Use of Linux and other open-source software in local universities could step up as the government moves to cut its budget for higher education.
This trend may help push more open-source technologies out of academic research laboratories and into the mainstream campus environment.
The director of the Information Technology Services Centre at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), Lawrence Law Hing-yim, said a growing number of schools had been reaping the cost benefits of using open-source software.
'The use of open-source technologies could help many schools continue with their IT projects while they cope with the planned budget cuts for education.'
He said HKUST's Linux-based computing had allowed the university to spend just $150,000 on a project that used a programme from British anti-virus software firm Sophos to block significant amounts of spam from the campus network - substantially less than the amount another university spent on outsourcing its own anti-spam initiative.
Open-source software such as Linux makes its source code available to everybody, which allows experts in user communities worldwide to identify vulnerabilities and fix them, without depending on IT product vendors.
The Linux operating platform, combined with clusters of off-the-shelf Intel processor-based personal computers, is being used at the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University for various projects.