network admin TCO

ME dugan at passwall.com
Thu Nov 8 18:58:46 PST 2001


http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,5098989,00.html
(Not an authoritative source, but a "recent" example Oct 30,2001 : Amazon 
convert to linux to help cut IT budget ~25%)

I have seen many for positives on the side for Linux on cost/performace in
the server market, but not as much for commercial-end-user/home-use on
their desktop.

Certainly, you may find businesses in "movie special effects" with Linux
on desktops that save money/time.

Not as new:
http://www.robval.com/linux/desktop/index.html

(due to length/wrapping, next converted to html URL)
<a
href="http://www.real-time.com/Services/Linux_Solutions/Linux__vs_Windows_NT/linux__vs_windows_nt.html">http://www.real-time.com/Services/Linux_Solutions/Linux__vs_Windows_NT/linux__vs_windows_nt.html</a>

At general web serving (simple html without server side includes/parsing),
I think the linux kernel based web server has outperformed a majority of
other web servers out on the market (including IIS) on a wide range of
hardware. When things become more difficult is when the kinds of server
side operations are added like asp vs perl vs c code etc. Properly
configured Linux systems running Samba have done 4x to 32x better than
Windows systems doing file sharing (especially with a large load). MS
supporters claim it is due to NTFS/ACLs complexity vs the simpler *n*x
owner/group/other. The debates rage.

Project conversion requirements will dictate the margins and differences
in cost between the two solutions depending upon the task being solved.

I will conceed that you can often find drivers for more "new" hardware for
windows than you can for Linux, but that is as much fault with MS for
strong agreements with HW vendors as it is with vendors not being willing
to open their specs for interface and coding for linux.

On Thu, 8 Nov 2001, Brian Lintz wrote:
>    What recent web sites can you people recommend that
> has any explanation for the cost of operating a Linux
> based network?
> http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=23086



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