Re: [Fsfe-uk] [ALUG] Microsoft and schools (fwd)

[Philip Hunt]

On Friday 05 December 2003 12:02 pm, Richard Smedley wrote:
> > Microsoft boss Bill Gates has promoted laptops for pupils
> >  Schools across the UK could save up to £50m on Microsoft software over
> > the
> > next three years.
> > The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, said Microsoft had reached an
> > agreement with the government's educational technology agency, Becta.
> > "This kind of agreement shows the advantages in co-ordinated procurement
> > for
> > schools across the country."
> > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3291279.stm
>
> OK - we need to get more details and do a press release
> on how schools could save far more that this, and do
> many other things, with Free Software.

According to the BBC story, schools were paying 175 million over
three years, and at the new proces will be paying 125 million, so
switching from MS to free software would save another 125 million
over 3 years, or 40 million a year. Any press release should mention
that.

(Note that in the unlikely instance that free software doesn't do all
that schools require, if 40 million was spent extending it so it could,
that investment would pay for itself in a year).

The deal doesn't cover operating systems, so if schools switched
from MS to Linux, they'd save even more. 

-- 
Phil Hunt, address@hidden