I saw a blog, schools-should-use-openofficeorg , the other day that got me thinking: "how much money are we spending on Microsoft licenses for all the students in this country?" Per the US 2005 census results for education , there are 75 million students in this country (a pretty amazing number on its own as it represents over 25% of the population over 3) . That covers everyone, from elementary kids, through Jr. High, High School and College. Includes all those folks who have gone back to school as well for a career change, etc.
School districts pay somewhere between $50 and $100 for MS Office licenses for each and every computer in the school. Add to this the home computers running MS Office for Students and the numbers can get big. Let's assume that every student using the MS Office Suite is paying Microsoft $75 each. From the 2005 Census, there are 33 million k-8 students, 17 million 9-12 kids in high school and 17 million college students (of all ages).
To be fair, let's assume that 1/2 of K-8 students are covered by a MS Office license either through their schools, their parents computers or both. That comes out to ~ 16.5 million k-8 students. If we multiply each student by $75 we get ~ 1.24 billion spent on licenses. That's just elementary school.
Now let's assume that 2/3 of the high school and college students use MS Office and also pay on average $75 each. Do that math and we arrive at: 22,440,000 students x $75 each or ~$1.68 billion. Combine with the other number for a grand total of almost $3 billion.
While clearly not a annual expense (typically, people only buy MS Office licenses when they get a new computer, or upgrade to a new version) and perhaps the math is a bit off, it's still a big number and a significant % of many school & student budgets. Why, with so much good open source software available at no cost, are we spending this kind of money?
For example, take a look at Open Office (openoffice.org) - includes word processing, spreadsheets, drawing, presentations and a blogging tool - and it's FREE. You don't have to be a computer guru to set it up and use it. Thing is, a lot of people simply don't realize that there are options out there.
Next time you are considering buying a Student and Teacher edition of MS Office - STOP! Go to openoffice.org
and download OpenOffice for FREE! Try it out and then send the money you would have sent to MS to help someone who really needs the
help. It's not right that schools have to cut arts funding, after school programs, athletics and still pay for MS Office licenses!
Become an open source activist - ask questions at your schools, your colleges, your bookstores
And in other news:
The Detroit Red Wings clinched their sixth straight Central Division Title and their third consecutive Western
Conference title. Playoffs start tomorrow!
Go Red Wings!
