Open Options | Deployment & maintenance

Necessary expertise
Service & support
Modular design
Software management
Independence & persistence
Taking it home

Necessary expertise

Open source is harder to deploy.

Any software solution requires some expertise to deploy, secure, and maintain. In the past, most open source software was technically challenging and required considerable expertise. Today, some open source software is just as easy to deploy as proprietary alternatives. Solutions like Red Hat Linux or OpenOffice.org are designed for entry- or mid-level user expertise, offering installers with graphical interfaces and suggested configurations. Once installed, open source may not offer certain features, but it's not necessarily more difficult to deploy.

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Service & support

Proprietary offers better service & support.

Any software solution requires some service and support. For both open source and proprietary software, experts depend on email lists and community Web sites as well as contracted support. The quality and availability of help is proportional to interest and use, especially in open source. The support costs for niche solutions are usually high. On the backend, open source is common so the community is large and helpful. A variety of companies offer help for using open source on the backend. On the frontend, open source is often still a niche. So it may be harder to find help (especially in rural areas) and contracted help may be more costly. Current users report that the community is very helpful and friendly to educators, sometimes even volunteering in schools.

A proprietary company may have a longer, better reputation for service and support. For example, it's relatively easy to find hardware drivers for Microsoft Windows solutions. Since the open source community depends on volunteers, help may not be as certain or as timely. By depending on volunteers, a school may not have firm accountability. Some open source companies offer good support contracts, but schools may not be able to afford such contracts. Of course, any open source or proprietary support contract will only provide limited accountability.

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Modular design

With open source you only pay for what you need.

Open source software is usually more modular than proprietary alternatives. Modular software means each program is a discrete piece of a solution. If the user finds a better program, it can be swapped in without replacing the whole solution. (Such software may be a commodity.)

Proprietary solutions often come as packages, sometimes with features most users don't need. It can be difficult or impossible to replace a specific program for something smaller, more reliable, or otherwise more desirable. In contrast, open source is famous for offering several interchangeable, modular programs for various needs. This approach is summarized as "There's More Than One Way To Do It" (TMTOWTDI). Users can find the best components and only pay for what they need (when they have to pay). Open source solutions are usually scalable at little or no cost, while some proprietary solutions are incrementally more expensive with each new user or machine.

As a frontend operating system, Linux remains a niche platform. Low threshold open source programs like OpenOffice.org are constrained by the prior design and limitations of Microsoft Windows. To take full advantage of modular design, a solution has to begin with an open source operating system like Linux.

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Software management

Open source makes license management easier.

License management is much easier with open source. Users can install any number of copies, so open source companies don't bother with complicated licenses (and most of the possible licenses favor nonprofits like schools). There is no risk of illegal copies or license audits, and there are no anti-piracy measures (e.g. CD keys, product activation). Current users praise this freedom from licensing liability.

Open source doesn't eliminate software management. Schools should still track which version of what program is on which machine. The quality of any program, especially for security, depends on patches and other updates. Notably, with a thin client model like K12LTSP, software management is minimal. The school only needs to track and update the servers.

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Independence & persistence

Open source means greater independence from companies.

Open source users have more independence from software companies. Even if a software company goes bankrupt, the community still has the source code. This independence also means "end of life" decisions or undesirable new features can't be forced on the users. Schools aren't locked into a vendor or their support department. The original software company may offer the best support. But since the software is open anyone can try to improve or support it. Schools can choose the best solution now with the freedom to change in the future. They don't have to rely on a single vendor for all aspects of the solution. A comprehensive solution may be easier, but schools can essentially purchase every component of a solution (including support) from different vendors.

With open source software, no one can force the end of a product. ... Users... can choose to move to another product if that appears to be the best solution - but they can also choose to maintain the software in question or to join with others to do so. The same is true if product development moves in a direction incompatible with a user's... needs: the recipient can choose to move to a different product, but can also choose to maintain the software (or to join with others to do so). (Mozilla, Guide)

Few schools have the resources to develop software from scratch. But a large community like the K12LTSP project may attract enough interest and support to enjoy significant independence.

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Taking it home

Open source lets teachers & students take software home.

Open source software can be copied and shared for free, allowing teachers and students to use the same programs at school and at home. They can download software from the Internet or the school can offer burned CD-ROMs. Some educators have seen better work from students using open source software at home. This also has equity advantages: all students have an equal opportunity to use software for homework. However, teachers and students still need computers at home to leverage this advantage.

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Open Options is a product of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These materials are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. The following acknowledgment is requested on materials which are reproduced: Developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon.

This Web site was developed and maintained by the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium. The federal funding for the regional technology consortia program ended on September 30, 2005, and no further updates are planned unless additional funding becomes available. However, much of the content is still useful and NWREL will continue to provide access to this site to support educators and to meet its own technical assistance needs.