The Uganda Annual best FOSS Integration case Award is an annual award given to the organization or individual which/who displays the most outstanding use of Free and Open Source Software Technology.

The first Open Source Software (OSS) Weekend in Uganda was held in Kampala, (Frid 25th Feb – Sun 27th Feb) 2005.

The workshop was organized by Uganda Institute of Information and Communication Technology (UICT) ( www.uict.ac.ug ) and the East African Center for Open Source Software (EACOSS) ( www.eacoss.org ).

The workshop was attended by a number of organizations involved in FOSS integration in the country. There were opportunities for presentations and exhibitions.

SchoolNet Uganda made a presentation on its Linux-based Thin-Client solution for rural schools and also exhibited the solution.

The Linux Terminal Server was configured as an application server, content server and Thin-client server.

The content server hosts educational content and makes it available on the school Intranet. This has the following advantages:

• No need for the Internet once the content is put on the Intranet. This is a cost saving on Internet traffic.
• No disruption of students’ attention by adverts and pop-ups.
• Only screened and evaluated content is provided to the students.
• No phonographic content.
• Fast access speeds since the content is locally available.
• Better utilization of the school ICT facilities.
• Solution suitable even for schools without Internet access.

The thin-clients have no hard disks, CD-ROM drives or floppy drives. They just need to have bootable network cards which they use to boot from the Linux Terminal server.
The thin-clients have the following advantages:

• The have very low failure rates.
• Have no viruses since the thin clients host no programs. All the programs are hosted on the application server.
• The thin clients require no maintenance and consume low power.
• The thin-clients can be “junk” computers which most rural schools can afford. Only the terminal server needs to be a high end machine.
• Only the server needs to be maintained freeing up more time to the teachers.
• The system is highly scalable and affordable.

For the first time, the yearly award for outstanding use of FOSS technology was awarded. The best award of UGX 250,000/= was given to SchoolNet Uganda for its Linux Terminal Server project implementation at secondary schools.