Why is free software important in education?

Edmund Laugasson, PhD student fromTallinn University, Institute of Informatics, Estonia

edmund.laugasson@gmail.comhttps://sites.google.com/site/phdedmund/

Keywords

● sharing the knowledge● sharing the tools● social responsibility● independence● learning● saving costs● quality

http://bqtglobal.com/W_EU/Images/Photo/Software.jpg

One short engagement video :)

Linux vs Mac and PC Spoof 1. Duration 55shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEiIpcxm3Oo

Exercise 1: Description

● the next slide will display some choices - please write your choice and explanation clearly to the paper given to you

● wrinkle your paper and throw it to someone else at least twice● after receiving a paper, read it loud <-- this would be your new

answer● people with similar answers will go to one group● prepare a poster● spinner will choose the speaker● ≼5 minutes to discuss, 1 min to present in front of others – ≼

all presenters: please come to the front and stay until everyone has been presenting.

Exercise 1: TaskWhy free and open-source software (FOSS)

is important?

A) to save costs

B) to be malware free

C) have better security, quality

D) is developed by community (sharing knowledge)

E) there are no limitation to share software with others

F) it is ethical, responsible thing to do

http://www.juliangough.com/picture/question-mark.jpg?pictureId=1107153&asGalleryImage=true

Exercise 1: Voting

votes

A) to save costsB) to be malware freeC) have better security, qualityD) is developed by community (sharing knowledge)E) there are no limitation to share software with othersF) it is ethical, responsible thing to do

Terms● free software - is software provided under terms that guarantee

the freedoms of its users (individually and in groups) to run it, adapt it to their needs, and redistribute it with or without changes.

● freeware - is software that is available for use at no monetary cost or for an optional fee but usually (although not necessarily) with one or more restricted usage rights.

● proprietary software - is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder with the intent that the licensee is given the right to use the software only under certain conditions, and restricted from other uses, such as modification, sharing, studying, redistribution, or reverse engineering.

● vendor lock-in - makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products and services, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_softwarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freewarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_softwarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in

Why is FOSS important in education?

FOSS: free and open-source software

● user freedom– FOSS respects user's freedom and social solidarity

of his community

– proprietary software take away user's freedom, keeping them divided and helpless

http://www.gnu.org/education/

Why is FOSS important in education?

Divided because they are forbidden from sharing the program, and helpless because the users don't have the source code of the program.

That is, they cannot change it, they cannot find out what the program is really doing, and it can do very bad things.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?Free Software means that the user has the 4 essential freedoms:

Freedom 0 is the freedom to run the program for any purpose.

Freedom 1 is the freedom to study the source code of the program and

change it to make it do what you wish.

Freedom 2 is the freedom to help your neighbor; that is, the freedom to

make and distribute exact copies of the program whenever you want.

freedom 3 is the freedom to contribute to your community; that is,

the freedom to make and distribute copies of your modified versions of

the program.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?

With these four freedoms a program is Free Software because the social system for its use and distribution is an ethical system that respects everyone's freedom and the freedom of the community of users.

Software must be Free because we all deserve freedom, we all deserve to be allowed to participate in a free community.

Therefore, schools should teach mostly Free Software. There are four reasons why this is so.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?

The most shallow reason is to save money. Schools do not have enough money, so they should not waste their money paying for permission to use proprietary software.

This is an obvious reason, but some proprietary software companies usually eliminate this reason by donating copies of their proprietary programs to the school at no charge or at a small price.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?

The reason why they do that is to get students addicted. It is a malicious plan. This is a plan to use schools as instruments to impose a permanent dependence on students.

If a school teaches how to use a proprietary program, the student will be dependent on that program and after he graduates he will have to pay to use that program. He will probably work for a company that does not receive copies of the program free of charge.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?

Therefore, proprietary software developers use schools to impose permanent dependence on the whole society.

Schools must refuse to participate in such a malicious plan because schools have a social mission which is to educate the next generation to be good citizens of a capable, strong, independent, cooperating and free society.

This can only be achieved by teaching Free Software. Schools should mostly use Free Software and rare cases proprietary software.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?

But there is a deeper reason: to form good programmers, because in order to learn good programming skills students need to read lots of code and write lots of code.

To learn to write good code for big programs students need to write small changes in the code of big programs.

All this is possible only with Free Software. Only Free Software allows education in information technology.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?

But there is still a deeper reason: to teach good citizenship, because schools have the mission to teach not only facts and technical skills, but above all the spirit of good will, the habit of helping others.

Therefore, each class should have this rule: students, if you bring a program to the class, you can not keep it for yourself, you must share it with the rest of the class.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Why is FOSS important in education?

The school should practice what it preaches, it should introduce Free Software in the classroom.

All schools should migrate to Free Software and teach Free Software because each school should participate in leading society towards freedom and social solidarity.

http://www.gnu.org/education/FOSS: free and open-source software

Exercise 2 – what you expect from software?

