At the risk of starting a thread that runs for months, how do you overcome microsoft FUB in the education sector.
Where is the school? Metro or rural?
I've just quoted a couple of machines for a local, not for profit, school up my way that were intended to run KVM and file services with Winblows servers on top of them "because they have to have windows").
The Buresr, whom I do have some sympathy for, given the amount of crap he's been told, has made the decision that Linux is 'too risky', after consulting other bursers on some network of bursers (god knows) and being advised that "Linux is no good in an education environment, can't get staff, no-one uses it except a few 'out there risk takers'". Of course the M$ suppliers are pushing the same line.
How the hell do you combat this bull shit?
I have to say I'm amazed that a school with so little money is happy to throw it away to M$ (despite the heavy discounts they get for the licenses).
Basically you don't. Unless you can find a nearby school who is already running Linux and has senior staff willing to vouch for the cost savings they made etc, you aren't going to win this. Schools get MS software so cheap that the cost is unimportant, and doing what everyone else is doing is always the safest option. You need more expensive hardware to run most MS software when comparing to an equivalent Linux solution, but hardware is so cheap these days that that doesn't matter a great deal either. If you are dead set on trying, the I can offer the following suggestions: 0. Don't spread any FUD yourself. It's bad form. Most of my other suggestions are just variations on this. 1. Don't go around saying things like "winblows", "M$", etc. It makes you sound like an idiot. I'm assuming you know this, and you're just saying stuff like that on the LUV list because you are frustrated and it's the done thing here, and you wouldn't talk like this is a sales pitch to the school, but just in case... 2. Don't go around saying Microsoft software is crap. It's mostly not. I don't know of any FOSS that can touch Exchange, although I believe the situation is getting better. It's definitely bloated, to the point of ridiculous in some cases, but the generic "MS is crap" line isn't going to get you far. 3. A good windows admin is easy to find, cheap to employ, and can run a MS network with fairly little effort (a crap windows admin will fsck things up with ease, but that's true of any network). Don't try and argue that point. 4. You need real life case studies of schools that have made the switch. Or, set up a network and demo it. However good a salesperson you are, Microsoft are (probably) better, so talk won't get you far without something concrete to back it up. Linux is a much easier sell almost everywhere else because MS charge incredibly high prices for a lot of their software. A small business can get into a MS network quite cheap, but you outgrow the cheap pricing fairly quickly and then you are stuck with it. Most of this is opinion and experience. Take with as many grains of salt as you wish. And good luck! James