Hello, It's kind of interesting that an email about this very topic landed in my inbox this morning. Here's the link: http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/filters/specialreport/0,14622,6022528 ,00.html Good luck. Matthew On Tue, 23 Apr 2002 07:44:37 -0400, Stephen C. Daukas wrote:

In case you haven't heard, M$ is auditing a dozen or so large school districts for compliance on licensing. Of course, this will be ugly and will run one district an estimated $1,000,000 per year to comply with M$. That's $1,000,000 more then they pay now. M$ is offering a simplified

arrangement whereby a school system pays a flat fee for every Intel box (regardless of what it might actually be running) that would run that same district about $30,000. You can see where this is headed!

Aside from noting that people's dishonesty about paying the real costs associated with M$ software has gotten them into this trouble (if only because the real costs are not apparent to "management"), I'm wondering what is available as a real alternative to M$ for the great unwashed masses.

Of course, the answer I would expect to hear is "Linux!", but...

I'm talking about a solution that is useable by those who are not rabid members of a LUG, or Sys admins in their day job. I'm talking about productivity software that will seamlessly read and write M$ file formats (Excel, Word, etc.). I don't know, for example, if Star Office is a real alternative because I don't know how well it interoperates with those who use Word, for example, on a daily basis. Perhaps there is a solution that will reliably run M$ applications without having to buy the OS, but that is

only a step in the right direction.

I was hoping to hear suggestions about what is out there and if Linux is ready to work seamlessly in heterogeneous High-Tech world. This might be a

good topic for one of the WLUG meetings...

Steve

_______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

_______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug