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A New Look at Linux vs. Windows TCO
An anonymous reader writes "Laura DiDio, research fellow at the Yankee Group, published a column this morning in which she discusses key findings from a new survey on the total cost of ownership of Windows vs. Linux. DiDio often is written off by the Linux camp as being pro-Microsoft, but she offers excellent, neutral advice for any IT department considering a fundamental systems switch: 'If you do not know what is on your network, if you cannot at least estimate the hourly, monthly or yearly cost of downtime, if you do not know how long it takes to recover from a security outage, if you cannot answer questions about the extent of your company's license compliance, then you cannot truly evaluate whether Linux, Windows or Unix is right for your business. Chances are, if you cannot answer most or all of those questions, it does not matter what operating system you have because ignorance of the core TCO tenets means that your business is not getting the most out of its networks.' "
I beleive the terms she uses to describe linux users and contributors are "hippie communists".
I am very surprised to learn from Ms. DilDO that RedHat, Novell and IBM are bastions of pot smoking longhaired beatniks....
Why is this even posted on slashdot? Did we miss a post? "Slashdot bought out by Microsoft in a historical deal totalling XXXXbillion$"
-if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
Has anyone succeeded in resolving their problem of which OS to use based on this insightful article?
That doesn't sound neutral to me, it sounds more like:
"We know that you, and everyone else on the planet, can see that Linux is cheaper so I'll try to convince you that you don't know enough to judge the TCO in the hope that you'll then take the easy option of sticking with M$"
Was there a specific point to that article? It seems she tried to avoid any nitty-gritty details after her attempt at building a point that Windows isn't threatened by Linux, and vice versa. After that opening I expected something with more depth.
Instead, she threw in mindless details of the very obvious and took on a condescending tone toward businesses in general; of course, she did toss in random facts and figures that stuck with the general theme. To be honest, it looks more like a rant with ramblings than a neutral article with a point in mind.
Fun Zoid RPG
When I switched to Linux on my desktop, I was forced to learn quite a bit more then I knew about my OS. Someone who switches to Linux because their frind told them it was better is in for a similar experience, and could end up saving his company untold fortunes by getting educated about his/her OS.
People say my sig is the best thing about me.
If you do not know what is on your network../ 0515229&tid=163&tid=109&tid=185
Ernie Ball had some unused copies of MS software that they didn't know about and were fined $100,000.
Put that in your total-cost-of-ownership and smoke it. http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/21
Unix {including Linux} only ever stops working for a Good Reason; so Unix sysadmins actually have to do hard work reading and deciphering error messages and fixing stuff {and Linux admins in particular must add googling for other people's related misfortunes and extrapolating}.
You can always spot the Linux n00bs because they are the ones who reboot a misbehaving box, see exactly the same error messages as before, and think there is something unusual about that.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
A friend of mine hired a linux guy to handle machines for several sites. About 100% of his time spent doing any kind of technical work (maintenance or repair) is spent on repairing the MS-Windows machines, which another group is actually contracted to maintain and repair. However, if he doesn't do it, then it doesn't get done. The linux machines, fortunately outnumber the MS-Windows machines significantly at those sites and he only has to touch them when he wants to try a new distro. He's always got one machine for 'experiments' at each site, to get feedback from customers on new programs, distros, or configurations.
Fortunately for my friend this fellow doesn't mind too much and has nerves of steel, a necessity since he rose up from a MS-Windows background.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I don't really know why this hasn't been adopted by the community.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
"For example: we have 3 servers (all Windows) in my company. Do we use them optimally? Probably, since we cannot replace them with any other software (to my great sorrow). Do we know how much each server costs us? No, and we will never be able to calculate that. Niether we care, as long as they do their job."
To be honest, I don't think you're in a position to really judge. 3 Windows servers (you don't mention how many of other OSes) implies a relatively small company.
Try working at a company with revenues in the billions. When I make a decision, it literally affects thousands of people and downtime has the potential to cost millions.
We've been relatively lucky with our Windows servers -- they've stayed up. But to be frank, the Windows guys are a hell of a lot cheaper than the UNIX guys. We have one aging Sun box, for example. You'd think it'd be cheap to maintain, but the guys who runs it gets an annual salary as much as twice the Windows guys. When that box goes down (and it does -- hard sometimes), it costs more to bring it back up thanks to that guy's salary.
You say things are "hardly measurable". They are certainly measurable. If your file server(s) went down tomorrow, how much client work would be lost by not being done? Think about the wasted salaries of everyone using your box. Joe in accounting makes X hundred thousand, Mary makes Y hundred thousand, etc. If you're just looking at licensing costs of the OS, you're missing a much bigger picture.
Say it with me: it's IT's JOB to calculate the worth of their department, same as any other. If we don't do it, no one else will.
I see Didio is up to her usual tricks. And some anonymous astroturfer characterized her article as being "excellent, neutral advice." Hmmm.
