Technology & Learning November 2007 - (Page 20) INTERNET & NETWORKING Commercial MSN Messenger Citrix Presentation Server Exchange Server Remote Desktop for Windows Open Source SeaMonkey Pidgin aMSN Miranda IM MULTIMEDIA & AUDIO Commercial Premiere Pro Final Cut Pro iTunes Movie Maker a real breakdown. And there are a lot of them that aren’t continuing. There are schools that have gone out and bought a lot of laptops, but there is no plan for four years down the road. That’s why we went with open source,” Huffman says. Indeed, Indiana and other large school systems like San Diego and Atlanta have joined the until-now quiet, albeit multibillion-dollar, revolution in computing. So successful and popular has Linux become that Wired magazine recently dubbed it “the new black.” And software development based on open source technology, now representing 10 percent of all development, is expected to soar to 20 percent by 2010, according to industry analysis by Saugatuck Technology, making it a roughly $5.8 billion market in the next three years. Its popularity is due, in part, to: • Recent announcements that PC makers like Dell and HP will offer Linux-based desktops at dramatically reduced costs, complementing computers already on the market, such as Intel’s Classmate PC and eee by ASUS. • The reliability of the Linux OS server and, in particular, the hugely popular desktop platforms by Ubuntu, Novell, and Red Hat. • Technology that allows Linux computers to run Microsoft applications, thus removing any need of a Microsoft OS. • The slew of new software, free or cheap, such as Moodle and OpenOffice, based on open source code. • Programs that run directly on the Web without need of installation on individual computers, making the OS less of a factor. • Cutting-edge technology, called “virtualization,” that allows servers to run Microsoft, Apple, and Linux applications simultaneously. Meanwhile, high-profile U.S. companies have raised the status of Linux by basing Open Source Avidemux Audacity Amarok Kino Taksi SECURITY & PRIVACY Commercial Norton AntiVirus Kaspersky AntiVirus Personal PGP Whole Disk Encryption Norton Personal Firewall Open Source Winpooch ClamWin Thunderbird TrueCrypt their entire operations on open source technology with amazing success. These include Amazon (which hosts more than 42 terabytes of data), eBay, and Motorola. Google, for one, has found Linux to be so successful (using open source, the search engine company processes 91 million searches a day and is the fourth-largest database in the world) that on Oct. 31 it rolled out an Everexmade gPC, on sale at Wal-Mart for $200, being touted by the company as a collaboration between the PC maker, the open source community, and Google that will “bring Linux to the masses.” No surprise then that nation’s cash-strapped K–12 school systems are also looking for high-tech bargains. According to the Greaves Group’s American Digital Schools 2006 report: “Beyond Linux and the well-known Indiana open source initiative, a number of other states and districts are considering open source.…Widespread open source usage will grow eightfold from 2006 to 2011.” One reason open source has been readily adopted by school IT departments is in an effort to improve the nation’s 4:1 studentto-computer rate. “With a 25 percent penetration of computers in the classroom, and home-based access linked strongly to household income, many children are simply blocked from the kinds of rich learning opportunities that modern computers can facilitate,” says ed tech guru David Thornburg. “Computers today should be expectations, not options. They should be as commonplace as pencils, pads of paper, or books.” The way we teach the nation’s 54 million K–12 students has evolved too, necessitating improved technology in the classroom. Nowadays, Web 2.0 applications such as videoconferencing, classroom management, podcasting, and wikis are common teaching tools that run off the Web, requiring elaborate networking infrastructure support and additional computers. Continued on page 24 20 | www.techlearning.com http://www.techlearning.com
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