I want to be objective, but sometimes is not easy. Now that educational institutions are considering to migrate to open source solutions, big software companies are giving away “educational” licenses to students. So, they keep using their products. Ten years ago the educational sector did not have a chance on negotiating this kind of agreements with the same big firms.
It is hard to believe that the software sector suddenly wants to help students. It is easier to speculate that classrooms are places where students get use to operative systems and applications. Therefore if they get in contact with OSS during their academic formation, there will be less licenses purchases in the future.
Someone told me, that it is the same strategy that some dealers use with their products.