Let's look at her article...
> The biggest threat to Linux is not Microsoft, but rather integration and interoperability issues among various Linux distributions and their applications.
That's dishonest statement #1.
Oh, it's true that there are sometimes interoperability issues between different distributions of Linux, but those issues are usually minor compared to the interoperability problems between different versions of Windows and its applications.
But it doesn't matter, because the typical user will not encounter those problems. Think about it. If most users avoid running multiple, different versions of Windows, why would they suddenly choose to run multiple, different distributions of Linux? The answer is, they wouldn't -- they'll choose one.
So we see that Didio is creating a strawman argument against Linux. In other words, it's FUD.
> Neither server system will consume the other.
I have never heard a Linux advocate make that claim, so who is Didio arguing against?
> The big question currently confronting corporate users is whether harmonious heterogeneity is possible. It had better be. If it is not forthcoming, everyone -- corporate end users and vendors alike -- stands to lose.
This is another piece of subtle FUD. The message here is that, until Linux is fully compatible with Windows, businesses should not bother looking at Linux.
But we all know, that Microsoft is constantly working to ensure that Windows is INCOMPATIBLE with other alternatives.
This is another strawman argument. Consider, for example, the incompatibilities between different versions of Windows, yet that has not stopped businesses from upgrading.
Besides, not everyone is interested in heterogenious environments. For example, I am personally associated with two small businesses that have switched to Linux, and they both switched 100 percent. They run Linux on both servers and desktops -- there is no Windows left.
It's true that Windows' intentional incompatibilities tend to keep users locked in. But, rather than being a reason for accepting your fate as a slave to Microsoft, that should be an even stronger incentive for wanting to switch to an alternative.
You have to choose for your business, whether to:
1. Accept some temporary inconvenience due to compatibility problems, as you switch to an alternative. Or...
2. Accept the permanent inconveniences of being stuck with Windows (most people can list what those inconveniences are).
> Microsoft's Latest News about Microsoft Windows commands 65 to 70 percent of the server operating system market, while the Linux Latest News about Linux share stands at 15 to 20 percent.
The above is intentionally misleading, because it doesn't state what those percentages represent.
My guess is that they represent percentage of server sales _revenue_.
If, instead, she had been talking about serving _power_, then Unix and mainframes still dominate the market.
If, on the other hand, she had been talking about the _number_ of new installations, then the percentages for Linux and Windows tend to be much closer.
> Yankee Group recently completed an extensive total cost of ownership (TCO) comparison report in which it polled 500 North American corporations on their use of Windows and Linux. The high-level findings show that there is no universal clear-cut TCO basis to compel the corporate masses to do a wholesale switch from Windows to Linux as there is for a migration from Unix to Linux.
First, most of those studies were paid for by Microsoft.
Second, Yankee Group has gained a bad reputation as a Microsoft shill.
Third, those studies are contradicted by the real-world experience reported by companies that have switched to Linux, such as Amazon, and
I think it was summed up best by Noel on Linux Today:
"[Laura DiDio] has no clue about writing code. Not a single bit at all... For goodness sake this person has only a B.A. in communication degree. She writes magazine articles not code..."
That one line sums up Laura DiDio perfectly, she doesnt have any qualifications in IT, she should go do what she has the training and abilities to do... Write reports on supernatural occurances and alien abductions for supermarket tabloids...
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own" - Adam Savage
Many organizations only use their networks for mail, file, and print services. If they are working to everyone's satisfaction and are within the accepted budget then performing countless metrics can just be a waste of time.
Why should you make major changes if all is working well and within budget?
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
Yeah, it works great if you can afford a WINS server, but as everyone who's ever had a LAN party knows, it sometimes magically fails on small networks.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
Microsoft is terrible on point 4: buy a system with OEM Windows preinstalled? Call M$ for support and they tell you to call the vendor. You bought a HP? You'll be speaking with a clueless "tech" (because all the educated Indians got smart and came here on H1-B or L1 visas to earn real money) following a script with the final resolution to each and every problem being either "Call Microsoft" (at which point Microsoft tells you to call HP) or "reformat and reinstall" (oops, and did you already do that twice? Time to call Microsoft again to Activate windows.)
Bought a whitebox with Windows preinstalled? Most OEMs are no better. Most speak fluent English but are clueless and don't even have a script to help you.
Want support from Microsoft for your OEM windows? $125 please,
Take it to Best Buy to get the problem fixed? They're going to tell you that you need a new hard drive, oh and by the way, it's going to be three weeks before you get your machine back.
The real problem? The power supply cable came loose, and the HDD is just fine, thankyouvermuch. Fixed in 15 minutes, Have a nice day!
Linux is great on point 4. Practically every distribution offers telephone support (at REASONABLE costs), mailing lists, plus there are many messageboards and howto articles to help you out. Not only that, but the man pages that get installed with the system are extensive.