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Microsoft vs. Northwest Schools Part III
SymphonicMan writes: "As previously discussed on Slashdot, Microsoft threatened an audit for the 24 largest school districts in the Northwest. Now it appears they may be backing down, according to Steve Duin, the Oregonian columnist who orginally brought this to all of our attention in April. Not only that, he writes that Portland Public Schools is opening 16 Linux computer labs across the districts, at half the cost of a Microsoft-equipped lab. Looks like this might be more than just a PR victory for open source. I'm a senior in one of the districts (Beaverton) included in the audit, and our staff is still going crazy trying to comply. But with districts across Oregon facing major budget shortfalls due to the poor economy, removing the pressure of this audit would be very welcome."
I am really glad that M$ is not that smart. One thing that still irks me though is that given the user-friendliness of almost all OS's right now, this really doesn't matter all that much. No matter what you use, you still click on icons, you still see them on the desktop, you still get to choose your own wallpaper...
I think that pretty soon its not going to matter what you run as more applications are geared toward usage on any platform (think Virtual PC or M$ Word on a Mac).
Liora
actually they are that smart, as part of the setlement with the DOJ they proposed that one of the remedies is that they give away copies of windows and other MS products to schools, of course all of their competitors jumped on it and made sure that it was one of the points that the remaining states fought against.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Uhh... I guess you're still not sure of it then. (psssstt!! MacOS X is not Linux.... it's BSD!)
T
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
No, I don't think they'll be running back to their KDE.. Think about it, I don't run back to CP/M or DOS 3.0 which is the UI that I grew up with. I DEFINATELY do not run back to Windows 3.0, Mac System 1, etc,etc.. Although I don't think these kids will see as significant a change that I saw growing up, there will be new UI's comming along and generally speaking, each new UI is better than the last. I think that these kids atleast will have grow up with computers, many of which my generation did not. That already gives them the edge. It's not like us old folks that have ALWAYS had a computer around.
Keep in mind that the officials that buy computers actually don't. They receive their information from their technical staff.
Which means, if the school has more of a PC base (the subject of this topic since MS was trying to audit them), then the IT person would probably consider Linux because it would be the path of least resistance--they already have PC hardware, so why rip it out to replace it with Macintosh? Have the students use OpenOffice and Konqueror. Problem solved.
If the school has a mix or a majority of Mac OS systems, an IT person may consider simply ripping Internet Explorer and Word off the systems, and use Netscape and AppleWorks instead. Problem solved again.
I don't understand the Linux zealots who feel that going Apple or Microsoft "locks" them into anything. By using Linux (as in the kernel, not the OS), aren't LINUX USERS "locked" into a single kernel, unable to change (or highly recommended not to change it for fear of instability?) There is no such thing as a democracy in the computer world. You have to pick a side and use what that side offers you. Nothing says you have to stay on that side, and there may be more options and freedoms available on some sides (Apple, BSD, Red Hat, etc.) than others (Microsoft). Try getting a free multiuser licenses from Microsoft. On the other hand, try opening an embedded Outlook mail document inside a Word document in Mac OS X. There is relative good on each side. Don't piss on that of which you have no clue.
And another thing to these fact-challenged people in this topic: While Apple no longer has the vast 75-90% majority of their computers in schools as they did in the '80s, they still have a very large presence overall, especially in the K-12 market. Dell and Apple are the largest percentage holders in a virtual heat for about a year now. The rest is broken up by other manufacturers.
Don't just say "Windows" when you mean to say a PC brand: If you break down the market shares by brand in various areas, Apple still has a presence, and a significant visionary one if nothing else.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
With projects like these the migration from windows to Linux should be easier.
Copied from http://k12linux.org
K12LTSP is based on RedHat Linux and the LTSP terminal server packages. It's easy to install and configure. It's distributed under the GNU General Public License . That means it's free and it's based on Open Source software.
Once installed K12LTSP lets you boot diskless workstations from an applications server. You can use old PC's as diskless clients or buy new ones for under $200 each.
All applications run on the terminal server. Workstations are "thin." They have no software or hard drives. Thin-clients are perfect for schools because they are easy to install and require little maintenance. They are reliable and immune to malicious tampering and viruses.
We've included a host of useful applications that will make you productive right away.
Nautilus file manager
Mozilla browser with Java(tm) and Flash (tm) support
Ximian Evolution E-Mail, calendar and contact manager
Adobe Acrobat Reader
OpenOffice
K-Office
Gimp
AbiWord
Auto configuration for many PCI based sound cards
Auto configuration for both PXE and BOOTP clients
File sharing for both Windows and Macintosh networks
Much more...
What we have here at my workplace:
Windows Professional: $275
Office Standard: $355
SQL Server CAL: $137
Exchange Server CAL: $64
SMS CAL: $40
Windows CAL: $34
Total MS Software Cost: $905
Harware: Athlom 1.3GHz, 256 DDR RAM, 20GB ATA-100 HDD, 10/100 FD/FC NIC, Intellimouse, TNT2 display: $687
17" monitor: $163
Total Hardware Cost: $850
Removing the MS software would reduce our desktop prices by half.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.