Migrating from Windows to GNU/Linux
May 11, 2010, 23:32 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Bruce Byfield)
[ Thanks to Roland
for this link. ]
"Can you save money by moving your business to
GNU/Linux? The short answer is that you can. However, the long
answer is that how much you save — or if you save at all
— depends upon your resources and choices. If you are lucky,
you might find a study comparable to your situation to help you
plan, but most of these studies are biased one way or the other, so
you should still need to do your own assessment as you plan the
move.
"Whether a switch is worth your effort is usually calculated in
terms of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). As the term emphasizes, TCO
includes not only the cost of buying and installing the software,
but also the cost of hardware to run it, administering it, training
employees to use it, and maintaining and supporting it. Sometimes,
TCO is divided into first year costs and yearly costs, to reflect
the extra expenses of setup and configuration, and the presumably
lower costs of running an ongoing system. But, however TCO is
calculated, what matters is that making the switch is not just as
simple as assuming that, because GNU/Linux has no licensing fees,
you will automatically save money.
"The truth is, the TCO of a switch can vary wildly, depending on
your expectations and planning. To give just a few examples:"
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