[school-discuss] Cost comparisons for Linux vs. Windows

[Tim Wilson <wilson@visi.com>]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a paper for one of my graduate courses that is
tentatively titled "Free As In Speech: Using Open Source Software In
Education." Depending on how it turns out I plan to submit it for
publication to one of the educational technology journals.

I'm writing the paper as an advocacy piece to raise awareness of open
source software for school technology decision makers. Probably the most
attention-getting aspect of open source is the low entry cost. (My paper
discusses other arguably more important benefits as well.) The problem
is that I don't know much about licensing MS products or the MS
product line. I'm considering the following scenarios for which I plan
to compare an MS solution and a Linux solution. In scenario #1 I will
also include a thin-client solution based on the K12LTSP. Here they are.
What I need is information about which Microsoft products I would need
to buy (and some sense of a minimum server spec.) to accomplish the
following.

Scenario #1
===========
An elementary school with a basic computer network infrastructure wants
to build a computer lab of 20 computers and install an additional 10
workstations for staff use. Student and staff files will be stored on a
file server that will also provide printing services. The school wants
to build a Web page and will require a separate Web server and will
also provide email for the staff (total of 25 teachers + support staff)
and a porn-filtering proxy.

Scenario #2
===========
A medium-sized school district wants to upgrade all their Windows 98
desktops and Office 97 machines to Windows XP and Office XP.

I've been able to locate some information about academic pricing, but
it's not clear to me which MS products fit the bill for some of the
requirements mentioned in the scenarios. Any suggestions?

-Tim

-- 
Tim Wilson      |   Visit Sibley online:   | Check out:
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