Yes, it does seem unlikely doesn't it? Windows has been the only reality for several generations of computer users. But is the tide finally beginning to turn?

At the Education Show held in February 2007, the talk was of 'sustainable' computing and how schools could use technology to reduce their 'carbon footprint'. Nobody had any idea of what was to come – a host of Linux-based, ultra-portable, incredibly cheap and very green personal laptops.

Asus's EeePC was the first to arrive in the UK and has been aggressively marketed by RM plc (traditionally a Microsoft supplier). The EeePC sold out within days of its launch. RM's projected sales for the EeePC are 250,000 units in 2008.

At the Education Show this year British supplier Elonex will launch their 'Elonex One' sub-notebook. A Linux-based device that will retail for less than £100.

Eighteen months ago it would be unthinkable to make the prediction that by 2013 Linux would supplant Windows as the operating system of choice for most school children. We're now beginning to think the unthinkable.

What the new notebooks have in common

• The sub-notebooks are small. Typically they have a 7" screen and weigh under a kilo.
• They use 2 watts to 6 watts of power, have no hard disk or CDROM.
• They have 2-8 GB of solid-state storage and all run Linux as their principle operating system.
• Costs ranges from sub-£100 to around £200.
• They are very robust products aimed squarely at the 'school bag' but most will also work with the keyboards, mice and monitors already at use in schools.

The leading contenders

The One Laptop per Child Project (laptop.org) has the wireless X0-1, is aimed at emerging markets, currently costs less than $200 and runs a version of Red Hat's Fedora Linux.

Intel's Classmate offers two versions of Linux operating systems both using the Red Hat package manager. They also have a Windows XP version.

Asus' EeePC supplied to schools by RM costs less than £170 to educational buyers and uses a Debian-based Linux operating system.

Britains' Elonex's 'Elonex-One' and Canada's InkMedia products have emerged very recently, having detachable keyboards, costing less than £100 and again using a Debian-derived Linux operating systems.

These products are popular because of their size, their cost and the range of software that they come with. The fact that they run Linux and come with free, open source applications is largely unnoticed by the users.

Why Linux and not Windows?

Windows XP Home can run on devices like the EeePc and the Classmate but it is not officially supported by Microsoft and thus obsolete.

Worse still, RM plc is selling their Windows XP Home version of the EeePC to schools for 50% more than the Linux version. A £269 notebook will do nothing for school children. Proprietary lock-in tactics so successful in monopolising the desktop, have less effect on a new generation plugged into Web 2.0 and SaaS technologies.

Windows Vista will never be able to run on this new breed of personal computer. Even Becta, the government's quango overseeing the use of ICT by schools, admits Vista is too hungry for power and resources for use by most schools. Microsoft, it appears, simply does not have an operating system ready to fit the new niche. Windows CE is dead and the Pocket PC won't scale up.

Convergence technologies based on Linux are now everywhere - smart phones, set-top boxes, PDAs, satellite navigators, digital photo frames. Any concerns that such devices would be unacceptable to users because they don't run Windows are unfounded. Quite the opposite.

Some go as far as argue that Microsoft has tacitly admitted defeat in as much as they have signed a patent protection agreement with the Linux distributions used by the Classmate (Novell) and the EeePC (Xandros).

Summary

Children need access to technology that is affordable, robust and able to bridge the digital divide between rich and poor. This new generation of computers offers just that. Open Source software has made it possible to provide every child with access to the Internet, high quality office software and to a wide range of graphics and music software. As schools adapt to a new reality - one laptop per child – the only viable, supportable, affordable option is low cost, highly portable laptops running Linux not Windows.

This report analyses BECTA's procurement frameworks and concludes that they have placed school ICT in the hands of only a few of the biggest suppliers and that this is now acting to the detriment of school computing.

