What we need is a database of schools using Linux both to persuade people that there is a market out there, and also to be able to find schools who would be willing to trial new (Linux) products.
This is an existing lug.org.uk project, which a student is trying to finish before going back to University.
It was also a Fensystems project, a year or two ago under the osie (Open Systems in Education) banner. The problem lies in getting good info from schools, many of whom are beavering away in isolation. Maybe a further OSS push at BETT is the way forwards - a strong degree of co-ordination betwen the different OSS stands. None have yet made quite the same impression as the RM or Microsoft stands. (Thank goodness!). But if every stand featuring OSS could post the same map featuring all the other relevant stands - well, that might show how small mobile brainy flexible adaptable cooperative mammal-like creatures (Bother! Penguins aren't mammals!) can compete with huge lumbering dinosaurs. Like a radio telescope made from many small dishes spread out over a country. Each on its own is too small to be effective. But together, it is more than the sum of its parts, and visitors might suddenly appreciate the idea that the winds of change are blowing. This needs to be co-ordinated by someone with a stand. Or a lug, to avoid overt bias to any one distro. -- Christopher Dawkins, Felsted School, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3JG 01371-822698, mobile 07816 821659 cchd@felsted.essex.sch.uk