Introduction

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I originally started out this project with the idea in mind that I would try to persuade my classmates, school district officials, and any other champions for using technology in education who view this site, to use free open source software (FOSS) in place of proprietary software sold by Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Macromedia, Inspiration, Blackboard, Pearson, etc. I was focused in this direction because I made the assumption that few school districts would be willing to give up using the Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows as their operating system. Therefore, I was going to focus on open source alternatives, which run on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X that rival proprietary software. Some examples of the proprietary applications I am referring to are Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Inspiration, Blackboard, Powershool, etc. However, after doing some research I found that there are a number of schools that are using open source operating systems in their district with success! This got me thinking that maybe I should try to persuade the audience to switch to open source exclusively! Still, though, I wasn't yet willing to try to convince others to exclusively switch open source software. The reason being that I asked myself if this would be possible within my own school district and the answer was no. Due to the grading and report card system that we currently use, Powerschool with PowerGrade , we would not be able to switch to an open source Linux or Unix operating system. Therefore, I decided to focus on giving examples of how servers and computer labs could be switched over to open source, but teacher computers would remain Mac OS X and Windows so that they could use Powerschool and Powergrade.

UPDATE: As of the 2006-2007 school year my school district has abandonded Powerschool and we are now using a home grown application that was developed in-house by a technology department staff member. (He has a background in software development!)

Then I made an amazing discovery! While doing more research for this project, I came across a free open source student information system that claims to be everything Powerschool with Powergrade has and more! This software, called Centre, opens up a lot of possibilities. First, it runs on Linux and Unix which allows the implementation of the exclusive use of open source software. Secondly, Centre also runs on Mac OS X and Windows which would allow school districts to try Centre on their current operating system(s) before making the leap to open source! Also, let me repeat that Centre is FREE! I should mention at this point that all of the open source software I mention on this site is free software. However, it should be noted that open source does not always equivocate to free. Only the source code of open source software is always free, I will expand upon this later. Before going any further though, let me repeat, all of the open source software I refer to on this site is FREE!

At this point it would appear as though I am going to focus on Centre, but this is not the case. I simply started out this way because Centre is one example of how there is a free open source software program for just about everything if you look for it. I shared this story because I'm sure that there are obstacles to implementing the exclusive use of open source your district, as well. However, with a little bit of research I'm confident that you will find an open source solution to match your needs. (Note: I have since learned that there are numerous free open source student information systems available. Also see Open Admin for Schools.) To view a list I have compiled of open source software that are alternatives to popular propriety software go to my Open Source Alternatives to Popular Proprietary Software page. However, my list is by far NOT a complete list of what is available out there. A simple Google search with search terms like "open source alternatives to ____________" should help you to find what you need. I also have provided a number of links and information about open source software on this site.

To start again, the purpose of this website is to persuade the audience that the exclusive use of free open source software is a viable and practicle software solution for education. On this site you will learn the definition of open source, why it should be used in education, open source alternatives to proprietary software, and you will find resources on open source in education on my Open Source Software In Education Resources and News page.

By now if you were/are not familiar with the term open source, you are probably wondering what the heck it is! So let's first take a look at the definition of open source. After reading the definition, hopefully you will start to understand why the implementation of open source can be advantageous! The definition of open source can be found at http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php. For those who do not wish to read the full definition of open source, the following should suffice: Open-source software is software whose source code is available to the public. This "openness" is one of the major reasons people turn to it. Users can go in and change the source code, fixing bugs and personalizing it to fit their own institutional needs. Now would be a good time to repeat what I mentioned above. Open source software is not always free; only the source code is free. For example Red Hat Linux is not free. However, simply by removing Red Hat's trademark and logos from the source code you have a free, fully functioning, and powerful, linux operating system. (I will get into this more on the Software Comparison page, but it is appropriate to mention here that Centos and White Box Linux are free distributions of Red Hat Linux without Red Hat's logos.)

Now let's explore why you should implement free open source software in your district. Click on the Next arrow below to go to my Why Use Open Source? page!