Cost comparisons

 
 
By Peter Galli  |  Posted 2004-08-25 Email Print this article Print
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


In its Wednesday findings, the ASA said it was responding to complaints about a specific magazine advertisement titled "Weighing the cost of Linux vs Windows. Lets review the facts." The ad included a graph that compared the dollar cost per megabit-per-second of one Linux image running on two z900 mainframe CPUs with one Windows Server 2003 image running on two 900MHz Intel Xeon CPUs.

The unnamed complainants challenged whether the comparison was misleading, because the operating systems were run on different hardware.

The text accompanying the graph said that "Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows Server 2003 in a recent study audited by leading independent research analyst META Group, which measured costs of Linux running on IBMs z900 mainframe for Windows-comparable functions of file serving and Web serving."

"The results showed that IBM z900 mainframe running Linux is much less capable and vastly more expensive than Windows Server 2003 as a platform for server consolidation," the ASA said.

The ASA upheld the complaints, noting that because the advertisement stated that Linux was found to be over 10 times more expensive than Windows, this implied the comparison was between Linux and Windows operating systems only, and not about the performance of operating systems on different hardware.

"The Authority considered that readers would infer that the advertisement compared Linux and Windows operating systems only and that the advertisement implied running Linux operating systems were, in general, ten times more expensive than running a Windows operating system."

"Because the comparison included the hardware, as well as the operating system and therefore did not show that running a Linux operating system was ten times more expensive than running a Windows operating system," the Authority concluded that the advertisement was misleading. It advised the advertisers to amend the ad.

In late January Microsoft also launched a new multimillion dollar advertising program for its Windows Server System, which it said would put a more human face on the campaign and the product.

Asked at that time how this latest ad campaign played into the "Get the Facts" campaign, Valerie Olague, a Windows Server System director, said there was a correlation between the two "in the sense that were talking about server software."

"The Get the Facts campaign is focused on third-party evidence that compares Microsoft platforms to Linux. This new campaign is just looking at the customer and what they are able to do with our products," she said.

Microsoft has lost a number of high-profile customers to Linux, many of them governments and governmental agencies and departments. The governments of Britain, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, China, South Africa and Russia are also all exploring open source alternatives to Microsoft, while federal agencies in France and China are all already using or considering open source alternatives.

Last year the Munich City Council announced its intention to deploy the Linux open-source operating system and migrate its 14,000 desktop and notebook computers away from Windows products to Linux.

Munichs actions are being closely watched as a bellwether for the fortunes of Linux in the public sector, in Europe and elsewhere. Following the citys initial strategic decision to migrate to Linux, a year ago, Paris officials ordered an investigation into a switch to open source.

Meanwhile, the city of Bergen in Norway recently decided to consolidate its older Windows and Unix servers on Novell Inc.s SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8. Other recent wins for Linux include the French Ministry of Equipment, Allied Irish Banks.

But Microsoft has been fighting back and actively been lobbying governments around the world not to embrace open-source applications and Linux.

To that end, Microsoft last January announced a new global initiative to provide governments around the world with access to Windows source code under its Government Security Program, designed to "address the unique security requirements of governments and international organizations throughout the world."

Check out eWEEK.coms Linux & Open Source Center at http://linux.eweek.com for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.

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Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.

He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.

He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.

He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.

He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.

He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.

His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.

For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.

 
 
 
 
 
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