HOULTON – Michael Surran describes the efforts of Greater Houlton Christian Academy to build a successful computer lab as “a leap of faith.”

After three years of using old, worn-out and mismatched computers that had been donated to the school, the time came last winter when school officials realized that the old computers weren’t getting the job done.

“The computers had already been used a lot when we got them, and they were used a lot more by the students,” Surran said during a recent interview at the academy, where he is the computer science teacher.

“As nice as they were, they were becoming a problem because of constant failures,” he said. “I constantly had to fix them with parts from other old computers.”

The problem for the school, which has 170 children in kindergarten through 12th grade, was that because it is private, it isn’t eligible to participate the state’s laptop program and isn’t eligible for federal funds.

“We’re financially limited as a private school,” Surran said.

As he began looking for a solution, Surran realized that new name-brand computers and software would be too expensive for the school. In fact, licensing for software alone would be more that the total cost of computers.

To save money, the school bought 20 identical computer kits, what Surran described as top-of-the-line generic units that were bare-bones, with no software installed.

Finding the software was a little harder. Microsoft Windows and Macintosh systems were too expensive.

A self-described computer hobbyist, Surran had experimented in 1999 with the Linux operating system. Developed by other hobbyists, it is known as an open-platform system and can be downloaded for free off the Internet, and no licensing is required

Last summer, Surran installed Linux on the school’s server and computers.

The total cost for the computer lab, he said, was about $9,000, half of what some schools were paying.

“We’re done paying for the lab, basically, except for maintenance,” Surran said.

While the cost is a big plus, using the Linux system has a few drawbacks: The system is still not widely used, and popular software for games and office programs is not yet widely available.

Still, Surran said use of Linux is growing. He has discovered that many companies and government agencies, including NASA, are using it.

“As a teacher, it’s been highly positive,” he said. “Many students already had Windows at home and were very familiar with it so it wasn’t a challenge, and they were less interested. With Linux, it’s a new experience,” he said.

A story he wrote for this month’s Linux Journal, a trade publication, has drawn responses and inquiries from other schools across the United States and other counties, including the Philippines and Belgium.

The academy is “one of the first schools in the nation to commit to it and make it a success,” Surran said. “We’ve shown that it can be done.”

There was some concern that if the pupils learned Linux, they might not be as well prepared as pupils at other schools. Surran doesn’t see that as an issue, since Linux can do the same things as the other systems.

In fact, he said, since many pupils already have a Windows operating system at home, using Linux helps them diversify their knowledge. That could make them a better employment prospect, especially as Linux becomes better known, he said.

Surran compared using Linux to driving a car:

“Once you learn the fundamentals, you can drive anything,” he said. “I think we’re giving them a good vehicle to work with.”