Some stuff to chew on . . .
Many members of PLUG had the opportunity to meet with the CIO of
Maricopa County after someone posted my PLUG post on slashdot. Here's
the summary of the outcome
<
http://business.newsforge.com/business/02/07/09/2138216.shtml>
The notion that OSS software is less expensive in a business environment
- at least to the bean-counters and managerment - is a complete falacy.
Whereas the reality may be different, here are the reasons.
- Linux OS costs are the higher. PC's ship with Windows, which is
included in the PC cost. Reimaging them with Linux costs labor and
licensing. Licensing? Yes - no large company or gov't body is going to
buy a product without support, which means buying a support contract.
Red Hat prices for RHW: $3500/50 copies
<
http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/desktop/> which comes with 30 days
of phone support and 1 year of web support and 1 year of upgrades. So
you get to spend $70/year/user on top of the Microsoft Licensing.
The reality: My first-hand experience with vendor support is lackluster
at best - for both Microsoft and Red Hat. My previous client spent
$2700/license (times 60 servers = $162,000) and all we got out of Red
Hat support was "we've never heard of that problem" even though the
hardware vendor had the solution well documented on their support
website. The client ended up supporting themselves on the issue.
- Driver support costs are higher with OSS. No kidding. My previous
client has to recompile the NIC driver with every new kernel that comes
out. In the last year, I've seen 16 upgrades to the kernel from Red Hat
for security reasons. Each upgrade requires additional effort to
compile and test the NIC driver.
The reality: That is the reality. Hardware was selected on the cheapest
bidder, and it used hardware not supported by Red Hat. And it gets
worse from there.
- Third party support for Linux is poor (but getting better).
The reality: When Veritas changed their software a few months ago (to
make it more like the Solaris version), it made the kernel upgrade about
100x more difficult. Difficulty = money.
- Support costs for Unix/Linux is higher. Windows admin labor is cheaper
than Unix labor on a per hour basis.
The reality: A unix admin can make a change on 30+ servers running a
script in a matter of minutes. The same change using a point&click
interface can only be done 1 server at a time and takes 5 times longer
per server. On the otherhand, I have seen wonderful results using SMS -
like updating 10,000 desktops overnight, so Windows admins win out.
- Linux runs on older hardware better than Windows runs on new
hardware. This saves the company money.
The reality: The older hardware is out of support anyway. If it isn't
supportable, it isn't considered.
- Neeto Whizbang Multi-media Presentation plugin is not available under
Linux.
The reality: It probably isn't necessary to support the Business anyway,
but you will not be able to convince them of it.
My experience with my previous client is that it cost them 1 extra
full-time resource to support deploying Linux servers that they were not
expecting. That was an extra $100K+ do deploy that cheaper OS. In
their particular case, however, they saved money by deploying Dell
hardware instead of Sun hardware, so every box deployed saves them $20K.
Please don't get me wrong - I ran a business on Linux for years - up
until this month. I am now at a point where not using Windows will cost
my company money as I either have to use Quicken (2x licensing), or pay
my bookkeeper to do data entry. This debate can swing different ways
(especially with regards to who is doing the Data Entry - me or her),
but even for a small business owner, there are critical apps that are
not available under Linux.
"No problem escapes the sunlight." -- Greek proverb <-- by illuminating
the problems, we can find solutions.
--
George Toft, CISSP, MSIS
CIO
AGD,LLC
www.agdllc.com
623-203-1760
Michael Havens wrote:
>
> I removed all references to any specific OS and I found some gramatical
> errors.
>
> Please, I want to send this in as a compilation piece so please, tell me where
> and how to improve it and EVERYONE tell me if you want to be included in the
> sig.
>
> Would someone else also do some research into who else is using open source as
> their OS.
>
> Perhaps a suggestion about other open source OS I could put in besides Linux.
> FreeBSD? Others?
>
> ps. look at the note at the bottom
>
> -> Editor
> <- Concerned citizens
>
> It has come to our attention that state and city governments of this state are
> not acting in the best interest of it's citizens. These organizations claim
> that they have no money yet they continue to give hundreds of thousands of
> dollars (if not then millions) to software manufactures. They continue to
> do this by leasing licenses for the operating systems (OS) produced by these
> companies even though there are viable alternatives to the OS called RedHat
> Linux or SUSE Linux or even Mepis Linux among many. Further, with each new
> upgrade of their operating system most of the old hardware becomes obsolete
> requiring additional monies to make it so their OS will function. This is not
> so with Linux. At our last install-fest we put a modern functioning Debian
> Linux OS on a vintage 1991 laptop.
>
> Linux is part of a movement called open source in which the source code (inner
> workings of the program) is available for everyone to inspect and to improve
> upon. While some say this leads to a less secure OS, that is not true. The
> individuals who write computer virii are are usually young and inexperienced
> individuals who think they are smarter than they really are (this is why they
> ALWAYS get caught). And while they are looking at the code with malicious
> overtones the wiser, more experienced generations are inspecting the same code
> fixing any security flaws they find in the OS.
>
> Because the code is open for all to see it is also open for all to compile
> (make operational). This means that it is free to use as your OS. But it goes
> deeper than just the operating system, all of the applications included with
> most distributions of the Linux OS are also open source. This means that for
> practically nothing you can have an operating system that many believe is
> superior to operating systems you must pay for with similar funtionality.
>
> To close this letter I would like to show you government agencies that have
> chosen to go with open source software:
>
> -U.S. agencies like the Air Force, the Marine Corps, the Naval Research
> Laboratory, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Agriculture and
> Energy Departments just to name a few
> -Intelligence agencies in the US, Canada, Germany, England, Spain, France,
> and others
> -The U.S. National Security Agency has even created its own version of Linux,
> Security-Enhanced Linux, available for download from its Web site
>
> Some state, local, and federal governments that use open source include:
>
> -State of Rhode Island
> -Bloomington, Indiana
> -Largo, Florida
> -Garden Grove, California
> -Austin, Texas (pilot program)
> -City government of Rome, Italy
> -City Government of Florence, Italy
> -Government of Israel
> -The German ofiice of Federal Finance.
> -City government of Munich, Germany
> -City government of Schwäbisch Hall, Germany
> -The ministries of culture, defense, and education of France
> -China uses Linux in their post offices
> -China plans to use Linux solely in the 2008 Olympic games
> -Taiwan plans to move half of it's government's computers to Linux by 2007
>
> Sincerely:
> Michael Havens
> ---
>
> Note: I believe that it might be wise to say something about how it is not
> possible to go entirely with our microsoft centered society but open source
> on computerswill keep the costs down.
>
> Something like:
> To close this letter I do have to say that while at the present time we may
> not be able to function completely with open source software this is a good
> solution to the city and state's financial problems.
> I now would finish with a listing of government agencies that have chosen to
> go with open source software:
>
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