daller
December 13th, 2005, 05:31 PM
Some time ago, "Politikken" - Which is a danish newspaper, wrote an article on the economical advantages of switching from "MS Office XP" to "OpenOffice 2.0"
The result was crystalclear!
The danish government (including 400.000 computers) uses 900.000.000kr ($150.000.000) a year for MS Office licenses, and stuff! (Just thinking about what the sum of all the licences (Including Windows, AntiVirus, etc... ) per year is, makes me angry!)
The discussion is now, whether or not the spared money would just have to be used for technicians etc... I refuse to believe so!
People have to learn how to use the new environment (probably expencive) - But don't you think they have to do that when a new version of "MS Office" is out?
OpenOffice uses an open standard, which enables people to share documents without having to pay a lot for an MS Licence.
Let's say it'll take a day to get used to OpenOffice:
400.000 workers (many of those may not need education in OOo) - I have a hard time figuring out, how that may cost $150.000.000 - So why do they stich with MS?
Ones everyone has been trained, we'll be down to the expences of having MS Office running (without expences to licences!)
Alternatively all schools could switch to OpenOffice, meaning that OpenOffice would become the standard forever on! (Doing this, everyone doing business in Denmark would use OpenOffice in just 30 years from now)
The problem is that MS Office has become some sort of Standard in Denmark, You learn how to use it in school, you get a job or start your own business - The only option you have is MS Office, because it the only thing you know.
If we can get the schools converted, the rest of the country will follow!
That was the Office part! - What about leaving Windows as well?
Again - I'm talking LONG TERM!
The result was crystalclear!
The danish government (including 400.000 computers) uses 900.000.000kr ($150.000.000) a year for MS Office licenses, and stuff! (Just thinking about what the sum of all the licences (Including Windows, AntiVirus, etc... ) per year is, makes me angry!)
The discussion is now, whether or not the spared money would just have to be used for technicians etc... I refuse to believe so!
People have to learn how to use the new environment (probably expencive) - But don't you think they have to do that when a new version of "MS Office" is out?
OpenOffice uses an open standard, which enables people to share documents without having to pay a lot for an MS Licence.
Let's say it'll take a day to get used to OpenOffice:
400.000 workers (many of those may not need education in OOo) - I have a hard time figuring out, how that may cost $150.000.000 - So why do they stich with MS?
Ones everyone has been trained, we'll be down to the expences of having MS Office running (without expences to licences!)
Alternatively all schools could switch to OpenOffice, meaning that OpenOffice would become the standard forever on! (Doing this, everyone doing business in Denmark would use OpenOffice in just 30 years from now)
The problem is that MS Office has become some sort of Standard in Denmark, You learn how to use it in school, you get a job or start your own business - The only option you have is MS Office, because it the only thing you know.
If we can get the schools converted, the rest of the country will follow!
That was the Office part! - What about leaving Windows as well?
Again - I'm talking LONG TERM!