2-Year OpenOffice High School Case Study

NewsForge has an article about University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy’s conversion from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org. Unlike previous articles, this one looks back with two years of perspective.

From the NewsForge article:

The cost analysis was compelling — the Linux option could be implemented for around $21,000, more than $100,000 less than the Microsoft Windows alternative. The key to enabling the move to Linux, however, was the ability to provide an acceptable office application suite that would run on both Windows XP and Linux….

As a practical matter, conversion of documents from Microsoft Office has not been a significant problem, with the exception of some of the more complex PowerPoint files….

The school has also found some unexpected benefits. Not only has the use of LTSP extended the life of existing hardware, it has actually improved the response time and stability of the systems involved.

Hansknecht does not hesitate to recommend OpenOffice.org to other schools, and he has extended his use of open source software to include the Mozilla browser, GIMP graphics software, Apache Web server, and the Moodle course management system.