Every year the University of Chicago’s Networking Services and Information Technology department (NSIT) distributes a connectivity package (CP) to all incoming students. This CP is also used by departments throughout the university. The CP, amongst other things, contains a web browser and an email client.
Starting this fall, all incoming students will receive a CP that is built around Firefox and Thunderbird. This means that any student who pops NSIT’s CP into their computer to set up university email services will have Firefox and Thunderbird installed on their computer! The same CP is also likely to be targeted at university departments for new deployments.
I graduated from UChicago last year, and it’s great to see my alma mater supporting and taking advantage of open source projects in this manner. UChicago is fortunate to have a group of people working at NSIT who understand the value that open source projects can offer them.