ICT has been part of schools for the past thirty years. During this time the number of computers per pupil has risen from vanishingly small to 1:3.9 and is set rise to 1:1 in the near future. School administration, an early adopter of technology is now highly dependent on computing facilities and all schools have some kind of managemant information sofware (MIS). Classroom computing is dominated by Research Machines plc (RM) and administration technology is similarly dominated by Capita plc. ICT expenditure and ICT-related energy consumption naturally has increased massively. Energy consumption, in particular, now annually represents approximately 25% of the hardware capital cost.

Sustainability

The Government is concerned that schools make good use of these expensive facilities. School financial administrators are for their part starting to look warily at their energy costs and many are questioning whether their ICT represents good value or, is sustainable. By way of illustrating their concern, next month's Education Executive (a magazine that is aimed entirely at school financial administrators) dedicates most of the issue to the new greener ICT options as well as the raft of new low cost technologies available to schools.

Early Diversity

The ICT procurement framework for schools was introduced with the best of intentions. Becta, a Government quango, sought to bring structure to the school ICT sector. Ten years ago schools supported a huge diversity of ICT suppliers and equipment, some very small, and many were startups that later failed. Others grew into large, publicly traded corporations. This state of affairs reflected the rapidly evolving market building on the personal computer revolution rather than the traditional inflexible top-down corporate IT that still dominated the business sector. This period was one of unprecedented creativity in the writing of educational software but its very diversity threatened the development plans for ICT in the public sector.

Rationalisation

Thus the 'one man band' was officially deprecated in favour of stable, large organisations and this was accompanied by a signing of a memorandum of understanding between Microsoft and the newly elected Labour government. The effect was to monopolise school's ICT provision, both in terms of equipment and software, around Microsoft Windows. Home grown companies such as Acorn computers hitherto very successful finally ceded to Windows computers and the small suppliers were replaced by major vendors such as Ramesys, Capita, RM, Viglen and Akhter.

The upgrade cycle

The major school vendors who formed the coterie of approved suppliers to the procurement framework in turn bought from even bigger vendors such as Microsoft and Intel. In return they benefited directly from 'discounted' education licences for software and the current school business model was created.

Schools at that time did not have devolved budgets so even if they wanted they were tied to the directives of their Local Authorities (LA). The LAs were tied to approved suppliers, and the latter, in turn were tied to the vast near monopolies from whom they bought their discounted operating systems and office software.

Therefore all were tied to upgrade cycles and lock-in strategies common in the industrial sector. The rest is as we say 'history'. Schools were tied to one model (as were most businesses it must be said) and to a closed list of BECTA-approved vendors who were also tied to the same model.

Unintended consequences

The events described had the effect of introducing extreme conservatism in the education sector. This had an important consequence. The ability to adapt to change was severely curtailed and development was placed under the control of distant third parties. At first this did not appear obvious nor did it seem a problem.

Schools abandoned Apple and Acorn computers and switched to Windows. Windows 95 had been a great success and schools started out in earnest with Windows 98/NT and MS Office. They continued through Windows 2000/ME and then to Windows XP. Each incarnation of operating system required better computers, costlier software and used more and more power. In times of plenty this was largely ignored especially as money was poured into ICT eduction. In a previous article we outlined the enormous scale of the spending and pointed out that BECTA could not even account for £200 million money given to schools through their e-credit (elc) scheme. The building schools for the future project (BSF) was taking shape and the procurement frameworks defined the suppliers. £400,000 was the 'entry fee' for bidders, few LAs had the confidence to challenge their legal ties to the procurement frameworks.

Times change

There is not so much money to go around in 2008 for software, licences and equipment yet there is a target to provide every child with a computer. Moreover climate change has become a serious issue and carbon reduction targets must be met. Schools for example have been asked to be carbon neutral by 2016. School computing by contrast has doubled its energy consumption every 6 years for the last 30 years and now accounts for the output of an entire power station. Energy costs are rising fast and schools from 2007 have to pay the going commercial rate for power where previously they had been subsidised.

