In this paper we present an innovative prototype Open Source Teaching/Learning Collaboratory created at UC Merced that will provide the foundation for offering the vast majority of our Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) courses, as well as courses from across our engineering disciplines, and, increasingly, computer courses and computer intensive courses throughout our university. This prototype facility is in operation at the present time, with one and possibly two additional Collaboratories to be installed in time for our Fall 2007 session. In addition, this facility will provide the model and framework for other local and distance teaching activities planned for supporting curriculum development and computing training. We show that by relying on free open source software and commodity hardware we can build an education computing environment that minimizes administration tasks, provides effortless remote interaction, simplifies and enhances the computer science curricula that can...