We at the openSUSE Education project are dedicated to helping schools and school district's make the transition towards the low cost open source alternatives that are already mainstream in there production versions. The top ten things we offer are these prepackaged and tested versions of server applications key to the implementation and operation of a modern technology based curriculum. Any school district or private school that employed these solutions could realize a savings of over 50$ per year in licensing and support costs per student and more if they are used to replace commercial versions that require licensing per teacher as well. Combined with the enhanced educational opportunities acquired by moving into the culture of sharing teacher\user experiences and the savings are immeasurable. 1) openSUSE presents and easy to install, licensing free, way for schools to provide authentication services, file and print services, database and web server systems as well as application delivery services. These represent the bulk of school spending. with Microsoft server 2003 costing on average 1000$ per copy excluding access licensing, these expenses add up quickly. 2) Dan's Guardian, Internet filtering and proxy services. This projects replaces the customary subscription model filtering system with and "add on" module to the very popular SQUID Internet proxy and cache system deployed with every major Linux distribution and frequently installed on commercial websites. This project uses a donation request system for it's services but does not restrict it's products functionality. 3) Elgg, with this project a school can create a social interaction site like Facebook but for the purpose of schoolwork collaboration. This is a very useful tool with todays teens because it puts learning tools that are relevant to todays social activities in their hands which can remove the doldrum of traditional interactions. 4) openBiblio, In todays school the librarian does much more than manage books and therefor needs a "library automation system" that is flexible enough to handle DVD's , online or e-book subscriptions and credentials, and a list of other tangible and intangible learning assets. These systems generally have a per student cost associated with them that average 3.00$ per student. 5) Joomla, This project is a an easy to manage replacement for the traditionally hired out, usually static, one directional, web page most schools project. It presents a very easy to understand word processor interface known as a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get) that make it very easy for a teacher to learn to modify their web presence with a few minutes a week, or day, to keep the public informed as to assignments and events. 6) Moodle - This project replaces products like "Blackboard" and makes it possible for small private and public schools to offer an online classroom. It works like many of the modern social networking sites yet is very organized and manageable like a real classroom. The cost of commercial products like Blackboard are often more then 10.00$ per student in licensing alone. Moodle is free to use. There are many "Moodle holsters" but our project helps remove that cost as well. 7) openSIS, an open source Student Information System. Consider this: Private schools essentially have no real operating budgets and as a result, most cannot afford a commercial SIS. But they can afford low cost hosting and support if the SIS is free. Here is an example for a 1,000 student private school buying Pearson's PowerSchool product: Powerschool License - $28 per student x 1,000 students = $28,000 PowerSchool annual maintenance and support - $8 x 1,000 = $8,000 Powerschool Server - Dual processor vanilla Dell server = $5000 Dell Extended 3 year support - $250 Windows Server License - $1,000 ( I am guessing very low) Windows SQL Server License - $1,650 Client access licenses required to connect to Windows Server and SQL Server - $50 per workstation x 25 workstations = $1,250 Implementation assistance and training - 10 hours at $250 per hour = $2,500 Total for Year 1 = $47,600 Ongoing Costs = $8,000 Years 4 and beyond - MSFT costs to renew licenses or upgrade to new versions. Hardware costs associated with the new software version requisites. Now consider our scenario: openSIS License - $0 openSIS Support and Maintenance - $6 per student x 1,000 = $6,000 openSIS Hosting - $150 per month x 12 = $1,800 Sever Cost = $0 Sever Maintenance - $0 Client Access Licenses - $0 Server Licenses - $0 Implementation assistance and training - 10 hours at $75 per hour = $750 Total for Year 1 = $8,550 (Year 1 difference of -$39,100) Ongoing Costs - $7,800 (Ongoing Costs difference of -$200 per year) They never have to renew/upgrade MSFT licenses Hardware upgrades planned as needed to support serviceable lifespans The private school market has over 7 million students in it and it is growing at about a 5% pace every year. The OS4Ed goal is to build an open source stack that we continue to bolt pieces onto for $1 or $2 per student: openSIS - $6 openIntel - $2 openBiblio - $2 Moodle - $2 And more as we grow......Until we can provide the http://en.opensuse.org/Education_ERP as a complete package. 8) The incredible software that comes with Novell's openSUSE and the community of supporters dedicated to it. 9) The worldwide dedication to education software as is maintained in the over 100 other titles in our desktop repository. 10) The knowledge and experience of the hundreds of educators around the world the communicate daily with the individual project\product communities. -- James Tremblay openSIS Product Specialist http://www.os4ed.com e-mail james "at" os4ed.com e-mail sleducator "at" opensuse.org CNE 3,4,5 MCSE w2k CLE in training Registered Linux user #440182 http://en.opensuse.org/education