English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

The last piece of research I found seemed to gleam the most information for me. It had several sections outlining a list of open source software used cost savings versus capabilities gained, implicit savings in hardware, other implicit cost savings( such as security, lower virus vulnerability and upgrade costs) and finally the roadblock to using open source software.

The case study provided an in depth analysis of the software that is available and a commercial alternative and what it would cost. This is what really will benefit our cost analysis. The article provided a huge list of these and I can see a great graph coming out of this information.

The article also briefly mentions the costs of hardware. It outlines how the Linux implementation requires far less hardware and runs just as good if not better. This will once again be a great help in our cost analysis.

I also really thought the other implicit cost savings were outlined. This basically analyzed how the cost of security, risk of virus vulnerabilities and upgrade costs all decreased thanks to the move to Linux. The ancillary benefits really show another side of Linux benefits.

I think the hardest part of all of this will be remaining as unbiased as possible and adequately analyzing each side. Much of the research I found is pro Linux, but I have a lot of experience with Microsoft products also that I could refer back to. Hopefully the in depth cost analysis of this case study will provide a real life example of how this was implemented in an actual school.

http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~rlineweaver/