Lorien Novalis' widespread use of Linux on desktops is unusual for an Australian school, Rushton said, attributing the ease with which the school migrated to Linux from its previous Macintosh systems to its status as an independent school.

"We are a non-systemic school, so when we decided to change to Linux, we just did it," he said.

But the decision may not be so easy for government-funded schools operating bureaucratically, according to Donna Benjamin, a member of Open Source Industry Australia and another speaker at linux.conf.au. Benjamin highlighted a bureaucratic reluctance in considering open source options, ascribing this to what she called Microsoft Corp.'s "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" (FUD) marketing strategy that, she said, creates lock-ins and dependencies.

According to Linux Australia member Janet Hawtin, the reliance of schools on proprietary software and the rules that govern them could be sending a message that is incongruent with learning and curiosity.

"The message that students and teachers are being taught is that sharing is bad and evil, and inquisitiveness is not encouraged either," she said. "That is not appropriate in an educational context."