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."

Comments

Re:Half the cost?

[sharkey]

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.