I'm sorry I've not had chance to make much of a contribution to the debate over the last few days - too busy teaching! My thanks to all who made Monday such an interesting day. There is quite a distinction between promoting Linux as a server solution, for which it is ideally suited at present, and pushing for a complete Linux desktop solution. A Linux server running Samba and Squid makes a powerful, and relatively low cost, addition to a network of Windows PCs presently installed as a peer to peer network - the case at present in many primary/prep schools. These packages are stable, easy to configure with GUI interfaces and, given the right distribution/documentation/support not beyond the wit of a humble ICT coordinator to maintain. Also for the under 11s, many of the excellent programs on Michael's resource list are perhaps a little too complex, although I'll certainly trial a few with our Year 6 girls to see how they cope. My Key Stage 1 & 2 colleagues currently expect a range of education specific titles to be available, which are only at present available for Windows - OK VMWare and WINE mean these can be run under Linux but that's kind of defeating the object IMHO. Given time then I'm sure the functionality of these programs will be available under Linux or, preferably, via the web. However, I see no alternative but to maintain the Windows desktops for the present, and I think this is likely to be the case in most primary or prep schools. A suite of thin clients running GIMP for the art department is not out of the question for us here though. I think that at least some of OSiE's efforts should be devoted to advocating Linux as a server solution for the small school. There are plenty out there still with no networking or with only peer to peer solutions for whom the huge added functionality of a single Linux box doing files, printers, proxying, mail and intranet would be a great benefit educationally and a good advert for what Linux can do. Setting up a NT box to do all this is certainly a non-trivial operation, but we do need to have a distribution that's at least no worse than this, so that a tech savvy but hard pressed teacher can still get it up and running. Miles Berry Deputy Head St Ives School, Haslemere www.st-ives.surrey.sch.uk