[K12OSN] cost of Windows according to Microsoft

[William Fragakis]

Great article on Microsoft's TOC estimates for XP and Vista for "mobile"
computing since K12LTSP is often compared to "let's give all the
students a laptop".

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136865-c,vistalonghorn/article.html

Microsoft estimates the annual TOC  for mobile computing on Vista to be
about $3800 while for XP $4400. Many XP fans have been skeptical of the
Vista "savings" because M'soft estimates hardware savings with Vista -
even though it requires a much more powerful PC for the same level of
performance than XP. At Morris Brandon, where we have 400+ K12LTSP
desktops, had we put that many laptops in place running XP (Vista not
being available two years ago), the annual cost estimate would be more
than US$ 1.76 million. 

Assuming their rosy estimates for Vista - $1.5 million. 

Obviously, schools using Windows aren't don't have that much money which
means that compared to M'soft's best practices, they are cutting corners
in security, reliability, support, asset-management, software
deployment, etc. Whatever TOC corners are being cut (costs avoided),
likely, there are proportionate productivity losses as teachers and
students deal with security and hardware issues and administrators
struggle to keep up with software deployment and inventory. 

regards,
William