At Maidenhill School we have a very different system from many schools
which combines systems from Unix, Linux, Windows, Apple and even Acorn.
Our Unix server acts as system manager, web server, and mail server. We
use Webmail by Precedence Technologies of Cambridge as a our mail reader
and this meets the Becta spec. It also has a filtering system which dumps
offensive e-mails in a box where they can be read and acted upon by
teachers.
The rest of our system is a mix of Windows PCs, Linux terminals, Unix PCs
and even some Mac and old Acorn machines all running Citrix Metaframe
centrally to deliver a mixture of software from the Microsoft and Open
Source communities. It is available for 99% of the year, is accessible
from home through a web browser and TCO is much lower than other systems.
We can also run specialist software on local PC disks as required, eg.
Cubase, Pinnacle, Quicktime without giving any access to the local
machine to users.
Like all systems it has a few problems but we are very pleased because it
allows us to get on with educating. The technology cannot be tampered
with and the interface is consistent. Whatever the local processor speed
Metaframe runs at the central processor speed. If we had the knowhow and
the time we would devlop the Open Source stuff further as it saves us a
lot of money.
> On Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 01:47:58PM +0000, David Bowles wrote:
> > As far as I can recall the way the spec is worded the reference to
> > e-mail omits the term 'freeware' as an exclusion. Hence Outlook
> > Express is a valid e-mail client.
>
> The spec states "Email: Facility for offline email reading and
> composition. Freeware or shareware is not acceptable"
>
> There isn't actually that much which meets such a spec.
>
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The Headteacher, Maidenhill School GL10 2HA UK
(+44) (0) 1453 822469
