Re: [school-discuss] Alternative to MS Office

[Jeff Nelson <jtnelson@emirates.net.ae>]

Dave,

I'd start here:  http://richtech.ca/seul/casedex.html

and check out the persuasion tools and case studies here:  
http://www.sun.com/dot-com/staroffice.html

and also here:  http://www.k12ltsp.org/casestudy.html

Probably the networking chief couldn't make such a decision on his own,
but I 
bet that even a small group of parents agitating for the switch would
have a 
big effect.  

Jeff Nelson

On Saturday 09 February 2002 16:01, you wrote:
> Hello all,
>     I'm an inner-city high school teacher and the designated Technology
> Coordinator for my school in New Orleans, LA. At a technology meeting
> last
> week I heard a report that the school district licenses Microsoft Office
> for
> use on PCs throughout the district, and that the anticipated cost
> citywide
> is $800,000 for next year.
>     Because of politics, the city is locked into Windows and Linux is
> not an
> option. However, I asked the networking chief who was conducting the
> meeting
> if he had considered Star Office (available on MS as well as Linux
> platforms) as a low- or no-cost alternative. He was familiar with it,
> and
> said that he was using it as a bargaining chip to get MS to lower its
> licensing price. <rant> Why even try to get MS to cut its price by 20%
> if
> you can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by using something else
> for
> ZERO cost! </rant>
>     Does anybody have experience with highly respected products such as
> Star
> Office or others, that can replace MS office at low or no cost? I think
> it's
> ridiculous for a district that claims to be starved for cash (our 89
> year
> old building is being eaten up by termites -- we could sure use the
> money!)
> to spend almost a million bucks needlessly. I am looking for articles,
> price
> comparisons, case studies, etc. to give him showing that other school
> districts have switched away from MS with positive results. Anybody have
> any
> resources to pass on?
> Thanks,
> Dave Prentice
> prentice@instruction.com