Environmental

Open Standards and Becta save the world

ICT-related energy consumption globally is equivalent to the entire aviation industry and accounts for fully 2% of the earth's total energy consumption!

The reason is pretty simple: 20 years of exponential increase in the computing power of PCs was accompanied by the same in their power consumption. Most of this was driven by the symbiotic sales of Intel Chips and Microsoft software, which on obtaining a near monopoly de-facto standard ran out of control. Eventually, the average user had the absurdity of a super computer on her desk to run MS Word.

Open Source Budget Special

Home Education and Open Source Software

Home education is all the rage and for good reasons. The likes of the Daily Mail have convinced us that state-funded education has returned to all but a feral condition and the Independent school sector having priced itself out of reach is making staff redundant at every level and is to use the phrase of the month 'sweating out'* its ICT resources.

Meanwhile new energy-efficient computers are cheap, and software and information are freely available.

Low power, flat-screen nirvana with Open Source software

I know sometimes I am inclined to rant on about ICT in UK education - how much it costs; how it is unsustainable (that was even before 'le crunch' ); how unutterably rubbish the qualifications in schools are; what a rip-off proprietary licences are and so on and on.

I don't blame folk for getting bored with the same old message about how much free, open source software could save the taxpayer and benefit the student. A typical 80% cost reduction is worth billions. But hey, down with the doom-mongers, I say. Let's keep on doing what just we have always done until it all falls apart in one fell swoop.

The Future of Thin-Client Computing

An obesity crisis in the making: thin is good, slim is better, fat is best

For years I have been a fan of the ‘free, open source software/terminal server/disk-less terminal’ model of computing. I am obsessed with the  absurdly large savings on software, licences, maintenance and energy consumption that are there for the having.

I am not alone. Since January, more and more recession-driven education and public sector personnel have been asking me about the latest 'new' (and now fully buzzword-compliant) computing paradigm known as 'thin-client'. I guess the word has got out at last that PCs are a tad overkill.

Blueprint for Survival

The No-Brainer

If state schools and other public sector bodies adopted more Free, Open Source Software and low energy thin-client computing they would:

a) suffer no reduction in their quality of provision and

b) save up to 90% of their total ICT costs.

They could do this without upfront costs if they used the money immediately saved from non-renewal of proprietary licences to fund investment in low energy technology.

This assertion has been made before and details of its components have been explained in previous posts. The money thereby saved UK-wide is in the order of many millions of pounds.

Few dispute this nowadays, even the FUD has all but gone, but who cares anymore?

Computing in Education and the Credit Crunch

The Credit Crunch and subsequent recession, is nothing to celebrate particularly if you are someone who faces unemployment as a result. I say this because I want to present aspects of the economic landscape positively without descending into "a bit of hardship will do us all good" rhetoric.

The area that I think will benefit from a new realistic attitude to consumption is computing, in particular computing in an educational context.

The current edu-ICT model is unsustainable. It simply costs too much and wastes too much. Don't take my word for this, BECTA the Government's educational technology quango has been saying so publicly for years.

Wireless Linux Terminal Services

There has been plenty of techno-news last week. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas made it clear that low-power consumption computing is the only game in newly-green, post-Bush, eco-friendly USA. Interestingly Microsoft has announced that it will take on UK graduates who cannot otherwise get a job; so no change there then. But, soaring above these events, is the real news that there is now a rather nifty system for PXE-booting netbooks wirelessly. The significance of the last point will become clearer as you read on.

It must be said that schools have a few IT problems at the present:

Splashtop, Windows and heresy in school

The dispersal of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) is the stated role of this blog and most of the time this author attempts to do so through plain, simple, out and out advocacy of Free, Open Source software. Today, though, I am going to attempt a balanced approach and do something tantamount to heresy. I am going to say that sometimes it's ok to use Windows.

Yes I know it's just this condescending attitude of 'penguinistas' that really gets up people's noses but I have been playing with various ASUStek products recently and have discovered Linux Splashtop and The Eee Box desktop PC. The reason for the 'Windows' statement will become clear as we go on.

Becta..the first UK quango to go Open Source?

I am writing this late at night not too far in the future; Google is refusing to send my e-mails until I answer some dumb maths questions and my Sat Nav is so critical of my driving that I dare not venture out in my car. Thus confined to my laptop how about a simple blog on why Becta, the UK's ICT quango will embrace Open Source software? Now that would be unbeliveable.

Actually, why shouldn't our Government's quangos start the shift to Open Source software? It's crisis time after all. We are officially in recession, we should all pull together now and save money, let the Gov lead the way.