Becta wakes up

Very late in the day, Becta woke up and realised for themselves that the cycle of spending would never stop and advised schools in October 2007 and again in Jan 2008 not to upgrade to Microsoft Vista or MS Office 2007 on the grounds that they contained no feature that schools needed. Additionally, BECTA calculated it would require an renewal of 50% of the schools' existing stock even if it were desirable. They did not add the increased energy consumption to their calculations however.

The end of the frameworks?

Too late! Becta's procurement framework mean that alternatives that could meet schools' needs in terms of energy consumption, extending life of equipment, eliminating licence costs and taking advantage of new technologies such as the ultra portable low-cost laptops are not possible.

Why not? Simply because most innovations were coming from a different IT sector namely the Open Source Software (OSS) movement. No OSS supplier appears on the Becta framework. Even the most experienced and durable companies with deep industrial competence do not appear on their list. It is a closed shop.

Meanwhile the incumbent suppliers are utterly tied to the old upgrade model. Schools cannot move forward and they cannot look elsewhere unless they a brave enough to go it alone which understandably few are as this would mean defying Becta and going against their ultra cautious Local Authorities.

At a stroke Becta's rigid process model has paralysed the entire sector and promotes a culture of cronyism amongst 'approved' suppliers. The quango's response has been that of the committed apparatchik. Becta hopes that one of its existing suppliers will embrace Open Source software and business models but all the signs are that this is a forlorn hope. They have even awarded a major Open Source project to one of its 'approved' suppliers without even going out to tender. A company with no history or experience in OSS.

The most likely outcome is that OSS will be used by these vendors to lower their own costs. They will not change their business model. OSS will be employed invisibly in servers and embedded systems and schools will never have the cost benefits passed on to them. The only way that the market can become responsive again is for Becta's moribund procurement frameworks to be abolished.

Room 25, where I sit now, is one of my school's computer rooms and has been since 1976; we go back a long way. Once it was a geography classroom and once I was a young teacher and once we hadn't thought about global warming. The story starts not so long ago, but before Windowstm before HIV-AIDS before RM, before mobile phones.... For those you who just want me to get to the point read the paragraph far below (in bold) then you might just go back and read it all*.

Have you ever wondered what the power consumption of a 12” green-on-black cathode ray tube monitor in 1975 was? I thought not. How about a 1980's Neon striplight's power/lumen ratio?.. still no? Sadly I do know this kind of thing so read now the brief history of Room 25 and it's growing appetite for electricity and be very afraid.

Room 25 in its 'geography' time and since time began it felt, had, and seemingly always had, four 50 watt neon strip lights (the sort that have the uncanny knack of adding gloom when switched on), desks, chairs, a full-wall blackboard, some books, a book cupboard and that was it. High tech it wasn't.

Total power consumption max 200 watts (0.2 kilowatts).

It's the end of the 1970's, meet our mini-computer; the famed PDP 11 to be exact, plus ten terminals with green text on black screens. The every epitome of modernity we were where IT was at. The PDP had a 400 watt power supply and those black monitors drew 28 watts each. We had arrived! ...total power consumption of Room 25 is now about a kilowatt (an electric kettle's worth).

The 1980's are well under way and thanks to Apple and IBM the Personal Computer is everywhere; it's time to buy into this revolution. Dazzled, we dumped the faithful PDP and bought twenty BBC Master Series PCs made by Acorn Computers, complete with monitors and external floppy drives (the big disks, 5.25” across and really floppy). 180 watts per workstation (in case you had hoped I might forget why I started this essay).

Room 25 now uses 3.8kw

These were good times but Apple's Mac had shown us.. well, shown us mice, actually; just how cool was that? Mice! We could not afford Apples and loved our Acorns (we ignored Apricot's products...what was it with fruit in that time?) so we bought twenty-five rodent-equipped Acorn RISC computers ending with the 7000 series, which, ultimately we networked together. Thus was the modern network room born. It had bright white screens, mice, colour graphics and a 'server'. Health and Safety arrived at much the same time: twenty, 35 watt warm-light fluorescent tubes replaced the cheerless tubes and the dusty blackboard was replaced by a whiteboard complete with solvent-sniffing pens.

