[cs702]

Migrating to Linux on the desktop -- and Ubuntu in particular -- can make a lot of financial sense for all the national and regional governments, school systems, and other governmental bodies which are currently budget-constrained around the planet. While migration can be costly, painful, and disruptive in the short run, the long-term cost savings appear to be substantial.[1]

PS. This is not a new initiative, but a well-established project that recently reached a new milestone: 220,000 is the number of school PCs already running a local flavor of Ubuntu in Andalusia, Spain.

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[1] For instance, see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3787539

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Edits: reordered and expanded sentences to present my views in a more organized manner.

[edwinnathaniel]

It's hard to know if it makes sense or not without the actual number.

Microsoft gives 90% discounts to EDU...

[chrismonsanto]

At my university, pretty much every Microsoft product is available for free through MSDN Academic Alliance. Pretty handy if you want to play around with Visual Studio or if you custom-built a computer that doesn't come with Windows. I don't know if the university has to pay for this or not, but it saves the money of the students at least!