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Re: [LUG] CCC Computer refurbishment

 

As this is on the web...

On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 06:38:43PM +0000, james kilty wrote:
> 
> 
> Whilst the up front costs of a Microsoft Desktop compared to it's
> Freeware Linux counterpart may appear to favour the Linux route, the
> total cost of ownership would show a different picture. The additional
> work required on the Linux platform to create an integrated set of
> tools, which is out of the box functionality for Mirosoft would very
> quickly overtake any initial purchase savings, as has been experienced
> by Penwith. This is outside of the argument for the business to be able
> to quickly respond to changing needs.
>  
OK this is the key paragraph and basically what they are saying is that they refuse 
to compare "apples to apples " and instead want to compare "apples to oranges". Lets 
break it down

- Microsoft has an annual licensing cost, and this will be for perpetuity. 
- Openoffice is free but has a one-off conversion cost (we can argue exactly what 
cost, and while I would accept it is real; I doubt it is significant in the scheme 
of things)
- Then there are the additional costs / issues. Archival of records, tailoring of 
the system, lower disk space etc etc etc

The question is at what point does the one off upfront conversion fee become equal 
to a perpetual low cost? If CCC believe that the perpetual smaller fee is always 
less than a larger upfront payment, then given their credit rating I am sure we can 
do a deal that will make us rich (and CCC much poorer).

This is a classic problem and to solve it you need to find the present value of the 
future license fees

The formula in OpenOffice is "Present Value" and as an example at 6% interest, £20 
cost pa for 20 years is the equivalent to a cost of £229.40 today

Finally there is the example of Bristol who showed that converting to Openoffice 
cost £1.6m, but staying with MS would have cost £10m or so (I have forgotten the 
exact figures)

> The council does not rely entirely on the use of Microsoft products, and
> have Unix and Linux systems deployed to run some of the most critical
> database systems used in the authority. The council uses the right tool
> for the right job - the Microsoft platform on the desktop where
> interoperability and flexibility is required, and Linux to run the
> council's largest databases where security and performance is critical. 
> 
This seems to be copied word for word from the Devon County Council.... :)


> As a footnote, early tests for the latest release of the Office product
> shows that when using the compatibility download, there is forward and
> backward compatibility for files created in either Office 2002, 2003, or
> 2007. The council has seamlessly and automatically deployed this
> compatibility pack to all of its computers."
> 
This is red herring. Is office compatible with international standards?


-- 
Henry
Wed Mar 26 20:30:47 GMT 2008

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