Comment Actually quite useful (Score 1) 496
This approach doesn't sound new, but should be very useful.
Since most new PC's come with keyboard, monitor and mouse, IT departments have boxes of old keyboards and mice around. We also dispose of perfectly good moniters.
Therefore, the hardware cost is mainly the drives, chips, boards, etc in the case. In wealthy nations, people consider this cheep, but it is still a significant expense to an organization. (For simplicity, I'll ignore the indirect environmental costs of manufacture and disposal.)
My employer has about 200 office employees, many of whom work in adjoining cubicles. Most of them use office apps, telnet sessions and quite a few specialized applications. For each new computer deployed, the PC support staff has to spend considerable time loading and customizing software. The support staff's time is a major factor when comparing TCO.
The implemetation might be expensive, but if this is planned correctly, we'd in theory convert to Linux with free software, one quarter of the PC's and one quarter of the support staff time.
A even better case would be a growing startup company without a big Windows investment. If the only bought one PC for every four users, there would be a big savings in hardware and support.
Since most new PC's come with keyboard, monitor and mouse, IT departments have boxes of old keyboards and mice around. We also dispose of perfectly good moniters.
Therefore, the hardware cost is mainly the drives, chips, boards, etc in the case. In wealthy nations, people consider this cheep, but it is still a significant expense to an organization. (For simplicity, I'll ignore the indirect environmental costs of manufacture and disposal.)
My employer has about 200 office employees, many of whom work in adjoining cubicles. Most of them use office apps, telnet sessions and quite a few specialized applications. For each new computer deployed, the PC support staff has to spend considerable time loading and customizing software. The support staff's time is a major factor when comparing TCO.
The implemetation might be expensive, but if this is planned correctly, we'd in theory convert to Linux with free software, one quarter of the PC's and one quarter of the support staff time.
A even better case would be a growing startup company without a big Windows investment. If the only bought one PC for every four users, there would be a big savings in hardware and support.
