"Flanked by heavyweights from Microsoft and Chinese PC
manufacturer Lenovo, this morning the state's Premier Nathan Rees
announced the Department of Education and Training would roll out
some 200,000 laptops to students and teachers using Windows XP and
Office...
"With this in mind, and the cost consideration that clearly
played a big part in DET's negotiations with vendors (DET CIO
Stephen Wilson this morning said he was pleased with Microsoft's
"innovative and flexible approach to software licensing and
support"), it's hard to see why Linux wasn't given more serious
consideration in the department's plans.
"Then too, the department has not outlined how the laptops will
be secured. I can't imagine the Atom-based Lenovo machines will
have many spare CPU cycles or much spare RAM after loading up a
security suite like Norton Antivirus in combination with Windows XP
and chunks of Adobe CS4. You simply wouldn't face the same problem
under Linux."
