Information on Microsoft Licenses?

Hello everyone,

I am a teacher on my district's technology committee. It looked for a while like our district might make the move to OpenOffice, but that possibility seems to have just disappeared with the wave of an administrator's hand.

There is some small possibility the change could still happen, as people come to realize that the money spent on MSOffice licenses must come from somewhere. For example, if people realize that we might get desktops instead of laptops for some labs, they might reconsider the need for MSOffice.

It has been difficult to know what to make of the numbers thrown around regarding the actual cost of running MSOffice in a district. Is there a straightforward way for me as a teacher to see some actual numbers, or to read some actual Microsoft licenses? If I poke around the MS website, I see descriptions of some plans, but it seems like you have to call Microsoft to get any actual prices. I also don't see any actual license text anywhere, just vague descriptions of different licensing options.

Wading through the licensing seems like reason enough to move to OpenOffice! Thanks for any concrete information anyone can point me to.