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Member since:
2005-11-15
Compared to??? Linux? Okay, let's look at that for a moment:
In a typical business environment, there are the following costs associated with software:
Licensing
Media
Installation Labor
Maintenance Licensing
Maintenance Media
Maintenance Labor
Upgrade Licensing
Upgrade Media
Upgrade Labor
Let's factor out the media costs, as we now live in a connected world. That leaves us with:
Licensing
Installation Labor
Maintenance Licensing
Maintenance Labor
Upgrade Licensing
Upgrade Labor
For licensing, some Linux distros are free. Of course, they provide no support from the distribution source whatsoever. Windows is bundled with new systems, as this is one of the ways in which Microsoft skews the "installed base" numbers. There's no visible cost, however, the licensing fee is built into the system cost. With whitebox systems, the Windows OS license cost is tangible. To me (as a consultant), a Win32 license is typically around $100-$125.
Installation labor for Linux (and I mean to provide a fully patched, workable desktop system) is substantial. It is time-consuming, and requires attention to detail. For Windows, it is also time consuming, given the number of security patches which must be applied before deploying a workstation in the wilds of an office. For eComStation (not IBM OS/2!), the installation labor these days is really fairly trivial. There are few required updates to the packages on disc, and the Maintenance Tool does an admirable job of tightening up the installation.
Maintenance and upgrades, which I lump together for the sake of brevity, here, are considerable for Windows systems, less for Linux, and quite less for eComStation. At my rates ($140 per hour), the lesser time requirements of maintaining the OS make the larger initial cost of the system almost unimportant.
To put this in another perspective: An oar is cheaper than an outboard motor, but wouldn't you like to get where you're going with less sweat equity?