Workshop at 9th JTEL Summerschool in Limassol, Cyprus. http://www.prolearn-academy.org/Events/summer-school-2013/

1. Why is free software important in
education?
Edmund Laugasson, PhD student from
Tallinn University, Institute of Informatics, Estonia
edmund.laugasson@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/phdedmund/

2. Keywords
● sharing the knowledge
● sharing the tools
● social responsibility
● independence
● learning
● saving costs
● quality
http://bqtglobal.com/W_EU/Images/Photo/Software.jpg

4. One short engagement video :)
Linux vs Mac and PC Spoof 1. Duration 55s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEiIpcxm3Oo

5. 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.

6. Exercise 1: Task
Why 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

7. Exercise 1: Voting
votes
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

8. 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_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in

9. 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/

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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 etc
Give some good/bad examples
● up to 5 minutes to discuss
● up to 1 minutes to present
- speak about just one thing
you have chosen among
others – why is it most
important in your opinion
http://www.ictcommunityportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Computer-Software.jpg

20. Exercise 2: Results

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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.

27. 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)

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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/

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

37. Concluding video
How Linux is built? Duration: 3m 12s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVpbFMhOAwE