Schools in the Czech cities of Šumperk and Hradec Králové have been using open source for years, the Czech open source news magazine LinuxExpres reports.

The elementary school '8. května 63' in the city of Šumperk has been using Linux for over six years. The school at the time decided to stop paying for licences for proprietary operating system and office applications, stop paying for anti-virus solutions and use the money instead for increasing the number of PCs from 20 to 31. The amount it saved was used to pay for a projector, a central server and improved networking facilities, LinuxExpres writes in a report on the school that it published in May.

The school gradually increased the number of Linux-based PCs and laptops. It now has two classrooms, with a total of 120 PCs that run entirely on Linux and other free software applications and there are 22 Linux-laptops for teachers. The school has to fall back on a proprietary operating system for a PC used in the school canteen and a few more that are used in the school administration. "Students use Linux exclusively, apart from a few applications that are accessed over the network from a PC with a proprietary operating system."

Low cost and the ease of management are the main advantages, LinuxExpres writes.

The Boženy Němcové Gymnasium in the city of Hradec Králové started using Linux even earlier, in 1994. The school gradually increases the use of free and open source software where possible, Linux Express reported in March. The main reason for keeping a virtualised installation of a proprietary operating system is widely uses Czech information application for schools, which requires the proprietary operating system.



More information:

Linux Express news item on Gymnázium Boženy Němcové (in Czech)

Linux Express news item on Základní škola Šumperk 8 (in Czech)

Article on the use of Scribus for Adamov school newspaper (in Czech)