UK Outsources Education IT to Microsoft - Again

Oh look, the UK government has effectively outsourced IT in education to Microsoft - again:

Schools minister Jim Knight, who was speaking at the opening of this year's Bett event at Olympia in London, said today that Microsoft has created something he described as a “re-investment fund”. The software maker will “commit to fund a foundation in support of the Home Access programme,” he said.

...

The Microsoft-funded foundation will develop and implement a programme of training and support for teachers, parents, as well as to help create "awareness" for the Home Office programme, said Knight.

Now, let me see: Microsoft is going to give money to raise awareness of free software, yes? Maybe not; which means, inevitably, that it will give money to raise awareness of its own products. Which means that open source will remains shut out of schools yet again.

Whatever it is paying into this "re-investment fund", it was certainly a good investment for Microsoft.

Is Elonex the ONE?

One emerging trend is that of ultra-cheap ultraportables powered - of course - by GNU/Linux. As I've noted before, Microsoft simply cannot follow down this particular rabbit-hole: Windows is too big and too expensive for such cheap hardware.

And to prove the point that the only way is down, here are tantalising hints about a new sub £100 - yes, you read that correctly - machine called the ONE from the UK manufacturer Elonex:

The ONE has been specially designed to aid and encourage learning. The user-friendly unit comes with a full software suite including a word processor, spreadsheet, scientific calculator, and an imaging and graphics package. Linux is at the core of the ONE. This has not only massively reduced the cost and has been a major factor in making the ONE available sub £100, but also corresponds with the governments startegy on software interoperability. “I want to see young people access all sorts of software, to feel confident with the use of open-source and proprietary software." Jim Knight MP.

Nice one: let's see what the UK government's reaction to *that* is....