Ron Schenone

New Zealand Schools vs Microsoft – Can't Afford MS Office

Posted by on May 31, 2007 | 16 Comments

Well it seems that our neighbors down under have a major tiff with being able to afford using Microsoft Office on all of the 25,000 computers in their school system. The story from the NZ Herald here seems to indicate that the school district was facing some $2.7 million in additional licensing fees, which it could not afford. The school computers are all Apple systems using Microsoft Office.

The school district estimated that some 30% of the systems were not using the Office software product and therefore paying for these unused licenses was a waste of funds. Funds that it seems it did not have. In fact the article seems to project that in the next ten years the schools would be facing a $100 million shortfall. Though some schools have opted to keep MS Office on some of the systems by purchasing separate licensing, others are seeking alternative solutions like using Apple’s word processing software.

After reading this article, the first thought that crossed my mind was why didn’t the school district just opt for using OpenOffice, which is a freebie? Most word processing programs work very similarly to each other. Though MS Office has many more bells and whistles, OpenOffice still would afford the students a positive learning experience. It seems that this would be the easy solution to the problem and save the school district some big bucks.

This is the type of situation where Open Source software can make a huge dent in the Microsoft monopoly. Plus you can’t beat the pricing. :-)

What do you think? Is it time for school districts that can’t afford the expense of Microsoft software to look at alternatives? Or will the students who do not learn the MS Office products suffer when they enter the workplace?

Comments welcome.

[tags]microsoft, software, office, school district, new zealand, openoffice[/tags]

  • Ben Bromiley

    Yes I would think that using Open Office in the schools is a good idea.
    With the cost of education rising every savings is important.
    I have used Open Office for over a year with good results.
    I got tired of spending money to upgrade MS Office and there was little learning involved in the switch.
    It would be far better to use it in teaching a office program than not teaching any at all. When learned the conversion to MS Office should be an easy step.

  • marc klink

    Unless one is involved in writing a book, with heavy footnoting, and reference citations, Open Office works just fine. It is getting better with each iteration, and I don’t think MS can say that. As far as that goes, I have 2 friends that, between them, have written a number of books, and they both prefer Word Perfect, claiming for large works, it still is better than MS Word.

    I have Office 2003 Pro and Office 2007 Pro, but prefer to use Open Office, as it is easier to show children how to use it. Actually, we use Oxygen Office Pro, which is just Open Office with all the extra bells and whistles [there's quite a few]. It also has the benefit of being able to be put on a U3 thumb drive. My son and daughter are in independent study, and keep all their schoolwork on a thumbdrive, so they can carry it with them when they go to school 1 day per week. It allows them to print out things while there, making it very convenient. Again. MSO can’t do this.

    If enough people use Open Office in school, it will change the standard when they go to work. This is one of MS’s greatest fears.

  • http://fractalbeanstalk.blogspot.com/ Tim Hodkinson

    Of all the computing environments there are: home; office; home-office; retail; etc… schools, which are large institutions, are the best positioned for migrating to open source because their size alone, makes support much easier. Combine that with the fact that they have great autonomy in what they choose to do or what programs they want to use… in my opinion, any school that continues to use anything by Microsoft deserves the ridiculous licensing fees and restrictions they get. You’d think all schools would be smarter.

    As for learning how to use MS Office for use in the working world… it’s going to be gone by the time most students get there. And if it isn’t; is it so hard to move from Open Office, or anything else, to another office suite? Besides, schools should be getting MS Office for free in exchange for getting students hooked on it while in school. Remember all those big wall maps the schools used to get for free that advertised chocolate bars in the corners?

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hello Ben,
    I hear you. MS Office has gotten very expensive.

    Hi Marc,
    Thanks for suggesting Oxygen Office Pro. I haven’t tried it but it sounds interesting.

