.:Computer Defense:.

This was posted on Slashdot and I found it very interesting:

"Our startup honestly wanted to use OSS products. We do not want to spend time for any OSS bug fixing so our main requirement was -official support for all OSS products-. We thought were prepared to pay the price for OSS products, but then we got a price sticker shock. Now behold: QT is $3300 per seat. We have dropped the development and rewrote everything to C# (MSVS 2005 is ~$700). Embedded Linux from a reputable RT vendor is $25,000 per 5 seats per year. We needed only 3 seats. We had to buy 5 nevertheless. The support was bad. We will go for VxWorks or WinCE in our next product. Red Hat Linux WS is $299. An OEM version of Windows XP Pro is ~$140. A Cygwin commercial license will cost tens of thousands of dollars and is only available for large shops. We need 5 seats. Windows Unix servi"Our startup honestly wanted to use OSS products. We do not want to spend time for any OSS bug fixing so our main requirement was -official support for all OSS products-. We thought were prepared to pay the price for OSS products, but then we got a price sticker shock. Now behold: QT is $3300 per seat. We have dropped the development and rewrote everything to C# (MSVS 2005 is ~$700). Embedded Linux from a reputable RT vendor is $25,000 per 5 seats per year. We needed only 3 seats. We had to buy 5 nevertheless. The support was bad. We will go for VxWorks or WinCE in our next product. Red Hat Linux WS is $299. An OEM version of Windows XP Pro is ~$140. A Cygwin commercial license will cost tens of thousands of dollars and is only available for large shops. We need 5 seats. Windows Unix services are free. After all, we have decided that the survival of our business is more important for us then 'do-good' ideas. Except for that embedded Linux (slated for WinCE or VxWorks substitution), we are not OSS shop anymore."ces are free. After all, we have decided that the survival of our business is more important for us then 'do-good' ideas. Except for that embedded Linux (slated for WinCE or VxWorks substitution), we are not OSS shop anymore."

I think that it's a great question to pose to all the OSS supporters out there... Those that bash the use of Microsoft in the work place... I remember when I looked into Academic licensing for SuSE 9.0.. You also got some other Nortel software bundled with it... it was priced at 75 cents per seat... I was impressed, until I found out that under Academic licensing... Windows is even cheaper...
Even putting cost aside... I look at functionality... The GIMP... it's a great graphics editing program... however, regardless of what people say, it does not compare to the user friendliness or functionality of Adobe Photoshop.... Wheres the OSS alternative to In Design or Illustrator equivalents in OSS... In the world of office productivity... OOo just doesn't compare to Microsoft Office in functionality and ease of use... Writer and Calc are both much more difficult to master for an inexperienced user.... I set my girlfriend up with Ubuntu on an old clamshell iBook... and provided her with OOo... She uses office applications on a day basis... but some of the functionality and abilities just didn't exist... Had her tasks been business oriented rather than personal OOo just wouldn't have done the job...

Even Linux itself.... in some regards it still can't compare to other operating systems.. I've got to mute my input on my soundcard, otherwise I hear my TV Tuner, even when the TV software is closed and I'm not watching TV... I still can't properly play MIDI files under any MIDI-compatible program... When I plug my USB Harddrive in my computer randomly locks up... These are all issues that I've got under Linux, that didn't exist under Windows XP.. Can they all be fixed... most likely.... Will I Fix them.... most likely... Should they exist in the first place when I'm running software as "full featured" as SuSE 10.1.... Nope.

Now don't get me wrong.... Linux has been a part of my computing life for the last 10 years... I use OSS on a daily basis... For personal use I think it's absolutely amazing... for commercial use, I can think of a few packages that are worthwhile.... However I don't think that the big name apps are quite up to par yet... I don't think an office could comfortably go pure OSS and save money and headaches while doing it...

This got me thinking about the Microsoft ads about how the TCO for Linux was more than Windows... at the time I didn't believe it but now I think I'm starting to get it... Money drives people... and OSS doesn't have a lot of room to exist in today's business environments... I wonder what the OSS zealots would say if they were given a finite amount of cash and presented both options for the software in their office environment... Would they spend the extra money... or would the zealots fold.

Peace,
HT