FUSS (Free Upgrade for a digitally Sustainable School – https://fuss.bz.it) has a dual nature: it is a digital sustainability project for schools and at the same time a Free Software product (Debian-GNU/Linux-based operating system and applications) for servers and PCs.
It was founded in 2005 and represents a unique experience in Europe for its organization and structure. The project has led to the migration to Free Software of computer tools used in the teaching activities of all schools in Italian language of South Tyrol: to date 1,900 teachers and 17,000 students use it; it is installed on 4,500 PCs and 65 servers in about 80 schools in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano). FUSS is coordinated and financed by the Italian Education and Training Department of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano.
Member of the national initiative Repubblica Digitale, FUSS has made teaching and learning digitally sustainable thanks to four fundamental objectives: the use of Free Software, the use of open formats, the creation of free content, thus laying the foundations for the fourth objective whose achievement should be guaranteed in each school by definition: free access to knowledge.
