[ubuntu-uk] Public library OS choice

[Avi Greenbury]

Muñiz Piniella, Andrés wrote:
> A) I do not know about your local libraries but mine are still on
> windowsxp. So they will have to replace it soon with win8. And that
> has a steeper learning curve than any of the most common distros. B)

If Windows 8 does have a prohibitively-steep learning curve (and I
don't believe it does) then they will probably simply upgrade to
Windows 7.

> win8 will require new hardware.

Perhaps following on from XP, but generally hardware will be replaced
to keep it in warranty as much as anything else. I know people running
Windows 8 on some pretty ancient hardware, and Ubuntu seems (judging
by other people's anecdotes) to be getting worse at old hardware, in
any case.

> Appart from canonical who could provide the service? And why is windows service
> cheaper than gnu/linux distros? I thought the reasoning was that one gnu/linux
> admin was more expensive than a windows admin but a gnu/linux admin could
> manage over more units, so turned out cheaper.

Windows desktops are easier (and faster) to manage in number than
Linux because Windows has AD and Linux doesn't. On the *server* that
thing about volume-per-person is truer. It's been a few years since I
last looked at this in any great depth, but not enough that anything
developed in the meantime is likely to be mature enough to really
rival AD.

Windows techs cost less per hour than Linux ones traditionally, and
when you're just running a few desktops that's how you think. If
you're running a large number of desktops then the cost of retraining
and retooling will probably dwarf the potential savings of not buying
a discounted Windows license per desktop - nobody who is buying more
than one or two licenses pays list price for them.

-- 
Avi