Open source has continued to evolve and in the past three years the development of a graphical user interface has made it increasingly accessible and viable for end users without special training. Open source relies to a great extent on the free software movement. In this context, the term free refers not to cost, but to the freedom users have to modify the source code. This paper discusses the significance and advantages of open source in the field of education. Among the additional advantages of open source is its ability to facilitate school-community relations. In spite of the benefits, school districts and universities still have to battle the challenges of modernization like the fear of the unknown, lack of support staff, a dearth of time, money, and resources for getting staff up to speed. The power of openness holds tremendous potential, and not just in the software arena. A wave of change is headed for schools. It involves a different way of valuing individual contributions by students, classroom teachers, and administrators. Every individual is an expert on a particular topic. Open source invites everybody to find that topic and share. For educators, it is a matter of opening the door to a worldwide community of expert software. Eight steps to a smooth transition are presented in this article. (Contains 7 online resources.)