Teachers, what is it with them and open source?

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So the simple reason they use Windows over Linux: it's cheaper.

No, really, here's how: (these are round numbrs and very, very simplistic, the actual spreadsheets to show how Windows ends up being cheaper get way too complicated for people not in the IT industry to understand).

They're getting a Win7 Enterprise VL (with WinXP Pro/WinVista Business downgrade rights) for say $300/seat (which is full price, by the way, without any volume discounts). Multiply that by 1,000 terminals, and that's $300,000. Let's say the server and CALs roll it into a neat $500,000 the OS software, and another $500,000 for Office (this is, remember, before EDU or similar discounts). Standard five year depreciation shows that as $200,000 per year.

Assuming we run Open Source, that's usually RHL or similar (they all price out about the same). $80 per year per client means $80,000, throw in servers assuming 100 DP servers at $800 each equals $80,000, and 10 4+ CPU servers at $1500 each is another $15,000 or a total of $175,000.

So $25,000 a year lower costs for 1,000 clients in an enterprise just in software, before any volume discounts (which are not offered on RHL, by the way, so that's Windows only) and higher administration costs across a complex network, plus higher hardware costs since you have to be pickier.

And let's not forget, in the first scenario, you'r paying $250,000 in labor per year to manage all of it, in the second (since RHL doesn't integrate with things like vPro) it's closer to $350,000 a year in administration.

As someone who works in IT, the cardinal rule of anything to do with IT is: hardware and software is cheap, people to manage it is expensive.

Maybe the teachers fear the robots?
They are going to take over the world if we allow open source. The computers want revenge.

[I'm sorry if this post isn't acceptable, juts many people have already answered in the serious way and I just thought you needed something more fun]

Also consider that schools instruct for what is likely to be found in the real world. Art department gets the Macs because most art businesses are using software that runs best on Macs, not PC.

Same reason they don't want Linux vs. MacOS or Windows. Not likely to see much of that in the typical office environment.

RJ45 is a 1 line 2 conductor with 8 pins registered jack (hence, RJ) and refers to just the connector as used by telcos for years (it's also a NANP standard primarily, so it's unlikely Australia saw much if any of it). Ethernet uses many different media besides UTP and in fact uses a similar but incompatible 8P8C modular connector to RJ45, including fiber and coax. Most people can't tell the difference between RJ45 and 8P8C Ethernet, including most electronics catalogs, but they are indeed distinct and seperate.

Anyway, I included MSFT Office because in any sufficiently large group of users there will be some that will either need to use Lotus or Office due to the size of the data involved, and you'd want to standize on all of them. Besides, nobody actually pays rack rate for Office or Windows in any quantity - in fact, half off in large deployments (Office Enterprise/Windows 7 Enterprise with downgrade) isn't uncommon.

The problem with remote administration in Linux isn't the learning curve, it's the lack of integration into things like vPro remote monitoring and management and PXE booting. They're both in line with what was available in Windows 2000/XP, which is actually still quite good. Windows Vista and later (7 especially) greatly improved the DISM and WIM imaging process to the point where I could train a monkey to do it in 24 hours. I can also enforce on an entire enterprise things like full disk encryption and flash drive data encryption policies without having to hand tune an image to each model of machine in an assumed heterogeneous hardware enviroment. Instead I can create a single WIM image for all makes and models.

Let's move out of the enterprise desktop though and into world facing, especially for either virtualized or, "on the iron," database and web servers. Give me a Linux or BSD or Solaris or HP-UX box plugged into the FC-AL SAN and I'll show you a real fun time where Linux can shine like none other.

I have to disagree.
Linux server distros, depending which distro, can easily out preform Windows.

However most people don't realize that different distros are better for other things than other ones, unless you strip it down to the bare basics.
The best way to find that out is by building LFS.

But as you say, when it comes to web servers, linux is billions of lightyears ahead.

For intranet services such as file and print sharing, administration and authentication, usually Windows Server is a faster and better choice than the alternatives - even in a Linux or Mac OS X client enviroment. Novel used to be king of this market, but they really changed with Active Directory. Linux just kinda emulates it through Samba, and Mac OS through Open Directory, but they're not the same in terms of raw featureset.

On the other hand, for internet services (web, database, etc.), it goes to either Linux or the big iron.

For E-mail it can go either way since it's really just down to Domino, Exchange or some generic POP/IMAP system, but if you're running a Microsoft software stack you usually end up on Exchange and if mixed or other you use Domino. Although Domino is slowly disappearing, which is really sad because I perfer it over Exchange. But that's the price of the smartphone revolution - everything talks to Exchange and nothing to Domino.

Yeah, but as soon as you start looking at the licensing on Exchange you have multiple heart attacks.