You have a small business with 20 people using computers. Let’s have a look at some pricing.
Basic server with Mandriva Linux 2009.1: $1100.00
Cost per seat: $55.00
Includes office software & a virus scanner. (No virus scanner is actually required).
Basic server with MS-Windows 2008 (5 CALs): $3500.00
CALs apear to be about $200 a seat (Edu would be about $45), so...
15 more CALs for the above: $3000.00
Nett: $6500.00
Cost per seat: $325
Does not include any office software or virus scanner; you could, if you enjoy constant naysaying, try installing OpenOffice for free.
A PC for each seat is $502, plus screen ($180). These workstations do not require a virus scanner, but each instance (user) running on an MS-Windows 2008 server does. The workstations can be set up to run MS-Windows XP (guessing that an OEM version could still be grabbed for about $150, Vista would be a bit breathless, don’t know about MS-Windows 7), so would require a virus scanner each, but there is no real point in so doing.
The kicker?
In this town, since the final one of the 3 various Linux-aware dudes left last year, local suppliers have been encouraging the use of MS-Windows 2008 with virtualisation (haven’t explored the cost of that yet).
The virtualisation is needed because services are not as well separated as they are on any Unix (such as Linux) & as they have been for decades. Given that MS-Windows NT was a VMS (Mica) clone (with mil-spec security), that’s pretty bad.
Basic server with Mandriva Linux 2009.1: $1100.00
Cost per seat: $55.00
Includes office software & a virus scanner. (No virus scanner is actually required).
Basic server with MS-Windows 2008 (5 CALs): $3500.00
CALs apear to be about $200 a seat (Edu would be about $45), so...
15 more CALs for the above: $3000.00
Nett: $6500.00
Cost per seat: $325
Does not include any office software or virus scanner; you could, if you enjoy constant naysaying, try installing OpenOffice for free.
A PC for each seat is $502, plus screen ($180). These workstations do not require a virus scanner, but each instance (user) running on an MS-Windows 2008 server does. The workstations can be set up to run MS-Windows XP (guessing that an OEM version could still be grabbed for about $150, Vista would be a bit breathless, don’t know about MS-Windows 7), so would require a virus scanner each, but there is no real point in so doing.
The kicker?
In this town, since the final one of the 3 various Linux-aware dudes left last year, local suppliers have been encouraging the use of MS-Windows 2008 with virtualisation (haven’t explored the cost of that yet).
The virtualisation is needed because services are not as well separated as they are on any Unix (such as Linux) & as they have been for decades. Given that MS-Windows NT was a VMS (Mica) clone (with mil-spec security), that’s pretty bad.
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