[elearning] Acer Aspire One - Rudd money

Sun Sep 7 21:46:31 EST 2008

Wow, infinite funding. The mind boggles at the prospect of a blank cheque
for any organisation.

Interesting observation Ken although if you discount the price of the OS,
the machine is still far too cheap.

We had a good laugh on another list about the future of this per-device
contract .. consideration was given to licences on potential devices such as
virtual machines, licences on ultra-small devices such as portables, usb
keys and licences on devices that would never run another OS such as a linux
proxy server such as EduPASS. In the end, it would make more sense to do an
audit and licence what has been used, not just the potential of a device to
run the OS.

Perhaps this will go the way of the milk that I was once mandated to drink
each day at school, pyramids of goodness that had been warmed in the sun and
found a ready target at the school incinerator.

Say, did you spot the interesting typo in the press release? The department
will deploy with the CASES rollout both Vista 2008 and "Sever 2008" .. ouch!

Regards Roland

2008/9/6 ken price <kenjprice at gmail.com>

> Could it be that the Windows cost has been paid centrally in your State?
>
> "The $23 million three year deal covers Microsoft product licensing
> for 164,000 devices and accompanies a hardware refresh that begins in
> 2008."
> http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1582266183
>
> Alternatively - I'm not sure what happens in Vic, but some states have
> an annual per-device payment that schools pay. Over three years this
> may well change the overall total cost of the two versions.
>
> I'd be a bit surprised however if the central contract was to cover an
> infinite number of devices - the Rudd initiative would, one assumes,
> have increased the number of computers by an amount that may not have
> been known at the time of contract negotiation.
>
> kp
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 12:21 AM, Roland Gesthuizen
> <rgesthuizen at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Mark is right, this is very odd pricing. The ACER Aspire one WIndows XP
> > version is priced at least $150 more on some of the overseas websites I
> > checked. The hardware is diffent but not remarkably so. From what I could
> > see, the CPU's are similar except the linux version comes with a more
> robust
> > 8Gb flash memory drive with no moving parts and 512MB of RAM, the Windows
> > version comes with 1Gb of RAM.
> >      http://www.cnet.com.au/laptops/laptops/0,239035649,339290036,00.htm
> >
> > If WIndows XP costs $250, does this make the laptops only $60? Whilst
> users
> > can still purchase a copy of WIndows XP from Harris Technology, perhaps
> Mark
> > is right to spot a goldmine for Windows XP licence purchases. Something
> > doesnt sit right and I am suspictious of what might be going on.
> >      http://tinyurl.com/5m8xj8 (Buy XP at HP)
> >
> > I would hate to point the bone but if a seller is pricing the different
> > units much higher than is reasonable or fair (price gouging) or if they
> are
> > selling a product at very low price with the intent of driving
> competitors
> > out of the market or to create a barrier to entry for new competitors
> > (predatory pricing) then what they are doing is probably quite illegal
> under
> > anti-trust laws.
> >       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_gouging
> >       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing
> >
> > "He who pays the piper can call the tune". In any case, users can pick
> the
> > cheaper laptop and still pick their own operating system, golly they can
> > even downgrade fr. Good competition drives prices down, not market
> > manipulation by an oligopolistic industry. We already have Linux running
> on
> > our OLPC, eeePCs and library terminals. Not a big deal, it works.
> >
> > Regards Roland
> >
> > 2008/9/5 Donna Benjamin <donna at cc.com.au>
> >>
> >> On Fri, 2008-09-05 at 14:06 +1000, Mark Kelly wrote:
> >> > I trust discussion of Rudd money is at least partially relevant to
> your
> >> > eLearning plan, especially planning your implementation strategies.
> >> >
> >> > The panel UMPC from Acer is a cute thing - and cheap. You get lots of
> >> > change from your Rudd $1000.
> >> >
> >> > We got one to play with and see whether it can stand running Win Vista
> -
> >> > our standard platform in 2009.
> >> >
> >> > 6 hour battery life!  Not bad...
> >> >
> >> > Anyway, the interesting thing is the pricing:
> >> > $313 ex with Windows XP.
> >> > $469 ex with Linux.
> >>
> >> Ermmmm... are the specs on the machines the same?
> >>
> >> > Now isn't that really interesting - Linux is free, and Windows costs
> >> > negative $156 dollars!
> >> >
> >> > I'm gonna buy 10,000 copies of Windows and make a fortune...
> >>
> >> --
> >> Software Freedom Day 2008        http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/melb
> >> A world wide celebration of
> >> Free and Open Source Software      Melbourne event at The Hub at Docklands
> >> and the community behind it.          11am - 4pm, Saturday 20 September
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> and
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> Teachers
> >> Association Inc
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
> > http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au
> >
> > "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
> change
> > the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
> > _______________________________________________
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> > eLearning Mailing List kindly supported by
> > http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
> Authority
> > and
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> Teachers
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>
>
>
> --
> Dr Ken Price MACS ACCE Professional Associate.
> President, TASITE
> _______________________________________________
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> eLearning Mailing List kindly supported by
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> Association Inc
>

-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
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