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To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
cc: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu, Domingo Siliceo <dsiliceo@adam.es>,
        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Opinions? 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:10:54 PDT."
             <199607171610.JAA05923@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> 
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 12:02:32 -0700
Message-ID: <1073.837630152@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
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> learn all the quirkiness of Unix.  NT and OS/2 are just better
> solutions than Unix for many of these people.  And NT is a better
> server product in so many ways than OS/2.  Plus, NT is a better
> business "workstation" OS than Unix because of all the business
> applications it runs.

While I don't disagree with any of your major points, and agree that
NT is *definitely* something we should be afraid (very afraid) of, I
think you missed one important point about it which Microsoft will be
the last to mention in their sales hype:  Cost.

Task: Create a small ISP using 3 or 4 PCs which will provide web
service, POP email accounts, News, DNS, dial-in SLIP/PPP and general
routing.  Say we're also projecting between 500-1000 users as our
target customer base within a 6 month timeframe (and, assuming we live
in an area where coverage is still somewhat spotty, that's not an
unrealistic expectation at all) so we need to make sure we can grow
into that without too much pain since we'll already be going insane
trying to get the billing set up, the tech support hotline staffed,
etc.  The last thing we need is for our tech to run out of steam
halfway down the line.

Now, go price 3 copies of NT Server plus the 1000 user commercial pop
package you'll have to buy along with the relevant DNS, News and
SLIP/PPP software (also throw in NFS so that you can eventually share
filesystems with that SGI Challenge machine you've got your lustful
eyes on and will buy once you hit 500 users to take some of the load
off).  See the total you're quoted.  Suffer heart failure.  Be revived
by paramedics.  Send $39.95 from your hospital bed to Walnut Creek
CDROM for *one* copy of FreeBSD and swear off Microsoft forever. :-)

Seriously, NT looks attractive from a single-user standpoint, I'll
give it full marks for that, but once you try and put together even
half of the packages you get for free under UNIX to create a small ISP
or business server application, you're talking some serious bucks and,
from everything I've heard, you won't even get close to the
performance of a well-tuned *BSD box doing the same thing once you're
done.

Eventually I suppose that Microsoft will catch on to this and/or the
free software community will provide some of the missing pieces, but
that doesn't help today's customers very much.

					Jordan