to support it. I would be interested to know when the BECTA study was done
as I would not be surprised if it came around the same time that many
European governments began requiring the use of open source platforms and
software in certain situations (in part because of the litigation with
Microsoft and in part because some in Europe saw the value of the open
source platforms).
Many years ago, I was involved with XML standards development for voter and
election systems internationally. A big hurdle for the US representatives
was getting over the European mandates for the use of open source systems
(we Americans can be overly chauvinistic sometimes). I found it quite
ironic considering we were trying to form a standard which, by definition,
should be open...but I digress.
In some ways, other governments are way ahead of the US when it comes to
embracing open source technologies (though I do get the sense from the list
that many of your are breaking out of this mold). Our weakness, however, is
the support mechanisms necessary for these environments. Microsoft
certified engineers and network administrators are a dime a dozen but Linux
gurus are few and far between in many markets.
TJ
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Matt Burkhardt <mlb@imparisystems.com>wrote:
> I agree that technical expertise might be a hurdle, but BECTA (The
> British Educational Computing and Telecommunications Agency) did a
> multi-year study on the use of Linux desktops and open source software.
> They used four schools as case studies and they found that the schools
> saved between 20% to 75% on the total cost of ownership, which included
> the costs of hardware, software, licensing, training and support. They
> regularly found that support needs dropped since Linux has a better
> security model. The cost comparisons included the initial cost for
> training the technical support staff.
>
> I've found the same savings for libraries that have switched over. For
> example, Howard County Public Libraries in Maryland have switched over
> to Ubuntu and the support staff now has many more computers to support
> (they are able to buy desktops for $249 a piece instead of the previous
> cost of $649 - so they are buying two and a half times more) and the
> time needed to support the equipment has dropped so much that they've
> been able to spend more time finding out what the staff and community
> wants and creating new programs rather than wiping viruses off systems.
>
> You should also look to the Indiana schools - they're ACCESS program has
> been a huge success - with each school switching to open source, they
> find that ALL of the neighboring schools want to switch as soon as
> possible - they're having trouble keeping up with demand.
>
> In this time of economic troubles, schools really need to make every
> dollar count!
> On Tue, 2009-02-17 at 14:19 -0500, TJ Rainsford wrote:
>
> > There is something to be said for the Linux route but it does not
> > necessarily save you money unless you have the technical expertise to
> > support it. While it may reduce the initial costs, it may cost you more
> in
> > operational costs over the long term unless you have the internal
> capacity
> > to support the environment.
>
>
>
>
> Matt Burkhardt, MSTM
> President
> Impari Systems, Inc.
> 502 Fairview Avenue
> Frederick, MD 21701
> mlb@imparisystems.com
> www.imparisystems.com
> (301) 682-7901
>
>
>
> [ For info on ISED-L see http://www.gds.org/ISED-L ]
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--
TJ Rainsford
E: tjrainsford@gmail.com
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