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University of Minnesota “Wastes Millions on Software”

According to an opinion piece in the Minnesota Daily, “The University wasted a whopping $2.7 million recently by purchasing licenses of Microsoft Office and Windows XP Pro for each registered student,” writes Jason Ketola.

Imagine how much custom software development for OpenOffice.org and Linux that same sum could have purchased! And it would only have to be paid once, instead of cyclicly forever.

Ketola writes:
“I have encountered many different students at the University who use Linux and other free and open source software… A great opportunity exists for these individuals to start a student group designed to help individuals on their way to using FOSS. Just by having a support system through a monitored discussion board on the Internet and maybe a few office hours during the week, many people could be freed from the wallet crunching clutches of Microsoft.

These are services which should be provided by the University in the interest of supporting a democratic model of software development. By spending $2.7 million on Microsoft licenses, the University missed a golden opportunity and in the process unnecessarily wasted its students’ money.”

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