http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39184119,00.htm

Linux company chalks up success with teachers
Dan Ilett
ZDNet UK
January 14, 2005, 12:10 GMT

One of the hits of this year's BETT trade show is a company selling an
open source desktop operating system for schools

A three-person Linux company was inundated this week with requests for
a product it had not expected to be so successful.

IT teachers attending the BETT educational technology show in London
flocked to SchoolLINUX.com's stand to place orders for its desktop
operating system (OS), called SchoolLINUX OS. The operating system,
which runs from a CD-ROM and uses just 50MB of RAM, has interested
teachers whose old PCs can't cope with the demands of Windows XP.

"This is the first time we've shown it to anyone," said Paul Jenkins,
managing director of SchoolLINUX.com. He explained that he had
expected to see more demand for a storage product aimed at schools,
but estimated that 90 percent of enquiries and orders were for
SchoolLINUX OS.

"I think this is because [the OS] gives people the opportunity to
reuse old PCs. It lets schools do want they want -- keep computers,"
Jenkins said.

SchoolLINUX OS costs £29.95 and includes Mozilla's Firefox browser and
Thunderbird email client; word processing and spreadsheet packages
that can read Microsoft files; and RealPlayer. The OS requires no hard
drive, but can also be copied to and loaded from other storage
devices, such as USB keys, and has full networking capabilities.

Jenkins said he was surprised that so many people had taken an
interest in the OS as he and his two partners, both university
computing students, were not expecting the interest.

The self-funded company is less than a year old, but has already
turned over £80,000 in its first six months.

"My daughter's school is building a new library. They're using
[SchoolLINUX] with seven-year-old Celeron 400 machines and it works
fine," said Jenkins. "We had a guy come up to us who wants 200 in two
weeks' time. Even the Jordanian government wants us to go over there
and show them our stuff."

The company has also attracted organisations outside of the education
industry -- it has just clenched a deal with home fittings company
KitchensRus. "The owner there was sick of all the spyware and viruses.
He wanted to switch over because it's just so simple to use. So we're
ripping out all their Windows software and replacing it with this,"
Jenkins explained.