[antiRepublicrat]

Does no one see the dollar figure for their time?

Luis and Mike were already on the staff. They invested their time up front so that the library system could save money in the short-term by not having to get XP licenses and buy mostly new computers, and in the long-term by decreased maintenance costs, decreased succeptibility to viruses and never again paying licensing fees.

Sounds like a good deal in the end. Your taxpayer dollars at work, and finally in a smart way that stretches them further.

[Future Useless Eater]

>>...so that the library system could save money in the short-term by not having to get XP licenses and buy mostly new computers

Good point. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of 3 to 5 year old computers stacked up like cordwood in the world, virtually useless for windows, but load them with Linux and they become powerful computers again!

[justlurking]

Luis and Mike were already on the staff. They invested their time up front so that the library system could save money in the short-term by not having to get XP licenses and buy mostly new computers, and in the long-term by decreased maintenance costs, decreased succeptibility to viruses and never again paying licensing fees.

And on top of that, they are offering their version of Linux (+ Gnome, Mozilla, and OpenOffice) to anyone that requests a copy of the CD.

At the moment, the ISO isn't available for immediately download. But, I expect it's only a matter of time before you can do so, at least via BitTorrent.