British schools could cut their costs significantly if they started making more use of open source software, according to the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, BECTA.
Here's what Computer Business Review has to say:
The report indicated that the use of open source software could produce total cost savings of 44% per PC for primary schools and 24% per PC for secondary schools, compared to standard commercial software PC configurations.
BECTA, which supports the various UK government education departments in information technology developments, came to its conclusions after comparing costs at 48 schools, including 15 currently using open source software, and 33 not.
The research goes on to point out that support costs for open source PCs were actually higher at secondary schools.
