Here’s the business case. You tell me if it’s not compelling. You can buy 100 $500 PCs running a free version of Linux, hook them to a high-speed Internet connection for a $1,000 a year and use GAPE at $50 per user account per year. Finally, we’ll throw in a grand for a Linux server. That’s $57,000 for your equipment, your connectivity, your operating system and your applications.
Now, let’s say you want to run Vista Business. First, you’ll need 100 PCs that can run it. The cheapest deal I can find today for machines I’d consider adequate for Vista Business, which is to say they must have at least 2GB of RAM, is for the Dell OptiPlex 320 at $707 a PC. Of course — unlike with Linux, which always includes an office suite, OpenOffice — for those times when the Internet is down, you’ll need to buy an office suite. If you went with Microsoft Standard 2007, with a little shopping you can get it for the upgrade price of about $200 per copy. So, on the PC side alone, we’re looking at $90,700.
All done? Not quite. To get the most from Microsoft Office 2007, you really need to be operating it with a minimum of Microsoft Server 2003 ($4,994 base price plus 100 CALs (client access licenses)), Exchange 2007 ($7,399 base price plus 100 CALs) and SharePoint 2007 ($13,824 base price plus 100 standard CALS). If you’re running Windows you probably already have Server, so we won’t count it. Throw in another two grand for the Exchange 2007 and SharePoint 2007 servers, and a grand for the Internet connection, and (insert sound of old-fashioned adding machine) the final total is $114,923.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols összehasonlításában a Linuxos céges megoldás kb. feleannyiba jön, mint egy Windows alapú iroda. Nem TCO, mert kihagyta pl. a rendszergazdákat, de az arány impresszív.
