Omni and Userful have announced that over 50 academic institutions from 29 US States and 10 countries worldwide have signed up to deploy Multi-station SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktops through the "Free the Penguins" education initiative. Originally launched in September, "Free the Penguins" provides customers with a low-cost, high-performance alternative to stand-alone Windows desktops and thin clients for computer labs, classrooms and libraries. Omni, Userful and Novell have agreed to extend this initiative until the end of 2008 in response to extremely strong uptake from schools in the US, Canada, Australia, South America, Europe and Africa.

Tough economic conditions have led more universities, colleges and K-12 school districts to consider the hardware, maintenance, space and electricity savings of Multi-station SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktops. Using this strategy, customers can convert existing stand-alone Windows desktops, which spend most of the day idle, into Linux desktops with up to 10 independent, full-featured stations that consist of just a monitor, USB keyboard and mouse.

"While customers plan to deploy their free desktops in a wide variety of areas-computer labs, classrooms, libraries, outreach sites, VOIP labs, help desk areas-the number one reason why they are considering Linux instead of Windows, Mac OS X or thin clients is cost," said Trevor Poapst, Director of Global Marketing at Omni. "Few education customers, particularly in these tough economic times, will say no to a strategy that will allow them to deploy over twice as many desktops for the same budget."

"Stand-alone desktops sit idle for most of the day," continued Poapst. "Dual-core or, worse yet, quad-core systems are wasteful for users who typically use less than 10% of their computer's processing power. Schools cannot afford to be wasteful, particularly when budgets are tight, computer-to-student ratios leave many children behind, and landfills overflow with digital waste. For the most critical education applications-web browser, email client, typing tutor, office productivity suite, drawing programs, math and science games, remote control and management software-an open source, Linux-based alternative is something all schools should consider."