«

Albany Senior High School is ignoring a deal worked out between the
National Party government and Microsoft and claims it is saving a
bundle.

In their presentation they noted that when the school moves to new
quarters later this year its server rack, designed to hold 48 servers,
will instead need only four. The system also took less time to build
than a Microsoft system would have, the school said.

One thing that makes this a political story, down under, is that under
the nation’s contract with Microsoft the software giant still gets paid
for Albany’s Microsoft software even though it’s not being used.

<http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5690>

Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> Albany Senior High School is ignoring a deal worked out between the
> National Party government and Microsoft and claims it is saving a
> bundle.
>
> In their presentation they noted that when the school moves to new
> quarters later this year its server rack, designed to hold 48 servers,
> will instead need only four. The system also took less time to build
> than a Microsoft system would have, the school said.
>
> One thing that makes this a political story, down under, is that under
> the nation’s contract with Microsoft the software giant still gets paid
> for Albany’s Microsoft software even though it’s not being used.
>
> <http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5690>

That "48 servers" sounds a bit ridiculous.

On Jan 26, 1:09*pm, Gib Bogle <g.bo...@auckland.no.spam.ac.nz> wrote:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> > * * Albany Senior High School is ignoring a deal worked out between the
> > * * National Party government and Microsoft and claims it is saving a
> > * * bundle.
>
> > * * In their presentation they noted that when the school moves to new
> > * * quarters later this year its server rack, designed to hold 48 servers,
> > * * will instead need only four. The system also took less time to build
> > * * than a Microsoft system would have, the school said.
>
> > * * One thing that makes this a political story, down under, is that under
> > * * the nation’s contract with Microsoft the software giant still gets paid
> > * * for Albany’s Microsoft software even though it’s not being used.
>
> > <http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5690>
>
> That "48 servers" sounds a bit ridiculous.

[the number of servers you actually need] usually bears little
relation to [the number of servers your rack can hold].

Not exactly the best example of good writing. They didn't need 48
servers with either solution, so I have no idea why the fact that
their rack could potentially hold 48 servers was considered relevant
to the story.

--
Cheers
Anton

On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:09:46 +1300, Gib Bogle wrote:

> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> Albany Senior High School is ignoring a deal worked out between the
>> National Party government and Microsoft and claims it is saving a
>> bundle.
>>
>> In their presentation they noted that when the school moves to new
>> quarters later this year its server rack, designed to hold 48
>> servers, will instead need only four. The system also took less
>> time to build than a Microsoft system would have, the school said.
>>
>> One thing that makes this a political story, down under, is that
>> under the nation’s contract with Microsoft the software giant still
>> gets paid for Albany’s Microsoft software even though it’s not
>> being used.
>>
>> <http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5690>
>
> That "48 servers" sounds a bit ridiculous.

Actually, I thought that the school's server room was designed to hold 4 racks, each capable of holding
48 servers.

Presumably that would be 48 1U high servers per rack. Nothing ridiculous about those details -
especially if you're talking about Microsoft infrastructure in comparison with *nix or Netware
infrastructure.


--
"Filtering the Internet is like trying to boil the ocean"

On Jan 26, 1:10*pm, "geoff" <ge...@nospam-paf.co.nz> wrote:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

>
> Maybe that should read "4 to 8 servers" Lazzo. *Surely you should have
> picked up on that piece of journalistic ineptitude, or did it so suit your
> agenda that you overlooked *a basic bit of brain-parsing of the info ?
>

The server room (servers, PABX, Fibre optic modems etc) was sized up
by the architects (presumably taking appropriate engineering advice)
on the basis of practical needs for similar schools. It would have
been sized to allow for later building development and for more
intensive adoption of technology. The main point being made was that
far fewer servers were required compared with a Microsoft solution and
so the server room would appear to be unusually bare for a facility of
that sort. There is vestiges of Microsoft, some Ministry mandated
administration systems (eg pupil records) works only on Windows and
one teacher objected to having Ubantu on his school issued laptop and
the school let him have Windows.

The Microsoft schools software contract is a negotiated lump sum to
cover the state (including integrated AFAIK) school system. It has the
advantage for schools that there are not going to be pesky software
audits and for Microsoft that the incentive to walk is far less as
there is no software licence savings at school level. Taking an
impartial view, a lump sum approach does make operational sense even
though it imposes a barrier to competition.

There is a cost saving at pupil level - they do not need to shell out
for Office software, even at 'educational' price. They can boot up
with Ubantu (available from schoo)l and away they go.

Look out for Microsoft lobbying the US government (with appropriate
campaign contributions) to include Microsoft friendly (and Open Source
unfriendly) terms in the forthcoming Free Trade Agreement.

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:24:27 -0800 (PST), "AD." <> wrote:

>On Jan 26, 1:09*pm, Gib Bogle <g.bo...@auckland.no.spam.ac.nz> wrote:
>> Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> > * * Albany Senior High School is ignoring a deal worked out between the
>> > * * National Party government and Microsoft and claims it is saving a
>> > * * bundle.
>>
>> > * * In their presentation they noted that when the school moves to new
>> > * * quarters later this year its server rack, designed to hold 48 servers,
>> > * * will instead need only four. The system also took less time to build
>> > * * than a Microsoft system would have, the school said.
>>
>> > * * One thing that makes this a political story, down under, is that under
>> > * * the nation’s contract with Microsoft the software giant still gets paid
>> > * * for Albany’s Microsoft software even though it’s not being used.
>>
>> > <http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5690>
>>
>> That "48 servers" sounds a bit ridiculous.
>
>[the number of servers you actually need] usually bears little
>relation to [the number of servers your rack can hold].
>
>Not exactly the best example of good writing. They didn't need 48
>servers with either solution, so I have no idea why the fact that
>their rack could potentially hold 48 servers was considered relevant
>to the story.



Yes Lunacy Lunix Bull ****

On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:22:43 +1300, "geoff" <> wrote:

>AD. wrote:
>
>>
>> Not exactly the best example of good writing. They didn't need 48
>> servers with either solution, so I have no idea why the fact that
>> their rack could potentially hold 48 servers was considered relevant
>> to the story.
>
>Not to mention a rather large rack....
>
>geoff
>



And how will these School kids get a Job when they don't have a Clue about MS
office, it also seems that Open Office is now a dead duck and will no longer
be supported.

On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:16:39 -0800, peterwn wrote:

> There is
> vestiges of Microsoft, some Ministry mandated administration systems (eg
> pupil records) works only on Windows and one teacher objected to having
> Ubantu on his school issued laptop and the school let him have Windows.

LOL. Was the teacher not able to cope with learning something new eh?


--
"Filtering the Internet is like trying to boil the ocean"

On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:25:19 +1300, geoff wrote:

> I think you'll find that the same number of servers would do a petty
> much identical job. And I cannot imagine any more that 4 (or 8 at a
> stretch) servers for a school of that size, and then only separate
> servers to isolate the different functions phyically as a policy
> decison, not necessarily technical..

It is good technical design practise to separate databases from applications.

That means there will be at least 4 servers - database, application, file&print, and email.

And then there will be the virtual Windoze box sitting somewhere for the proprietary Winders-only
education dept programs.


--
"Filtering the Internet is like trying to boil the ocean"

On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:12:36 +1300, Mary Hanna wrote:

> And how will these School kids get a Job when they don't have a Clue
> about MS office

Easy - so long as they can read and write, and type a letter, and use a spreadsheet, etc. They don't
specifically need to know MS Office in order to get a good job.


--
"Filtering the Internet is like trying to boil the ocean"