Telstra Used Linux To Get Microsoft Discounts

awful writes "Last year Slashdot ran a story about Australia's largest telco moving to Linux desktops. Turns out it was all a way to get some tasty discounts from Microsoft. The Australian is reporting that Telstra just signed a four-year deal with MS for $AU15-20 million, for 40,000 users. No figures yet on how much of a discount Telstra got, but MS might want to rethink handing back all its cash to investors if this is how they're going to do business from now on ..."

Comments

Re:Ahh... competition

[Uncle Jimmy]

I love linux, but, go Telstra :) Way to use the free market to your advantage.

Wow. You obviously aren't from Australia.

Re:They're paying $500 per user.

[SEWilco]

Mod parent down he's claiming that microsoft doesn't cost a ton of money!

That depends upon the weight of Australian Dollars and whether it is a metric ton.

Re:They're paying $500 per user.

[lazybeam]

Microsoft is getting 180 tonnes of dollars from Telstra, if they were to pay exclusively in one dollar coins. :) Thats 4.5 kg per user.

Reference: http://www.ramint.gov.au/making_coins/coin_designs .cfm. One dollar coins are 9.00 grams each.

Well... not actually down, as such.

[leonbrooks]

It's more likely that their internal billing system screwed up again and disconnected them.