Schools need to save money (know any school districts so rich money doesn’t matter?) and one way to do so is via Open Source Software. That’s the premise behind the story How one school system makes the most of open source. Yet the story doesn’t talk about one of the best ways to save money while reducing security risks in a variety of ways: using Linux and OpenOffice in place of Microsoft Windows and Office.
Think of the savings: very little or no money upfront for the software, fewer security problems because the students wouldn’t be running Windows and Internet Explorer when surfing, and students couldn’t download and run the spyware-ridden applications that entice them so. Another savings would be the value of older PCs which respond faster when running Linux than Windows XP. Some classes may need to keep Microsoft Windows and Office, such as those training students for jobs after graduation. However, several of the Linux distributions work so much like Windows the training time between the two are negligible. Several experts now say that OpenOffice 2.0, the current Open Source office suite, looks far more like Microsoft Office 2003 than does the upcoming Office 2007. Just a thought. Seems like we mentioned CompUSA just the other day, and here they’re making new headlines: Retailer CompUSA to offer NetSuite’s hosted software says the headline. Interesting twist selling an online service via a brick and mortar store, but that’s the plan. If you go to your local CompUSA soon, let me know what’s going on over there. While I don’t like announcing software months before release (can you say Microsoft?) I don’t mind announcing software just days early. That’s the situation with the popular Open Source Software CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software suite called SugarCRM and their plans to unveil a commercial portal in July. I have friends selling SugarCRM to customers in lieu of regular commercial CRM applications, and they report all manner of good things. It makes sense that the Open Source companies would figure out how to make money out of “free” software, and this may be one approach.
