Re: [school-discuss] M$ Windows 7

["R. Scott Belford" <scott@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 6:17 PM, Tim Dressel <tjdressel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

----8<-----------snip----------8<--------------

>
> To put things in perspective, we pay $14,000 per year in MS licensing.
> For this we get a site license of Office, Windows, Forefront, and
> every CAL under the sun. For us it works out to about $14/year per
> workstation. For this I have two full time techs that can completely
> hands off manage the entire network in 12 physical locations. Doing
> something similar in Linux land would take more bodies, but yes would
> be less expensive. I can extend WAHR to my teachers for Office 2007
> Enterprise for $16.25 delivered. OpenOffice just can't compete, and
> there is no combination of FLOSS tools that give me the same amount of
> control over my desktops with not much more than a few clicks of the
> mouse. I didn't have to write complex batch files, or perl myself
> silly.

I appreciate your perspective and experience.  I completely disagree
with your conclusion.  You go into great detail on the Windows tools
you use to achieve your goals, but I wonder if you are less than aware
of the FOSS tools to achieve the same efficiencies?  In your above
math, when you add your Office 2007 cost to what seems an absurdly low
per-seat estimate of $14 for everything including "every CAL under the
sun," you get a per seat total of $30.  I have more control over my
desktops throughout the island of Oahu, and there are no MS tools that
give me as much power with all but a few mouse-clicks.  I wrote no
batch files or scripts.  We use FreeBSD and gnu/linux based AD
controllers for LDAP-based roaming profiles to enable easy migration
from school to school.

Most importantly, I can install the exact same setup in the recreation
centers of our City and County parks, and I do, so that the kids can
have access to the same applications.  Here in Hawaii, many people are
poor, and it is CRUEL to tease them with software and tools that they
cannot help but to steal if they want it on their own.  Perpetuating
these 'values' in schools should be considered criminal.

>
> Open source in the school has so many good arguements,,, why loose the
> arguement on a technicality for ignorance of the great satan of
> software (Directed at BW, not Joel)? Take the high road and win
> cleanly. Put MS to task on poor web standards, or paying their Indian
> programmers a pittance of what the guys in Redmond make. Putting them
> down for a migration strategy you are not aware of just makes us look
> the fool.

How about making a pure price play.  I can put more software on my
computer that does more for education than I can possibly buy from
Microsoft.  I sell lifetime licenses for $1.  Now, please explain to
me how it is a responsible use of your tax dollars to spend more money
on software that adds no additional value to the learning process of
children?  Does your State have procurement laws, and have you been
taken to task, yet, for not considering least-cost better
alternatives?

You see, when you use Free and Open Source Software properly, it's
like getting the best tools in the world *and* a Gates Foundation gift
to help your school with its cash flow.  The thing is, you don't have
to feed a monopoly and grovel to a charity funded by the monopoly to
do it.

>
> Respectfully,
>
> Tim

Aloha

--scott