Ditching Micro$oft could save money

Oh yes ! This aint a fast one pulled by me or anyone else, if you plan to ditch microsoft products completely, you could actually be on your way to immediately save much much more $ .

A study conducted Britain's Educational Communications and Technology Association found that primary schools in the UK could cut their computer costs by half and secondary schools by quarter if only they just avoided software from Microsoft.

Results of the study, which are due to be released next week, were reported on Friday by The Times Educational Supplement (TES), a British paper. The TES said that the study doesn't actually use Microsoft's name, but this definitely leaves little doubt by actually referring to the world's largest software maker. I personally felt they could have also used the term Darth Vader to refer to Uncle Bill Gates ! *smile*

The British paper also mentioned that the study analysed costs at 33 schools which use commercial software and comparing them with 15 schools have pioneered the use of open source software (free software). Average costs, including software, hardware and support costs, were 24 per cent less per computer in schools using open source software !