Aiming to loosen Microsoft's hold on the software market for education, rival Sun Microsystems is now offering schools an extensive collection of applications—from network and desktop operating system software to internet development tools—as well as quarterly refreshes and web-based training, all for less than $500 per year.

"Sun is giving back to academic and research institutions by providing low-cost access to software that will better equip today's students for tomorrow's workplace—and by making sure that educational institutions are never more than a few months behind on technology refreshes and are never obsolete," said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of software for Sun.

Among the many products included in the deal is Sun's StarOffice software, which compares favorably with Microsoft's popular Office suite on almost every function, conceding only to certain macro capabilities available when creating spreadsheets and other documents, said Dinesh Bahal, director of education solutions for Sun's worldwide business group.

The majority of classrooms, school libraries, and computer labs still use Microsoft productivity software, but Bahal said Sun's education customers do not have to pay for individual software licenses, a perk that can translate into tremendous cost savings for schools.

"It's free and comparable in terms of usage," Bahal said of Sun's software. "It's free across the world."

Well, not quite. Depending on what pieces of Sun's new EduSoft Portfolio media kit educators wish to acquire, some fees do apply.

For $495 per year, K-12 schools, colleges, and universities will have access to the entire range of software in the portfolio. Besides StarOffice, the portfolio includes Sun's Studio suite of tools for developing Java and UNIX-based applications, as well as the company's directory services, which would enable school network administrators to create customized directories for keeping track of students and computers throughout their districts.

Other titles in the portfolio include Sun's Solaris 9 Operating Environment, a UNIX-based server operating system (OS); GNOME, a Linux-based desktop OS for customizing desktop working environments; Sun Ray software for access to applications running on UNIX, Solaris, Java, and Microsoft NT operating systems; and eMail and calendar applications, enabling educators to organize and communicate more efficiently.

Although schools do not have to purchase licenses for any of these products, the $495 fee covers quarterly software refreshes to ensure that the applications are running with the latest patches, protections, and upgrades.

The total commercial value of Sun's contribution to schools is estimated at more than $1 billion, the company said.

Of course, all of the software in the world would mean little to schools if educators and administrators were poorly trained and ill-equipped to use it. That's why the EduSoft Portfolio also comes with free, web-based professional development, as well as discounted technology integration training and classroom education courses for schools.