● let us form groups of 2..3 people● think and write down about the topic:

What you expext from software? E.g. reliability, safety, stability etcGive some good/bad examples

● up to 5 minutes to discuss● up to 1 minutes to present

- speak about just one thingyou have chosen amongothers – why is it mostimportant in your opinion

http://www.ictcommunityportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Computer-Software.jpg

Exercise 2: Results

How software is developed● proprietary software

– developers are working in closed environment

– creating closed source code / software

– communicating only inside the company

– outside communication is not allowed due to business secret

+ they get paid

– they are not members of free community, because their work is secret

How software is developed● free and open-source software (FOSS) –

+ developers are working in open community

+ creating open-source code / software

+ anyone is encouraged to join with community

+ manpower for development is much bigger than in case of proprietary software

― will not get paid

+ honoured by community

+ good records to CV

Exercise 3: expenses

Remain to old system● initial costs to buy● licence fees● custom development● deployment costs● teaching costs● support

FOSS: free and open-source software

Switching to free software● custom development● deployment costs● teaching costs● support

What is happening in Estonia?● World Bank rated Estonia as a high income country in

spring 2011● Microsoft has increased School Agreement prices

14...25 times since 1st July 2011● Microsoft offered 3-year contract with old fixed prices● it is hard to find more money for schools● spring 2013 has started active discussion over it● Microsoft Office will mostly be abandoned● Microsoft Windows will remain in these places until

incompatibility issues cannot be solved

About expenses

● if to deploy free software– training about new software

– existing data backup/restore if necessary

– software installation and configuration

– setup domain (OpenLDAP) + filesharing (e.g. NFS) in case of roaming profiles

– support service

– maintenance service

About expenses

● if to remain onto proprietary software– up to 25 times higher licence fees

– possible higher security issues (old OEM's but also Microsoft Windows itself)

– support service

– maintenance service

Schools in Estonia are usually using Microsoft School Agreement (MSA), which requires to licence all computers in school regardless of their real usage. Also it requires base licence (OEM ~85€ together when buying new computer or Get Genuine ~130€ per computer for later licensing), because MSA is an upgrade licencing type.

Rough calculations about transition

● Estonian capital city Tallinn has 204 educational institutions – schools (~80), kindergartens

● ~7000 computers● in one school ~80 computers● in one kindergarten ~5...10 computers● expenses are increasing from ~20 000 € to

~360 000 €, it means 18 times roughly(VAT 20% included)

Tallinn: installation calculations

● ~80 computer per school and 1 hour per computer if to clone previously prepared customized installation media containing all needed software and updates already

● 35€/hour x 80 computers = 2800 € per school for software installation

● 80 schools x 2800€ = 224 000 €for all Tallinn schools (one time expense)

● with same price goes other costs if needed – backup/restore, setup domain + filesharing, etc.

Tallinn: teachers training calculations

● per school: average 3 groups, 15 people per group

● 35€/h x 3 hours x 3 groups = 315 € per school● 80 schools x 315€ = 25 200 € for all schools

25 200 € roughly one time expense would be for teaching the basics of using GNU/Linux operating system, hereinafter: Linux.

Tallinn: IT-specialists training calculations

● 3 days, á 8 hours = 40 hours● 15 people in group, ~150 IT-specialists in

Tallinn schools● 10 groups x 40 hours x 35€/h = 14 000 €

14 000 € roughly would be one time expense to educate IT-specialists to support free software at Tallinn schools.

Transition costs together

● 80 schools at Tallinn, Estonia– 224 000 € for installation– 25 200 € for teachers training– 14 000 € for IT-specialists training

It makes 263 200 € roughly as one time expense.

Additionally comes setup of domain + possible filesharing.

Also support and maintenance costs. These are expected to reduce due to more stable and more resistant against malware.

When to remain to old system...● 7000 computers in Tallinn schools, Estonia● Microsoft School Agreement requires to licence all

computers at school● MS Windows costs 24 € per year one computer● MS Office costs 32 € per year one computer● 7000 x 24 = 168 000 € for MS Windows per year● 7000 x 32 = 224 000 € for MS Office per year● MS Windows + MS Office together:

168 000 + 224 000 = 392 000 € roughly per year● Plus support and maintenance costs.

Other Microsoft licencing schemes

● OVS-ES– all 200 hours and more working employees must be

licenced, paid per year

– must have a base licence - any Windows OEM-licence – bought with new computers or Get Genuine

– MS Windows 23 € and MS Office 32 € per PC per year

● Open Academic Licence– minimum quantity – 5 licences

(MS Windows, MS Office)

– base licence also required

– MS Windows 76 € and MS Office 78 € one time expense

FOSS tools for PhD students

● writing– LibreOffice as an office suite, Mendeley and Zotero supports it -

http://www.libreoffice.org/

– Lyx – WYSIWYM text processor for LaTeX, http://www.lyx.org/

● mindmapping– Docear as an academic literature suite for mindmapping, search

papers, collect them, make annotations etc - https://www.docear.org/

– WiseMapping Open Source – mindmapping online (Java), also in your server, http://www.wisemapping.org/

– Freeplane – mindmapping, http://freeplane.sourceforge.net/

WYSIWYM – What You See Is What You Mean

FOSS tools for PhD students● collaboration

– Zotero – collect and collaborate, citate, http://www.zotero.org/ - supports also MS Word and LibreOffice Writer - https://www.zotero.org/support/word_processor_integration

● questionnaire– LimeSurvey – create and manage questionnaires

http://www.limesurvey.org/

● data analysis– Weft QDA - tool for the analysis of textual data such as interview

transcripts, fieldnotes and other documents, http://pressure.to/qda/– GNU PSPP – similar to SPSS – free replacement,

http://www.gnu.org/software/pspp/

– RStudio – integrated statistics program, http://www.rstudio.com/– Paterva/Maltego – (social, security) information gathering,

analysis http://www.paterva.com/

Links

● List of concept- and mind-mapping software● Comparison of numerical analysis software● List of collaborative software● A successful PhD software recommendations

Concluding video

How Linux is built? Duration: 3m 12shttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVpbFMhOAwE