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The IDC study described previously, focused on servers. The Windows desktop scenario also shows advantages over Linux. In a perfect world, there would be a side by side comparison of a customer’s experience with both Linux and Windows XP deployed on the desktop. To date, there hasn’t been a customer who has done a large-scale deployment of desktop Linux who is willing to be studied. However, Microsoft identified some trends from studies done for customers based on the Gartner TCO model.
“Enterprises with a large installed base of Windows applications should ask themselves, ‘Is there sufficient value and return on investment to use Linux as a client OS?’ In most cases, we believe other options can reduce costs and reliance on Microsoft without as much disruption.”
ZDNet article “Linux on the Desktop: where’s the ROI?”
Source: ZDNet, “Linux on the Desktop: Where’s the ROI?”, August 2002. Available at http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2878232-3,00.html
| TCO study results comparing an upgrade to Windows 2000 and Windows XP with Office XP versus Linux and Open Office (a free version of Star Office) showed that the choice for Microsoft resulted in approximately 30% savings per year per PC. The major savings were achieved from the built-in management capabilities of Windows XP and lowered service interruptions.
Looking specifically at Linux and Open Office, the report noted, “There are no standard features for managing large quantities of workstations, such as directory-based management (for example, Novell NDS or Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Active Directory). Because the above mentioned feature is missing, and systems management is not part of standard infrastructure, thus needing new and overlapping investments (for example, Tivoli), management costs arise later for several different environments” (Source: Pohjala, Janne, “Gartner TCO Study for European City Government,” December 2001). Two other European governments conducted studies using the same methodology and saw similar outcomes.
An August 2003 Gartner report, states “IS organizations should avoid Linux deployments for productivity desktops. The lack of standards in the Linux community, coupled with a lack of key productivity applications and with UNIX complexity, makes Linux a poor choice for the horizontal business productivity user.”
Enterprises that want to migrate their desktop computers to the Linux operating system (OS) must first weigh several factors that go beyond Linux hype, myths and anti-Microsoft sentiment. These factors include the composition of your application portfolio, the requirements of your users and the all-important migration cost and return on migration investment. Spending money on a massive migration that won’t show a return on investment (ROI) within two to three years usually does not make sense.
To understand how Linux and Windows compare in the area of desktop deployment, Microsoft commissioned a study by eTesting Labs to determine the deployment time of Linux and Star Office on desktops versus Windows XP and Office XP. While the goal was simply to study the deployment time, it was discovered that 67% of experienced IT administrators were unable to finish a successful deployment of Linux and Star Office. Those who did finish took an average of 57% longer (source: eTesting Labs, “Microsoft Windows XP/Office XP versus Red Hat Linux/Star Office Migration Study,” July 2002).
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