zdnet.com.au — The Department of Education and Training (DET) in New South Wales may increase the penetration of Linux on its 165,000 desktop fleet because open source is "clearly an industry trend". In this video interview, the IT director says: "The possibility of running Linux-based desktop platforms is real for us".
Dec 6, 2006 View in Crawl 4
dundasbroDec 7, 2006
Awesome, i'm in NSW :DIt'll be interesting how this affects everything at my school and all the other schools.
darkenigmaDec 7, 2006
At the school district I work at my brilliant boss paid over a quarter of a million dollars to buy MS volume licenses (XP, Server 03, Office, etc) for roughly 3,500 machines. Keep in mind that all of these machines already came preinstalled with XP Professional. He essentially paid the original "MS tax" then repaid for the same software to be "compliant with Microsoft's EULA". It's slightly long (not so complicated) so I won't go into the major details, but the gist of it is that you cannot "legally" ghost an image of the same version of XP on multiple machines because of the authentication and serial key. Site licenses give you the "convenience" of not having to go through the WPA authentication and allows you the "convenience" of using a single serial key.This is the same man who thinks I'm a "renegade" because I use a Mac and reformatted the Dell he gave me with Linux.
feartecDec 7, 2006
Don't get too excited linux fanboys, Microsoft is clearly the preferred provider of operating systems and office software for DET and TAFE.Microsoft give DET a fantastic discounts and unless this changes for the worst we will have no reason to force open source solutions onto our clients.Sure "we" research all options but Microsoft solutions are working for us now.Many non Microsoft systems are in use across DET and TAFE, Microsoft solutions at least 90%.
ordminuteDec 7, 2006
@iamcitizenRemember that 'market share' only relates to _sales_ of Desktop Linux. It produces a highly dubious statistic. Given the proportion of CD ISOs that are downloaded for free compared to those bought over a counter, many place the actual user base at two or more times 3%, especially given the rate at which people are switching (from Windows or OS X) at the moment.If only Google Zeitgeist was still with us. OS type on hitting a page as popular as google.com is really the only way to get a reasonable measurement of OS useage.
Closed AccountDec 7, 2006
Actually at the High School I went to in Victoria had a deal to get any Microsoft Product for $10 AUD, for all the systems in the school. I'm not sure if the goverment was buying MS stuff and then passing it onto the school or if it was some special deal they had worked out. Would be good sence for MS since all the students would need MS stuff at home and probally for the rest of their lives. Only something like 4 people at that scool knew anything about Linux, although back then Linux wasn't making an attempt at the desktop and there was no easy to use stuff around, also we where all still on 56k back then so downloading ISO took ages so maby the numbers arn't so impoartant.
sleepynessDec 7, 2006
@darkenigmaYou have to realize that your boss needed to spend the money anyways. If he keeps spending less than what he's budgeted to, then the higher ups will think he won't need as large of a budget, but then when your boss really needs the money, he won't be able to have access to more since his higher ups would just say, you were getting along fine before with less money, why ask for more now. This is why if your boss is say, budgeted $1 million for software, he'll be damn sure he spends every last penny of it. There is plenty of money to go around, no point in screwing yourself over.
sirhomerDec 9, 2006
You are all dumb Americans, he said AUD not USD.
agretDec 16, 2006
"the number of pcs in a school is always a problem ... your luckly if you got 5 students per a pc ..."Meh, that's fine. That just means that since more than 5 classes are running at a time and probably only 2 of them are computer classes you have enough computers....
dreadzepplinAug 1, 2007
I have heard mixed responses from users and IT managers about linux. For instance, Optus use Linux at their sponsored internet cafes at Sydney Airport, and there is an awesome Schools application called Smart-Net - on Linux too. I think the big thing here is that cost is a huge issue for Schools. Doing more with less has become a real catch phrase. Has anyone seen this new(ish) 'PC Replacement' company NCOMPUTING ? Some cool hardware and software that can take a standard PC running Microsoft OR Linux, and let between 7 and 30 extra users access that PC with their own screen, KB/M etc, even with their own user account. They have some good stories on their website.Maybe this is where the Department of Education is coming from looking at Linux?
eco2youSep 17, 2007
Wheeeeeeeeeeee!Down with Vi$$$$$$$Ta!<a class="user" href="http://www.eco2you.co.uk">http://www.eco2you.co.uk</a>