Open Source and Money

I've tinkered around with the idea of switching to open-source or open-standard software for schools, But Lee Sartain from NC state has a great example of why me might want to do it. A system using Microsoft products will probably upgrade 4 times during the time a typical student in in K-12. The cost of that for 3,500 students then that is $700,000. That could be turned into any of the following.

• 875 laptops
• 200 interactive classrooms (interactive whiteboard, projector, etc.)
• Pay a technician I for 15 years

That puts an interesting spin on it.