on contemporary target culture.

Software at that level is probably unimportant to these people. They'll probably go for Vista because its an 'industry standard'. The Open Source people are not in the running because they're from a different culture -- they're not educationalists or educational managers but (I'd guess) more representative of teachers.

Its actually a little bit of 1984. Or maybe Brazil (the movie, not the country). Its about effective management, not whether what one is managing actually works. Which explains why the Open Source crew will be outsiders -- they've got all their priorities backwards!

Alphaplus? Are they going to introduce OpenVMS and teach kids all about reliable and secure software, with hp backing the project? Now THAT would be a real change for the better!
Just dreaming. Kids learn shit at school, and only few realize that when they grow up. The rest works with Linux, MS-DoS Windows or - worse - with both at hp.


Shouldn't it be cowpoowayshen

Is it possible that Becta simply believe that "Open Sauce" is just "not using Microsoft products". I'm sure there must be at least some confusion when there is such an overlap between the MS-Monopoly issues (Microsoft lock-in) and the Open Sauce issues (general company lock-in).