[school-discuss] RE: Software Freedom Day

[John Nicholls <john@buderim.org>]

On Mon, 2002-06-03 at 15:00, Paul Nelson wrote:
> Hello Folks,
>
> We're inviting you to a party. Come join us and celebrate Free
Software!
>
> http://k12ltsp.org/software_freedom.html



Unfortunately we don't have software freedom in our schools in
Australia, I offered to set up Linux servers using LTSP (for free)
to my kid's primary School in Queensland, Australia. Below is the
response from the headmaster and my response to him




>  Hello John,
>  Thank you for your letter of 28 May regarding the possibilities
of
>  using Linux in our new technology hub.
>
>  While it sounds very interesting, I need to inform you that we
are
>  bound by Education Queensland's policies on this issue.  That
means
>  we need to abide by the User Agreement that Ed Qld. has signed
with
>  Microsoft to use standard Operating Systems - Windows N.T 4 - in
all
>  schools. I believe it is a 5 year agreement. That limits us in
terms
>  of what you are proposing. It may be worth while to explore the
>  options with Central Office as they are the ones making these
> decisions.
>
>  Thanks for your continuing interest in this school
>  Regards


(The Queensland Government in Australia use the phrase "The Smart
State" in all their taxpayer funded advertising)

Hello Andy,

Thanks for the reply, it is a pity that the Queensland Government
have taken this rather narrow path. As I said, Linux is used all
over the World with great success, I understand that your hands are
tied which is regrettable. Queensland, "The Smart State", I don't
think so.

regards,

John