[H-GEN] QLD Education

[Shaun Nykvist]

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hi all

> > The LTSP Discuss mailing list recently had the following posting.
> >
> > Is it true, does MS have QLD eductaion tied up in an exclusive licensing
> > contract? If so does anyone know much about the details?
> >
> > > by the User Agreement that Ed Qld. has signed with Microsoft to use
> > > standard Operating Systems - Windows N.T 4 - in all schools. I believe
> > > it is a 5 year
>
>Hi Robert,
>
>I set up a proxy server for a school here in Brisbane using Linux and squid
>and I know of another member at HUMBUG that has setup linux machines for
>about 4-5 schools on the south side. Although what you are talking about
>might have come into play since I did this, which was about 2 years ago. What
>about Macs?

I am involved in the education sector and am aware of the MS agreement.  I 
believe this agreement is due for negotiation now.  When the agreement 
first came about, the organisation QSITE (see http://www.qsite.edu.au) 
spoke very strongly about the agreement and how it was to be implemented 
and as a result some changes came about.  There are a number of lists 
associated with this organisation which could give you all the details that 
you want.  the list in particular is qsite-lan at qsite.edu.au.

While the agreement is in place schools must pay for a particular licence 
fee for each and every machine that fits into what is deemed a machine 
capable of running MS products - this means that every machine from a 
pentium 75 with 48mb of ram must be reported and licensed (i think) - even 
if it was running linux or some other flavour.  With macs, schools must 
also pay a ms licence for these if they use a piece of ms software on them.

However, schools can implement any type of server that they feel will do 
the job.  I know of many schools that have built their own linux proxy 
servers.  I have also been involved in encouraging schools to use linux 
servers to fulfill the requirements of some senior schooling courses such 
as information and processing technologies and Information technology 
systems They look at info systems, AI, alogorithms and programming, social 
& ethical issues, computer systems, server management and networking as 
well as some multimedia areas.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Shaun 


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