Re: Free UNIX for non-commerical use.

From: Dr. David Kirkby (drkirkby_at_ntlworld.com)
Date: 07/30/03 

Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 00:08:27 +0100

John D Groenveld wrote:
>
> In article <3F23BE8A.C11571FD@ntlworld.com>,
> Dr. David Kirkby <drkirkby@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> >Sun gave us StarOffice, there would be no inclination to switch to
> >it, since Windoze and all the MS products cost us next to nothing.
>
> How much is "next to nothing" for both end-user and the institution?
> Here Office XP licenses for department use is $68.82 and for student personal
> use is $28.04 plus whatever the institution has to pony up behind the
> scenes.
>
> StarOffice is free AFAICT.
>
> John
> groenveld@acm.org

I was wrong to use the term 'next to nothing'. The truth is I don't
know what it costs. I've never heard anyone moan about the cost and
consider using StarOffice instead of Office 2000. But I don't work in
the IT department, or purchasing, so I'm not informed about these
matters.

I don't think MS are stupid enough to do what Wolfram Research did,
which was to hick the price of a university site licence so much, that
99% of the college switched to a competitive product. Clearly (well to
me, but not everyone it seems), it's in Microsoft's interest for all
our graduates to leave knowing Windoze+Office 2000, rather than
StarOffice or OpenOffice. Just like I feel it's in Sun's interest for
our students to know Solaris, and HP's interest for our students to
know HP-UX etc etc. No matter what happens, may will leave knowing
Linux. 

-- 
Dr. David Kirkby,
Senior Research Fellow,
Department of Medical Physics,
University College London,
11-20 Capper St, London, WC1E 6JA.
Tel: 020 7679 6408 Fax: 020 7679 6269
Internal telephone: ext 46408
e-mail davek@medphys.ucl.ac.uk

Relevant Pages

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