[ale] Notes from Jun 19th meeting

[Jim Kinney]

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 4:46 PM, James Taylor <
James.Taylor at eastcobbgroup.com> wrote:

> I've been following this conversation for awhile, and this statement
> reflects my observations about driving change in the commercial environments
> I've worked in.
>
> Any time a major change has been implemented, it is usually as a result of
> an absolutely have to have incentive.  Without that incentive, all
> obstacles, no matter how minor, are insurmountable.  With the incentive, all
> obstacles, no matter how major, are insignificant.
>
> In order to drive change you have find out what the organization needs that
> can be provided by your solution that cannot be provided by the current
> solution.  It almost always has to be something that they don't currently
> have.  If it were, it would be change (bad) as opposed to something they
> can't live without that they never knew they needed before.


Like the overall cost of implementing Vista in a school system is becoming a
soon-to-be mandatory thing. Even if the software was a gift to the schools,
the overwhelming majority of the hardware would have to be replaced. The
same situation exists for the transition to the Mac environment. While this
is a negative avoidance situation (choosing open source over windows/mac)
that is a big incentive - extreme cost avoidance. The GSA contract price for
a Vista running Dell bottom of the line desktop is $425. That's with a
crappy keyboard, mouse (not optical!) and a small lcd monitor. To that cost
add set up and installation and network configuration plus any additional
software (about another $100 per seat total). For about $25 less per seat
that just the hardware purchase (depends on scale - more clients = lower
overall cost per seat), a fully installed Linux thin client environment can
be up and running with all new hardware clients, servers, switching,
monitors, keyboards, optical mice, patch cables, etc and stuffed to gills
with software. Add to the cost picture the overall savings on power and
cooling and parts (thin clients have no moving parts to wear out).

>
>
> -jt
>
>
>
> James Taylor
> The East Cobb Group, Inc.
> 678-697-9420
> james.taylor at eastcobbgroup.com
> http://www.eastcobbgroup.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >>> Daniel Howard <dhhoward at comcast.net> 6/21/2008 10:38 PM >>>
>
> ...show them why a thin client architecture makes sense and
> what they can do with it is well beyond what they currently do.  I'm
> guessing that a new capability/software application will trump any
> resistance from supporting an old application, especially if I can show
> them they can still do the old stuff if they really want to.
>
> Still learning in Atlanta,
> Daniel
>
> --
> Daniel Howard
> President and CEO
> Georgia Open Source Education Foundation
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
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