ZDNet: The True Value of Linux

[ Thanks to Jason Greenwood for this link. ]

"Under the guise of reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) in a tough economic environment, technical staffs are recommending replacement of Windows with Linux on their servers.

"This is based on the flawed assumption that because Linux is 'free' it will reduce TCO. On closer inspection, it appears the recommendation is more an emotionally driven reaction against Microsoft than a factual case for Linux. Astute IT organizations will recognize that Linux's true value is derived more from the price/performance of the commodity Intel hardware it enables than from its open source characteristics.

"With highly distributed n-tier (DBMS, application, and Web) server architectures commoditizing during 2002-04, Unix (other than Solaris) will recede to high-end, low-volume, niche-platform status by 2005/06. Windows will increasingly dominate for midtier application servers (2002-04), due to growing ISV reference platform momentum, and be a suitable DBMS server for more than 90 percent of application requirements. Linux on Intel ('Lintel') will be a successful high-volume Web, technical computing, and appliance server OS, but enterprise application package (2003/04) and DBMS (2005/06) server penetration will be slower. Linux software and services prices will increase to about 10 to 20 percent less than those of Windows by 2004/05..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Personal Computer World: IDC's 'Windows beats Linux' Claim Slammed(Dec 09, 2002)
• The Register: Windows Costs Less than Linux. A Bit. Sometimes--MS Study(Dec 03, 2002)
• eWeek: Study Finds Windows Cheaper Than Linux(Dec 03, 2002)