    Heh Tim,
    Maybe MS is afraid if they give it away to one school system, every school system will want it for free. :-)

    Thanks to everyone for your comments. Ron

  • Scott King

    Maybe this could be a good example for the economics class………

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Scott,
    Thanks for the comment.
    Ron

  • Kurt Koppang

    For the functionality taught a most schools Open Office would more than meet their requirements. The cost savings in licensing would be huge for schools who’s budgets are already under tremendous strain. The basic skills for word processing, spread sheet management and presentation preparation translate fairly easily form one office suite to the next.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Kurt,
    I agree.
    Ron

  • Joe Watkins

    For those in independent study add PORTABLE open office to the list – http://www.portableapps.com. I carry my docs and my software on the same thumb drive

  • http://www.moorewireless.com Chuck Moore

    I use MSO 2K every day but utilize less than 10% of the feature set. and I feel I am an advanced user. I think Open Office would be very good substitute for all schools K-12 (or equivalent) to use. Many engineering universites do not use MSO, AutoCad or MicroStation because of the cost and licensing isues. In addition, the taxpayers would love school districts to use Open Office but no district wants to take the first step. It is the Lemming effect!

  • http://dougoffen.com Doug Offen

    When I was teaching computers in our school lab, I often used freeware with the kids. I love the concept of freeware. I found programs that did specific things and performed specific operations. It was much easier to keep kids on task if they didn’t have all the extra gizmos and geek stuff to click on.

    I preferred to have them work with their own creative processes than to memorize the buttons to push to “create” clip art crapola in ms or any other piece of bloatware. Give them a nice tight program that does a few things well and let them create, explore and expand its capabilities.

    Basics learned in basic programs could easily be found in the bloatware if the student knew what was possible. Making cookie cutter gingerbread people with only blue gumdrop buttons is not what education is all about. Bloatware makes a student, who isn’t aware of the basics, think s/he is being creative just because s/he has a 500 choice template section so he can do a blue one while everyone else does the red one.

    In a school system there should be a wide variety of resources, sources and solutions, not just the microsoft way.

  • RD Holtz

    MS Office for Students and Teachers runs about $135 for boxed software, and that allows licensed installation on 3 machines, or about $45 per machine. That would cut some of the school system’s costs. I’m surprised Microsoft can’t do far better for a 25,000-license purchase which entails shipping only a few master rollout disks. I wonder if the school system isn’t just arguing for a better deal via the media.

    And I agree with other posters: I can’t imagine why OpenOffice won’t do everything MS Office does in a school. There are a few interface changes, but kids are adaptable — or, if they aren’t, they need to learn adaptability, so it would be a good lesson for them.

    I’ve used OpenOffice and MS Office almost interchangeably for a couple of years. I like the PDF output of OpenOffice (although CutePDF is more functional and still free). Saving $2.7 million makes OpenOffice look pretty attractive.

  • pcwiz…

    It is time for schools to look elsewhere for their office software products! M$ has had the luck of the draw for far too long now. It’s time for every USER, not just the schools and universities, to look at Open Office!

    Besides, it costs nothing to install it next to your current Office software suite and experiment with. No cost! Imagine the student going home to Mom or Dad and saying, “I have to have new software for school this year, but don’t worry, it’s FREE!”?!?!

    People are afraid of the unknown, yet in this case the unknown is a better product!

    Cheers!
    pcwiz…

  • Richard Chapman

    Consider if the NZ school system were a parent. And this parent needed to lease a new car because the lease was up on the old car. The cost of the new lease puts such a financial burden on said parent that he/she can’t afford to feed their children properly. So someone comes along and says, “here’s a car for free and it runs better and is much more economical to use.” It’s understood that the free car is totally legitimate. So what would the Child Welfare people have to say about a parent that put there children at risk because they didn’t understand a better deal when it was right in front of their nose? Right. I hope I understand, some day, how people can be so foolish.

  • Stuart

    Kai Ora from down under
    A number of years ago the govt of NZ and Mircosoft did a nice deal in that schools got cheap OS and Office software this extended to teachers . This cheap software was being preloaded on to PCs and Mircosoft could keep an eye on it.
    Some schools decided that for some things Macs are better and purchased Macs, They loaded the Macs up with what ever software the Schools felt they needed, some got the Mac Mircosoft Office and some not. Now as your story n the Hearld tells it the nice folks at Mircosoft want all Macs to pay for a copy of Office if they need it or use it or not.

    It is high time Schools and others looked at other OS and software models with Open Source being a model to look at closely

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi everybody,
    I just wanted to thank all of you for your comments and sharing your thoughts with us. It is appreciated.

    Thanks again, Ron