Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 10:38:33 +0100 From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>, "Andrew C. Hornback" <achornback@worldnet.att.net>, "Mike Meyer" <mwm@mired.org> Cc: <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Feeding the Troll (Was: freebsd as a desktop ?) Message-ID: <03c501c17982$c8243510$0a00000a@atkielski.com> References: <000601c1796a$866eff00$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>
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Ted writes: > That may be true but that was not the major > point I was making. You talked about it quite a bit for a non-major point. > Whether due to piracy or not, UNIX and FreeBSD > penetration in the overseas market is higher > than it is in the US. I don't know about that. I haven't noticed a difference myself. > What your doing is taking one of the points > I made and are going off on a tangent on it, > your not adressing yourself to the core > financial/business/political issues of what > I was talking about. Uh-huh. > Overseas there is not the same Invented Here > syndrome that creates an unconscious bias in > favor of Windows ... But both Windows _and_ UNIX were invented in the U.S. > ... there are not the legions of cheap consultants > that will hack-up I mean install Windows ... There are plenty of consultants, as I've occasionally had to deal with the messes they can make. > ... there is less incentive to run out and buy > the latest Windows that comes down the pike > ... There is less incentive to buy anything, as far as I can tell. Salaries tend to be low in relation to COL, and businesses--particularly small businesses--tend to be very cheap indeed. > As I said, if your a business that only cares > about the absolute cheapest computing possible > without regard to how well it solves your problems, > if your located in a sea of Windows users then > it's going to be cheaper for you to go with the > flow and buy/use/steal Windows if your willing > to accept garbage-grade computing. There isn't any reason _not_ to go with Windows. It does the job nicely--it's hardly "garbage-grade." > ... one of the worst traits of US society is the > constant insistance that the cheaper way to do > something is always better. The U.S. is not unique in this respect; stupidity has not knowledge of national boundaries. > People pay a lower up front cost for Windows because > it's cheap to set up, but over the total cost of > the system they pay much more simply because Windows > isn't the best solution for their infrastructure. I have seen zero evidence of this anywhere. I'd expect the cost of FreeBSD or UNIX generally to be higher on the desktop (assuming standalone desktops, not terminals) and potentially higher for servers, for small businesses at least. The reason for this is that UNIX is a geek OS that requires a lot of user support--so you have to hire people that know UNIX, and they aren't necessarily going to be cheap. A large business can afford to hire a few such people, in which case there may be economies to realize with UNIX, particularly for servers, but small businesses cannot afford this luxury, so a plug-and-play OS is essential. Windows addresses the lowest common denominator in computing, and as IT becomes more widespread, the average user more and more closely approaches this lowest common denominator. UNIX is a technically superior solution for many server applications and perhaps even the occasional desktop, but it requires staffing. Look at setting up a Web server, for example. Any idiot can set up a Windows server and a Web site, almost, with virtually no advance training. Practically no one can set up a UNIX Web site with the same ease--some IT background is pretty much mandatory, just to understand the manuals (if any). The UNIX solution is less expensive in terms of hardware and software and provdes better Web support than Windows, but you lose that savings in personnel costs, unless your organization is big enough to be able to afford a few people to tend the Unices. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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