The Free Upgrade for a digitally Sustainable School (FUSS) project has been a groundbreaking initiative in South Tyrol, Italy. Since 2005 16,000 students and around 2.000 teachers have benefited from the adoption of open-source software in their educational institutions. This seminar will showcase how the project has successfully delivered high-quality teaching and learning experiences while promoting digital sustainability. We will explore how the FUSS project has enabled schools to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve digital literacy among students and teachers. Leveraging open-source software, the project has created a collaborative ecosystem that fosters innovation, flexibility and community engagement by setting a nationwide example of how software should be acquired by public schools with a focus on sharing and reuse in full compliance with the principle "Public Money? Public Code!"

In 2016, the "Open & Linux Desk" (Sportello Open & Linux) was already active in Bolzano (South Tirol, Italy), managed by the LugBZ group. With the arrival of the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, the desk became active in responding to the needs of distance learning, collecting and donating used PCs to students and families. The idea was born to create a laboratory to collect, clean, repair and install the donated PCs, in collaboration with the School Authorities. The "SchoolSwap" project was launched, with the aim of providing sustainable PCs (with the FUSS Linux operating system) on free loan to students. In the summer of 2020, a first web platform was activated to centrally manage PC requests, donations and support from the "Desk". A late version was activated using osTicket. Overall, from March 2020 to December 2023, over 850 PCs with FUSS9, FUSS10 and FUSS11 Debian-based operating systems were prepared and donated. The project aimed to bridge the "digital divide" and provide students at home with the same digital tools used at school, promoting digital sovereignty and circular economy.