hi On 9/1/07, NoOp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I'd also suggest that you have a look at StarOffice. OOo is basically > the free version of SO, and Sun have added macro & templates that assist > in making a MS to SO transition. It's free to educational institutions, > staff, students, etc., and I'm sure that the Sun rep will be quite happy > to assist you in making the transition from MS to SO.
No, Sun is hurting for cash and is laying people off. The stock is trading at $5 and change with a P/E ratio of 40:1. Sun does have lots of liquid cash money in the bank, but it needs every penny as it returns to profitability from years of being hammered by the dot-bomb and commodity hardware / software. It is not worth my time to trudge through the Sun bureaucracy to be told no. I think that Sun is an awesome company, and they have done lots of good things for FOSS, despite having funded SCO with purchasing questionable "licenses". So while I am very grateful to Sun for the work that it has done for FOSS, I am betting that this public middle school is just small beans to Sun. If you were talking about the 6 million student Ontario school district, where Sun did a deal, then yes, Sun would be interested. Sun is first and foremost a company of engineers, and they need large, national customers, not a single public charter middle school in an economically depressed inner city school district. We just don't matter to Sun. Or Microsoft. Or any publicly traded company. http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/edu/solutions/staroffice.html > > I suspect that they'd even offer an assist grant and/or tech assist at > no charge if you ask them. LOL ! I guess we can all dream, right? I really appreciate the idea, though, and if you are in the SF Bay Area and would like to participate, we sure could use the help!!! Thanks again either way for your thoughts!
