I sincerely believe the retraining costs for switching to Sun StarOffice
from Microsoft office would amount to 1 hour per person.  Computer Based
Training (CBT) can be created as a reference for under $40,000.  The
cost savings by switching (about $140 per PC per year) would recoup the
training expenses in less than a year.

Most companies will embark on a venture if they can recoup their
investment in 2-5 years.  That should make this a no-brainer.

I am not advocating replacing Windows with Linux (yet), just the Office
Productivity software.  As I understand it, if a company buys a PC with
Windows installed, the license is still perpetual, not the three-year
renewing kind (am I wrong?).  That being the case, running Windows still
makes sense for now.  Office, on the other hand, does not.

George


"Dr.G" wrote:
> 
> As some comments from /. have been said, all they have to do is go through a
> M$ recognized vendor ( hence..3rd party) to use the same type of software.
> Also, considering that the COP and Maricopa County are the largest employers
> for the state of AZ, I highly doubt they want to go through the retraining
> fees it would cost to retrain all those people to use the new software. Your
> talking about a LOT of $$, $$ that is coming out of my pocket as a taxpayer,
> and more importantly, the other 3.9 million+ taxpayers who (Read: people
> over 60's usually) will vote that down if neccessary, or complain enough
> that it will probably not go through.. So I'm on the fence with that one. It
> should be one step at a time.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tom Emerson" <tom@technicaljanitors.com>
> To: <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 11:31 AM
> Subject: Re: PLUG on Slashdot
> 
> > Perhaps the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest would have
> > something to say about enforcement of current policy and law?
> >
> > http://www.aclpi.org/
> >
> > They have a bit of a reputation fighting for enforcement of ignored
> laws...
> >
> > ----------------------------
> >
> > On Mon, 17 Jun 2002, Matt Alexander wrote:
> >
> > I just noticed on Slashdot this morning that we're featured in regards to
> > the Maricopa County thread:
> >
> > http://slashdot.org
> >
> > ________________________________________________
> >
> > ________________________________________________
> > See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't
> post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail.
> >
> > PLUG-discuss mailing list  -  PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
> 
> ________________________________________________
> See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail.
> 
> PLUG-discuss mailing list  -  PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss

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