[K12OSN] LTSP vs PC

[Terrell Prude', Jr.]

I know.  That's what I've been letting people in my district know for 
over a year now, but they'd rather spend the $30K (actually, closer to 
$40K in our case) for Windows PCs than spend $2K to $6K on a K12LTSP 
box.  We already have the infrastructure (Gig-E fiber, switched 100Mbps 
to the desktop) to support this.  Each of our ESs has, at a minimum, two 
computer labs, and most of them have three or four.  Consider this, folks:

Spend $3K per lab to upgrade it to K12LTSP, instead of the 
aforementioned $30K for Windows PCs.  That's a $27K savings per lab.  
You have, let's say, three labs in ES's on average.  That's $81K.  
Folks, that's enough to fund a new teacher for two years.  Now imagine 
it on the high school level.

I just don't understand the resistance to that kind of business case, 
especially when we're in a $40+ million budget shortfall.  Anyone?

--TP

Caleb Wagnon wrote:

>The price of a 30 seat pc lab I'll say could be around $30,000. I see at
>penguin computing you can build a quad opteron 64 server with 32gb ram, scsi
>drive, and gig nics for the same price. That could possibly leverage over 600
>terminals!!
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