Strange bedfellows!
Though we all know about the emerging trend of enterprises rooting for Linux in order to cut costs and to have a complete control over the operating system and its security, doubts are being expressed on the Total Cost of Ownership and support issues while embracing Linux. Such thoughts are bandied about mostly by the mighty Microsoft whose market position is being threatened. But China and other Southeast Asian nations have successfully switched to Linux in a big way and have proven its worth as a server OS across big enterprises.
I recently stumbled upon a write-up with a caption “Enterprises Tout Linux’s Cost, Performance Benefits“. The news story begins like this:
“In contrast to its reputation for being difficult and sometimes expensive to implement, some large enterprises are beginning to see significant cost savings and performance benefits as a result of migrating to Linux”
Interesting? Yes.
But what is more interesting is a tooltip ad that comes on when you hover the curser over the double-underlined term “Linux” appearing on this page on the Dev Shed web site. The IntelliTXT ad coos like this:
Microsoft server software systems
Enterprise computing solutions from Microsoft. Review Total cost of ownership (TCO) studies comparing Windows to Linux. Learn how you can lower costs and increase ROI.
Looks queer? May be that Dev Shed has tried a judicious mix of business and balanced reporting. They needed the odd ad $ from the kitty (the biggest of them all!) of MS, but felt that they should do some justice to the emerging Linux world too by faithful reporting.
May be it is a forerunner of the type of world that is being ushered in, where proprietory and open source software will peacefully co-exist, each carving a niche for itself in the larger scheme of things. A case in pont is the proposed Microsoft support for Linux in Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1, due to ship by the end of the year.
Should book my vantage seat to watch the happenings on the arena!