Unfortunately there's no technical support, other than through the kindness of strangers on the Internet. The lack of support remains a major drawback to Linux adoption. "You need support beyond the Internet, like a local user group that could come on-site and help," says Prentice. Nevertheless, he remains a Linux booster and believes his cash-strapped school district could save quite a bit of money using open source. "You just can't get their ear to convince them to switch to Linux and hire someone to support it," he says.
While not always as easy as dialing an 800 number, the Web offers lots of technical support and information on open source software. Here are some sites to help you get started.
The K12Linux in Schools Project provides information to install and configure the Linux operating system within a school. Besides all the needed technical information, you can find helpful case studies of schools that have deployed open source software.
Open Source Now, backed by Red Hat, provides material on freeware, including an Open Source 101 primer for newbies.
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