[LINK] Show me the money

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Malcolm Miles wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:16:08 -0700, you wrote:
> 
>> I got bored. Here's a summary of expenditure on Microsoft software for 
>> the six month reporting period (as best as I can tell based on the 
>> information to hand):
>>
>> http://www.stillhq.com/diary/001102.html
>>
>> So, about $70 million annually.
> 
> Note that the expenditure is not all for software. Some of the money
> was sent on consultancy services and support.
> 

Mikal,

If you are still bored, I wondered about your figure too - ie what was included
-was it just MS product (servers, desktop, training software maybe???) license fees?

$70 million sounds low to include license management, technical support services
or related products eg virus protection.

And how does this compare to SAP, Oracle, Adobe and proprietary Unix or other
operating
systems software licenses.

There is also the issue of fees to customise/configure closed source software -
where the customer has no asset. I have always thought this is problematic for
customisation that may be applicable to multiple government agencies.

I wonder what the savings to the Australian Tax payer if all governments
switched to Apache. Though this wouldn't necessarily be savings, it would be
money available to do more things. I would call that an efficiency dividend!

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202