What's your educational model / bureaucracy? (Score 1)

If you're training students to use a particular piece of software, then I think you need to stick with the old stuff. Yet if you are teaching students to learn how to use a particular type of software, then I think open source would be better (obviously - free newer tech). Also, you may need to consider how your bureaucracy works at your school / district, since if people get wind that you are getting software for free, then you could get your budget cut and then you don't ever get new software. Seriously, though, it can be frustrating tech in an environment where people don't seem to understand that software more than 3 years old is woefully obsolete.