“Serenity Systems, the Texas software startup which earlier this
month advised business users to consider being less dependent on
Microsoft Windows, elaborated today on the thinking which led to
the advice. The two central issues were the vulnerability of the
platform and the expense associated with continual upgrades and
migrations. Bob St. John of Serenity Systems pointed to a recent
study by the Gartner Group which indicated users migrating to
Windows2000 will not receive a return on their investment for three
years. By which time, according to GG, most users will have
upgraded again, failing to ever see the return on the investment.
According to St. John, “Accepting the Gartner figure may lead to
understating the expense.”
“The Gartner study estimated a cost of $3,100 to move users from
Windows9X to Windows2000. “But that expense is limited to upgrading
the workstation and the justification for Windows2000 is in the
network … so what about the cost of upgrading the back end
servers and Active Directory?” asked St. John. “Those expenses need
to be pro-rated across the users…”
“St. John reiterated Serenity Systems’ advice that
businesses develop an IT strategy. “They may need a Plan B, focused
on options, alternatives, and costs. This isn’t difficult. Our
company specializes in Plan Bs which include support for Windows,
interest in Linux and Java is growing, OS/2 is selling well, and
DOS can still do the job in a number of environments.“