London Borough ditches Windows XP in favor of Google Chromebooks

[Himanshu Arora]

London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is all set to roll out Google Chromebooks in the wake of Microsoft’s Windows XP support cut-off, according to a V3 report. The council, which was previously using 3,500 Windows XP desktops and 800 XP laptops, is in the process of rolling out 2,000 Chromebooks for employees and 300 Chromeboxes for reception desks and shared work areas.

According to Rupert Hay-Campbell, ICT and information governance officer at the borough, the council is paying £200 per Chrome device, which is quite economical when compared to a £500-£600 Windows laptop or a £350 Windows desktop. The security standards developed by the CESG, the UK government agency responsible for IT security, also helped in the migration, he added.

The council claims that the migration will save it around £400,000: half of that by not opting for new Windows desktops, and a further £200,000 worth of savings on electricity costs as Google Chromebooks are more energy efficient than desktop PCs. Hay-Campbell told Computing that the council chose Samsung 303Cs as its Chromebook of choice because of its "impressive battery life and portability".

The migration, however, does not mean complete elimination of Windows, as the council is also planning to invest in 600 new Windows desktop machines, especially for those who need to use specialist software like AutoCAD or streetlight-management systems, which are currently not available via the Citrix desktop.

Out of the 2000 Chromebooks, 350 has been already rolled out, and the council expects to deploy the remaining by early June. Regarding the learning curve, Hay-Campbell says that the staff would require a bit of training initially, but he is of the view that the training should be minimal because Google devices look and operate like Windows devices.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56232-london-borough-ditches-windows-xp-in-favor-of-google-chromebooks.html

 

[wastedkill]

Ouch microsoft just got owned... specially after microsoft was trying sooooooooooooooo hard to get xp users moved to 7 or 8 lol

Atleast microsoft wont get a penny

 

[mailpup]

Except for the 600 Windows desktops.

 

[GhostRyder]

Ouch microsoft just got owned... specially after microsoft was trying sooooooooooooooo hard to get xp users moved to 7 or 8 lol

Atleast microsoft wont get a penny

Are you kidding, that like a drop in the bucket? Plus they are buying 600 Desktops anyways which already ruins the point of switching.

 

[Guest]

Plus they are buying 600 Desktops anyways which already ruins the point of switching.

Which, if a sane person really thinks about it, there is none... point that is.
The real cost of their so called savings will hit them some time down the road when suddenly they realise... "Oh crap, we bought glorified web browsers, with next to no local storage, and expected to get real work done, well, I guess the jokes on us, ha ha ha". At least that's one of the many scenarios that will probably happen.

 

[wastedkill]

Are you kidding, that like a drop in the bucket? Plus they are buying 600 Desktops anyways which already ruins the point of switching.

Ye but most of them will be googles next-gen notebooks, microsoft wont exactly get the most of the cash now will they? well not unless they buy a few copies of office then microsoft will earn $50 for every $1 google earns from this deal.

 

[Guest]

What a shame...
Loosing ground to a half-baked OS (not knocking it)

Microsoft apparently doesn't know the old saying "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" I suppose until they do this sort of thing will continue to happen to them...

 

[GhostRyder]

Ye but most of them will be googles next-gen notebooks, microsoft wont exactly get the most of the cash now will they? well not unless they buy a few copies of office then microsoft will earn $50 for every $1 google earns from this deal.

Chrome OS is free, plus Chrome books are cheap and very weak with most containing the Low Voltage Celeron Processor.

Microsoft gets a pretty penny from their OS, so in short while Chrome OS is free, Microsoft will be getting more money.

 

[misor]

training should be minimal because Google devices look and operate like Windows devices.

lol, if it had involved apple, a lawsuit is just around the corner because if it 'looks the same, operates the same' then it must have infringed on something copyrighted...

Samsung 303Cs as its Chromebook of choice because of its "impressive battery life and portability".

the free windows 8x for 'small devices' and the lowering of hardware requirements for the OS must be microsoft's respond to the growing chromebook sales.

The council claims that the migration will save it around £400,000: half of that by not opting for new Windows desktops, and a further £200,000 worth of savings on electricity costs as Google Chromebooks are more energy efficient than desktop PCs.
...The migration, however, does not mean complete elimination of Windows, as the council is also planning to invest in 600 new Windows desktop machines...

I wonder how the council computed the projected energy savings.

 

[TheLastPanda]

What a shame...
Loosing ground to a half-baked OS (not knocking it)

Why is it a shame? Most of the things you pay for in Microsoft are never used by employees so it was really smart. Microsoft cant compete with the ease of use of a Chromebook at all. The OS self updates, sandboxes to prevent viruses, and can be re-imaged from the cloud to run like new without much hassle. As a company, not needing to worry about updating your network or backing up data manually must be a huge advantage. Most of them also use a small ssd which end users will notice makes them very speedy devices. They don't really compete in the same plane at all and I am really glad to see the low end pc market emerge in this way instead of tablet or net-book based platforms that struggle to run windows at all.

 

[Guest]

...Sounds like one of those "Local government I.T." decisions that end up not-so-well....

 

[Guest]

The energy savings will help them meet carbon targets and this is the most important factor here. With several thousand Chromebooks, they're also creating their own network with storage and intranet software so it won't negatively impact what they do once it's been set up, and long term, they'll be more in control of how their intranet runs and is organised, with more system options, rather than being at the mercy of MS's interface whims. Really, it's a smart decision for an organisation like this. It wouldn't suit a lot of commercial orgs but I can see this becoming a trend for local government.

 

[Walter Ruggieri]

I am not surprised that they made this move. Chromebooks feel like XP, but are not a copy. Also, going to Chromebooks will save them a fortune in software costs because most of what is available for Chromebooks is free. If a company or organization can do all they need to on a Chromebook, it makes complete sense to switch. Good for them and I suspect that there will be many more companies and organizations making the switch.

 

[Railman]

The NHS ended their Enterprise Wide Agreement with MS back in 2010 and a slow migration to open source computing is starting to speed up. As the NHS is the largest organisation in the UK this could mean a significant loss of business to MS. With this deal many other Government agencies will be tempted to switch from MS.