Great stuff..as a long standing apologist for FOSS I have got to agree with much you are saying.

The NHS CIO is adamant that they would not contemplate a desktop migration to FOSS due to the overhead of training and compatibility. Sirius PLC (no less) advised Bristol Council likewise, and my experience of the teaching profession concurs with them both.

my feverent wish is for this debate to stop, i have no desire to replace windows 7 with ubuntu or MS office with Oracle Office with all the pain and no real gain practically or ethically.

I dont like re training, i like acquiring new skills and taking advantage of new opportunities the FOSS Windows debate seems to be middle aged blokes squbbling over yesterdays broken models. Betamax v VHS, duh what's either?

Well I like new learning skills, so I retrained my asp.net/c# skills and learned php to help support and develop using Moodle at our school. Some may have even said that this was re training LOL.

I do agree that retraining is a big part of implementing change.

Our school uses a mixture of open source and proprietary software, this creates no issues for staff or learners. I personally find implementing back end systems with OSS, but implementing any back end solution is easier . Many pupils in our area do use open office at home, as why pay for commercial software when doing your homework

Why do many so people(non school staff) want to make this a black and white issue. And start chucking FUD in. Shame more schools don’t make up their own mind instead of relying on LA advisors and third party IT consultants

Tim