[ILUG] Linux is more expensive than Windows

[adam beecher]

No doubt Matthew is trying to infuriate a little more with the headline. Go
on lads, tear into him! After 'im! :)

adam /slaps linux.ie on the back of the head and tears off on his
late-seventies bicycle


Linux is more expensive than Windows
Tuesday, April 06 2004
by Matthew Clark

In a move that's sure to infuriate open source advocates, US-based research
firm the Yankee Group has said that Linux is more expensive than Windows in
an enterprise.

http://beecher.info/pheed/?wfwmof

The conclusion comes on the heels of recent uplifting announcements for
Linuxphiles, including a partnership between HP and Novell that will see the
PC maker ship new computers with copies of Novell's SuSE Linux.

Linux is a free operating system (OS) that has been developed over the years
in an open source model that consists of freely-made contributions to the
software from developers all over the world. The software has gained ground
in the server market in recent years, and in the last few months there has
been a greater push among supporters for the Linux desktop.

But a new Yankee Group survey of 1,000 IT administrators and C-level
executives worldwide has poured cold water on Linux's most significant edge
over rival OS Windows -- the fact that it costs little or nothing to use.
According to the report, 90 percent of 300 large enterprises with 10,000 or
more end-users indicated that a significant or total switch from Windows to
Linux would be too expensive, extremely complex and would not provide any
tangible gains.

"In large enterprises, a significant Linux deployment or total switch from
Windows to Linux would be three to four times more expensive and take three
times as long to deploy as an upgrade from one version of Windows to newer
Windows releases," said Laura DiDio, Yankee Group application infrastructure
& software platforms senior analyst. "The instances where Linux imparts
measurably improved TCO [total cost of ownership] compared with Unix and
Windows are in small firms with customised vertical applications or new,
greenfield networking situations."

Linux advocates will be pleased to learn that respondents to the Yankee
Group survey said that Linux provides businesses with excellent performance,
reliability, ease of use and security. However, the group will be
disappointed to hear that Linux's technical merits, while first-rate, are
equivalent but not superior to Unix and Windows Server 2003, according to
respondents.

Finally, the research firm made other quasi-discouraging comments about the
future of Linux, claiming that the technology has good momentum behind it,
but adding that it won't unseat Microsoft Windows as the leading server
vendor in the next two years. Linux desktops are not expected to make a
perceptible dent in Windows' 94 percent market share between now and 2006,
the Yankee Group added.



<?php
$s=array(74,65,112,104,112,72,32,59,45,41);
for($i=0;$i<count($s);$i++){echo'&#'.$s[$i].';';}
?>