The elementary and secondary schools in District #73 utilise a range of software tailored to the kids' ages and learning levels.

Montgomery said the youngest students particularly enjoy Tux Paint, Web apps tailored for younger kids, Gcompris and the Supertux game. Intermediate level students favour Web apps, OpenOffice, Tuxmath, Supertux, Pingus, Tux Racer, and playing with the look and feel of their desktop environment - KDE. The secondary students also enjoy tweaking KDE, as well as using OpenOffice, drafting, art, multimedia and Web applications.

While Montgomery believes the kids will get their work done on Linux desktops just as they would on any other computer, he disagrees with observations that older children prefer Windows as they tend to be more familiar with it.

"Once the students see how much they can customize and tweak KDE desktop and play with Beryl 3D desktop, they like Linux more than Windows. When it comes down to it, Windows is a window manager with WordPad, Web browser and Email - Linux has all of that and more," he said.

"We give everyone FreeNX access to their Linux desktop from home so they can get all the same programs without having to install Linux at home."

The elementary schools in District #73 have been running Linux longer than the high schools, and Montgomery says the younger kids are looking forward to continuing using OpenOffice and the same applications as they move into high school.

Montgomery believes a crucial aspect of migrating to Linux or open sourced-based software is training. Technicians need to know how to use and support Linux, and must work with management to identify and resolve what programs will and will not run on Linux. Secretaries and librarians, who generally use computers the most in a school environment, also need additional training in order to fulfill their day-to-day tasks.

"[But] students, they learn faster than all of the above. If you don't know how to do something in Linux - just ask the students," he advised.