FortySouth

Education Ministries in many developing countries are eager to equip their primary and secondary schools with PC’s to leap-frog their citizenry into the digital age.

So one question that typically arises during deliberations over implementation, besides which hardware models (see OLPC, Intel Classmate), is which operating system software is the most cost-effective to load on the computers?

The outcomes of a study on the TCO over 5 years are revealing. 

The study conducted by Virtual Wave Consulting, Affordable Computing for Schools in Developing Countries, argues that in order for education officials to effectively allocate resources for computer initiatives, they must base their decisions on the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the full range of computing solutions.

The TCO model developed includes:

• initial cost – capital costs for acquisition and installation
• recurrent costs – ongoing costs incurred over the lifetime of the equipment
• hidden expenses – unanticipated or underestimated one-time charges after initial purchase

Clearly, recurrent costs factor in at a large percentage. That is the crux of the argument in the white paper – that the true cost of ownership of operating system software loaded onto computers in labs in developing countries is about the same, be it a Linux-based system or a Windows-based system.

How is that?

The study asserts that the total investment required to realize affordable computing and its benefits is substantially higher than the price of acquisition, and that labor-related costs are higher than hardware and software costs.

The higher labor-related costs arise from Linux-trained professionals, who are in general paid a 10-30% higher wage than their Windows-trained counterparts the world over due to an inherent skills shortage.

So the initial licensing costs associated with Windows systems are in the long-run compensated for by among other recurrent costs, wages for Linux professionals. Other contributing factors are teacher training and infrastructure.

The study also discusses the benefits of having affordable computing in developing countries and factors that are necessary for success.

For full disclosure, Virtual Wave was contracted by Microsoft to conduct the study so that they can better understand the true cost structures for deploying large numbers of PCs into schools serving under-served student populations around the world, says James Utzschneider, GM of Marketing and Communications for the Unlimited Potential Group at Microsoft.

He points out:

Now before some readers of this run off and complain that this study is simply another example of Microsoft tech industry propaganda, please make sure that you read through the white paper that describes the model and and understand what it means. Vital Wave is a good company with smart people who have relevant experience in emerging market technology adoption, and they have done a thoughtful job in assembling their analysis.

Read the complete white paper. More statistics and detailed descriptions of the TCO model are provided.

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See Also:

• 2008 Most Popular Free Windows Downloads
• One Laptop per Child in Africa
• Huge Budget Shortfalls For Developing Countries in 2009
• Beyond KCPE: What Happens to the 250k That Miss High School Placement?
• In Kenya, Mobile Data is King