UK schools warned about Microsoft

You shouldn't need the latest version of Windows to learn the basics of computers at school. To truly understand the concepts, bring back the command-prompt based OS such as DOS or Unix. Most of the IT graduates these days don't know basic file system commands and are completely lost if Windows goes down. No wonder we lose our IT projects to India where they start off with low-end resources in schools. Its not backward, its practical. 
As for the poster who mentioned not having the latest web design software in his college, I'd suggest learning web design using a basic text editor like notepad. If you don't understand the fundamentals, you'll be forever reliant on companies like Microsoft who can then make you dance to their tunes.

Schools can't afford the initial payout, thats why they buy into these payg programmes. 

Pretty typical UK government to say 'we arent going to give you lump sums of cash, but we arent going to let you pay over a period either'

When I was at Secondary school in my last 2 yrs I choose I.T it was cancelled due to the lack of up to date programes.

We had hardly nothing most of them where trial software with just a few things to do. The school said it's because of lack of funding for the I.T sector so they had to rely on magazine software.

"The School Agreement requires schools to have licences for every PC in a school that might use its software, whether or not they were running something else."

One wonders whether this extends to Intel Macs as well as 'PCs', since they 'might' (read: are able to) run Windows?

Linux for Young Human Beings

"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Edubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to schools, through its customised school environment. The current version of Edubuntu is aimed at classroom use, and future versions of Edubuntu will expand to other educational usage, such as university use. 

Edubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with community based support.

The Edubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Edubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit.

These freedoms make Edubuntu fundamentally different from proprietary software: not only are the tools you need available free of charge, you, and thousands of developers around the world, have the right to modify and build upon your software until it works exactly the way you want it to.

Many people around the world exercise this right. And you can expect many improvements with each new release of Edubuntu.

...if you consider the "free software" solution given by operating systems like Debian or Ubuntu and given by applications like OpenOffice.

It would be, not only cheaper, but also more formative, considering the rising request of Unix skills in the job market.

"The School Agreement requires schools to have licences for every PC in a school that might use its software, whether or not they were running something else."

This is illegal and until it is removed from the agreement all school trade to Microsoft should be stopped. Microsoft have no right to demand money for a machine that is running Mac OS or Linux OS.

This is typical of the thieving bastards and I can only assume this got through Becta because of backhanders!

I agree that schools should use Linux. It's easy to lock down and easy to set up the system so all user account information is hosted on a single server.

If you're teaching someone to administer the box, you can easily assign a thumb drive to each student that he can't take out of the classroom, and that he will be able to run the entire system off of. Or, you can easily back up an image of the hard drive to restore after administration.

When I was in school we used BBC Basic and Other such computers, and Still managed to Do More with Pcs than classes teach Now! This was when I was in Primary School! We used to Program Robots and Small Programs that drew pictures Via code.
For 7 Year olds that was pretty damn good!
Now all they seem to learn is How to search or write an email or blog or what ever!
I think schools pay far too much for software. and colleges and universities as well! For example my College i now study at has an issue with webdesign software, the course is taught on a webdesign package, and The college cant afford the package we need! So we are using an old package attempting to recreate the same Output with a lesser program! The only differences are more add ins, yet it will cost thousands!
This country has everything ass backwards anyway! But Lets not get crazy!

Problem with teaching Linux is that when students leave they will still most likely be using Windows products.

I work for a FE/HE college and to be honest the cost of many Microsoft products is pretty resonable - i.e approx £50 for Windows Server 2003 Web Edition.

ICT (at least for the UK) is supposed to be taught as a subject as important as English and Maths. However, many teachers haven't a blinking clue, and most ICT lessons consist of little more than secretarial word-processing/spreadsheets taught from downloaded lesson plans. Even some ICT co-ordinators (teachers in charge of the ICT subject) have little knowledge of the subject, only taking that role for the additional money granted from position.

Many government "council-education ICT consultants" do little more than go over "the facts" as have been passed down from on-high. One of the schools I work in spent their ICT budget on equipment but hadn't touched them in at least 2 years, counldn't even connect to the internet for ICT lessons, and had no form of documentation for their setup. Before I started working there they had no ICT technician on-site, and relied on an off-site council-based ICT support team with turn-around time of about a month for even the most vital functions (like backup hardware failure).

All of this combined means that using anything like Linux (I'm trying to get a Linux DHCP on the very basic classroom setup), means trying to go againist multiple departments inside and outside the school itself (other support, staff ict skills, lesson planning, concerned parents etc). Schools are one of the hardest environments to control IT in, since even basic computer usages isn't likely (teachers regularly do pencil&eraser&paper&photocopier planning where MS Excel would easily do).