The Acorns were very power efficient (even if the monitors were not), the progeny of its ARM CPU found their way into millions of low powered devices such as mobile phones; allow about 220 watts per workstation (150 from the monitor).

Room 25 can now draw 6 kilowatts on full power (a washing machine + electric oven + iron + kettle)

As the 90's wore on into the new millennium, money was poured into schools for IT and it became clear that Microsofttm, the Web and Interactive Whiteboards were to be our future. IT became ICT and now, as I survey my Room I see we still have 25 computers, but now I can hear the air conditioning softly running as it always does, day and night, and accompanying it the resonant hum from three gently cooled 'servers' settled the old stationery cupboard.

Glancing up, I look admiringly at the eye-wateringly bright ceiling-mounted projector and to the Interactive Whiteboard where I can watch YouTube clips streaming from the Web over our filtered and firewalled broadband link.

The air-conditioning uses 5kw; the projector 1kw; the servers 2.1kw; the computers 0.5kw each.

Room 25 really rocks now, running full-on, it draws 26 kilowatts of power.

We have two more 'Room 25's somewhere else in the school but I rarely leave this room; I hear they are nice - full of geographers no doubt. What next? Our computers do really need upgrading if we want the latest 3D desktops or to take full advantage of the multimedia and virtual learning environments (VLE). We'll have to get another server at least for the VLE...Hmm... let me see, in this brochure you can get some decent computers for not very much money, ... 1000 watt power supplies, impressive.., and,gosh, that 'graphics' computer even has a 120watt graphics card...cool, well ok then, not cool, hot. But hang on a minute did I just say 26 kilowatts in the last paragraph, isn't that a lot?

* Let's check the figures. Room 25 has increased its power consumption from 0.2kw ...1kw...3.8kw...6kw...26kw, My next Room 25 though looks like being 37kw (the air conditioning needed increasing for the new PCs mentioned above) that's much the same power as my car.

I can see a problem looming here. Room 25 may start to figure on the Bursar's radar... especially If we keep having those power outages and the cost of energy keeps going up. . Worse, Room 25s are multiplying, everywhere. We have three at this school, and we also have Interactive Whiteboards in every classroom..50 in total at the last count.

I can do sums, let me see, the UK has about 5000 secondary schools and the pupil to PC ratio has dropped from 7.6 to 3.9 in the last 5 years, most classrooms will have a Interactive Whiteboards and all schools will have a VLE. My goodness...UK school computing is now using as much power as an entire coal fired power station can produce....no really it is: we're toast.

Is it necessary to use so much power? No of course not. We just think it is. Let's redraw my plans for Room 25. I can do all that I do in Room 25 for a fraction of the energy consumption. 90% less to be precise.

Room 25 ... rehab program

1. All workstations will be 6 watt (max) They will have embedded open source operating systems like the new Linux laptops and we'll either use them as personal computers or dock them to our existing monitors and keyboards.
2. All 150w CRT and old 50w LCD monitors will be replaced by 17" 20 watt LCD panels.
3. Power will be supplied by a 12v rail (because ordinary transformers waste 35% of the power delivered to them as heat).
4. The projector and Interactive Whiteboard will go and be replaced by a nematic light-reflective display which uses very little power indeed.
5. Three servers will be 'virtualised' into one server and we'll turn that horrible air conditioning off for good, thank you very much.
6. Each of the lights will be swapped for 4 watt white LED clusters.

Jump forward a few years: 2015: Room 25 Total power draw 2 kilowatts...planet saved. We are back to the power use of the early 1980's. Room 25 will have just as many programs; facilities and will be just as bright; air will be fresh.

Is this fantasy? No. I will still be able to run as much software. Can I do this now? Yes. Why aren't I then?