Coordinators:
A beta version of free Staroffice for Macs can be downloaded from the
site listed below. This email is from a Sun salesman so I want you to be
aware of its origin. There are some interesting articles strung through all
of these URL's, one mentioning that we can buy Microsoft Office for $24.
Has anyone seen or heard anything about that???
George
PS. Isn't it interesting what competitors will do to one another. However,
the bottom line is maybe we'll have cheaper hardware and software available.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Chandler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 10:57 AM
Subject: WSJ article: Sun Takes Aim at Microsoft in U.S. Schools
> Hi All,
>
> I've pasted in an article below from the Wall Street Journal (2 days
> ago) that discusses Sun' Star Office vs. Microsoft Office. As many of
> you know Sun is offering free licenses to this application suite to
> education institutions. A university, college or school district need
> only purchase a single media kit for $25. As mentioned below the
> software runs on Windows, Linux and Solaris. A Mac Beta is available
> from www.openoffice.org. I hope you find this article interesting and
> informative. Thank you.
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve Chandler
> Open Technologies
> Phone 515-251-8282 x224
> TOLL FREE phone 888-346-8042 x224
> Sun Microsystems Campus Agent for Iowa and Nebraska
>
> Current EDu promotions:
> http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/promotions/
>
> For Student and Faculty purchases, direct your customers to School Zone.
>
> http://store.sun.com/docs/specials/workstations/schoolZone.jhtml
>
> ===============================================================
>
> Sun Takes Aim at Microsoft in U.S. Schools
> Source: The Wall Street Journal
>
>
> September 17, 2002 -- BIG COMPANIES THAT USE Microsoft Corp.'s products
> aren't the only ones fuming about the software titan's latest pricing
> policies -- and Microsoft rival Sun Microsystems Inc. knows it.
>
> Many educators in cash-strapped U.S. public schools, which depend on
> Microsoft software for classroom programs, are also upset. Officials
> like Diana Wilhite, technology coordinator for the tiny Americus School
> District in east-central Kansas, says Microsoft's recent plan to move
> more customers to multiyear contracts could raise her costs for crucial
> products like Microsoft Office, with word-processing, e-mail and
> spreadsheets, among other programs.
>
> So when Sun last spring offered several copies of its competing
> StarOffice product for a total of $25 -- software she could copy and
> install on dozens of computers -- it seemed too good to be true. "I
> don't know how anybody can turn that down," says Ms. Wilhite, who
> oversees computers and software for Americus' three elementary schools
> and one high school.
>
> Now, Sun has an even more enticing deal: StarOffice free. Today, the
> Santa Clara, Calif., company will announce it is giving away what it
> estimates to be more than $650 million of the software to ministries of
> education in Europe and South Africa. Sun hopes the donation will bring
> StarOffice to 26.2 million elementary, secondary and college students in
> those regions. Sun made similar donations in Asia several months ago and
> plans to seed U.S. schools with StarOffice as well.
>
> The donations are a departure for Sun, which previously focused on
> supplying more obscure software-development tools to universities; the
> company hasn't worked as closely with elementary and high schools. Sun
> is known more for its powerful, back-end computers used by big
> companies, and not for desktop software. Sun didn't even begin charging
> for StarOffice until this spring, when it announced a more-sophisticated
> version of the program with a retail price of $75.95.
>
> But Sun and its chief executive, Scott McNealy, rarely miss a chance to
> try to check the power of Redmond, Wash., arch-rival Microsoft. Indeed,
> Mr. McNealy and other Sun executives say making money from schools isn't
> their chief goal as they give away StarOffice, a product not generally
> considered as full-featured or easy to use as Microsoft's product but
> one that could be fine for many students. Instead, Sun is trying to
> destabilize Microsoft's dominance on the computer desktop and undercut
> its billions of profit from Office, a product many children first use in
> school.
>
> The prevalence of Office in schools means that by the time students
> graduate, "they're going to be kind of hooked for life," Mr. McNealy
> says in an interview. He says Sun also wants to help schools spend less
> on technology to free up funds for other instructional expenses and to
> reduce teacher/student ratios. Sun made a point to say its software can
> run on other companies' operating systems, such as Windows, and work
> with programs like Office.
>
> Microsoft says it constantly works to improve Office for schools,
> including creating features allowing disabled children to use the
> product. Sherri Bealkowski, general manager of Microsoft's
> education-solutions group, also said schools could pay as little as $24
> a copy for Office under one new, multiyear deal, down from the $67 or
> $59 a copy schools had paid with previous plans. Still, administrators
> like Ms. Wilhite say the new plans amount to a price increase, since
> schools have to buy new versions of software more often.
>
> Microsoft's Ms. Bealkowski says the company recognizes the special needs
> of schools, and that Microsoft designed the new pricing plans "to try to
> be very responsive to the needs of our customers."
>
> However, some school administrators were outraged earlier this year when
> Microsoft sent letters to hundreds of districts asking them to do audits
> to ensure each of their Microsoft products was properly licensed -- a
> process the technology chief of public schools in Portland, Ore., says
> would have cost $300,000. Such audits are more commonly requested of big
> businesses, not budget-constrained schools. Soon after, Microsoft, in a
> rare mea culpa, apologized and said it should have been more sensitive.
>
> Portland's schools, partly as a result of the tangle with Microsoft, are
> experimenting with the free Linux operating system and software called
> OpenOffice, a variant of StarOffice.
>
> Some schools have gone even further with Sun products. The Moreland
> School District in San Jose, Calif., is using Sun machines call Sun Rays
> -- which also run StarOffice -- in several of its schools to save money
> and simplify maintenance. Says Mike Jones, the district's director of
> information technology,"We're going down a path that's not locking us
> into a Microsoft future."
>
> Giveaway
>
> Sun will donate its StarOffice software to schools abroad including:
>
> France
> Students: 10 million
> Value: $250 million
>
> Germany
> Students: 4.2 million
> Value: $105 million
>
> South Africa
> Students: 12 million
> Value: $300 million
>
>
---
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