| Detroit high school happy with Linux |
Jun. 03, 2005
In 2003, University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy faced a common problem: clunky hardware, a dependence on Windows, budget limitations, and a need to update. At Newsforge.com, author Kevin Quiggle explains how U of D Jesuit found a budget-friendly solution in Linux, and how well Linux has performed.
U of D Jesuit was stuck with roughly 100 older PCs, Windows NT, and a dependence on Microsoft Office 97, writes Quiggle. Dropping the cash to replace the hardware and buy new licenses for Microsoft Office 2000 was a possibility, but non-optimal. U of D Jesuit director of technology James Hansknecht proposed purchasing a few Linux servers, converting the aging Windows NT boxes into Linux terminals, and replacing Microsoft Office 97 with OpenOffice.org --for about a sixth of the cost of sticking with the Windows upgrade path, according to Quiggle.
From a financial perspective, Linux was clearly an option worthy of serious consideration, but cost alone couldn't be the deciding factor for U of D Jesuit, Quiggle notes. As a recent UK study concluded, functionality must be considered along with total cost of ownership when deciding to migrate to Linux --the thrifty computing solution is no solution at all if the computers can't adequately perform the necessary tasks.
U of D Jesuit director of technology James Hansknecht recognized this fact, Quiggle writes. Quiggle explains how Hansknecht began to carefully evaluate OpenOffice.org on several points. After deciding OpenOffice.org would meet the high school's needs, U of D Jesuit gave the new Linux lab the green light.
Each year, U of D Jesuit re-evaluates the decision, and so far the open source solution still satisfies, writes Quiggle. In fact, according to Quiggle, the high school has discovered some "unexpected benefits": improved hardware response time and stability; and the ability to lend library copies of OpenOffice.org to students for installation on their home PCs.
U of D Jesuit was initially attracted to Linux because of OpenOffice.org -- unsurprising, as OO.org was recently fingered as a common migration motivator by Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik -- but the high school has since adopted the Mozilla web browser, The Gimp, and the Moodle course management system, writes Quiggle.
To read Kevin Quiggle's full account of how Linux and OpenOffice.org stack up against Windows and Microsoft Office at University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, visit Newsforge.com.
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