On Monday 11 February 2002 21:13, Chad C. Walstrom wrote: > Lee J. Behrens wrote: > > For me personally, Win2K has a much better TOC than Linux. Why? Most > > of my experience is with Windows. > > ...and that about sums it up for most "IT" Managers as well, those that > are under pressure to deliver a "platform" that users are "used to" and > "comfortable with"; desktops that have "intuitive designs" and are "easy > to navigate". > > Having worked at two places now where I wear the hats of Systems Manager > and Technical Support, I can agree that every skill level and preference > for computing environments is represented at any business or > organization. Some people can be directed with a few hints, and other > people must be led by the hand. > Having provided that role in more than two places I agree whole-heartedly! The reappearance of this thread and the arrival of the current PCConnections catalog yesterday got me thinking about an analysis I did when Win2K first came out. At that time I dubbed it "The Guru Exchange Rate". I decided to breakout the calculator and revisit the analysis based on "current pricing". Scenerio: Small Business with: 35 Workstations (Mix of Win 9x, NT Workstation, and 2000 Professional) 50% MS Office penetration: 18 Workstations. (Mix of Office 97 and Office 2K) 2 Windows NT Servers; 1 File and Print, 1 Exchange (and maybe Proxy) Question: If a consultant (me) cost $500/day for onsite consulting (I do) then how many days of me onsite can this Business get for installation and training/support for the cost of upgrading all systems to XP Professional and Office XP? Answer: Based on the current PCConnections catalog the cost of upgrades are: $200/WS - Windows XP Professional - Total Upgrade cost = $7000 = 14 days $280/WS - Office XP Professional - Total Upgrade cost = $5040 = ~10 days Assumptions: Average time per workstation install (using SuSE 7.3 Pro) = 1.5 hrs/WS Total time required for WS installs = 52.5/hrs @ 8 hrs/day = ~ 7 days Time available for training and support = ~17 days Basic Linux training for 35 users in groups of 5 for 1 day class = 7 days StarOffice training for 18 users in groups of 3 for 1 day class = 6 days Remaining onsite support days = ~4 Its not a perfect analysis. But I think it provides a starting point for discussion. -- Jack Ungerleider jack at jacku.com