> They are intensely curious to read the source code of the programs that they use every day. It's not quite the same thing, but I remember reading and modifyi

> They are intensely curious to read the source code of the programs that they use every day. It's not quite the same thing, but I remember reading and modifying the source code of Applesoft BASIC games as well as trying to reverse engineer copy protection in the school's computer lab. The reality though is that open source software's main benefit to schools is the licensing model. Not only does the cost of the software actually being used add up, there are also licenses for the software to manage licenses. On top of that is the effort it takes to manage licenses, which ties into labour costs. Things have probably changed since I managed a school computer lab a decade back, but I did a test deployment of an all open source solution in an evening of my spare time. It took several months of evenings to build up a similar setup using commercial software. The major difference between the two were the hurdles created by commercial software licensing.