Re: LINUX - Total Cost of ownership

"Christopher B. Browne" wrote:
>
> On Fri, 14 May 1999 09:55:28 GMT, christoph_schram_at_my-dejanews.com
> <christoph_schram_at_my-dejanews.com> posted:

.....stuff deleted .....

> >Finaly i want to compare TCO of Windows NT with
> >TCO of Linux. Important
> >things are for example how are the TCO figures
> >retrieved? Do they come
> >from a survey or is it a scientific research?
>
> TCO calculations are *highly* politicized. They are probably about the
> *least* scientific of calculations that anyone pays attention to.
>
> They are used as finely-tuned weapons in the war of marketing.
>
> I expect that trying to do a scientifically-oriented analysis will have the
> primary effect of making your head hurt a lot...
> --
> Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
> -- Henry Spencer <http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/lsf.html>
> cbbrowne_at_hex.net - "What have you contributed to free software today?..."

I agree. The only thing I can add is that the first time I heard the phrase "Total Cost of Ownership", it was used to promote the concept of Network Computing, or Thin Client computing. The idea is that, while PCs seem cheaper than servers it is cheaper to maintain a few servers and terminals/NC's than it is to maintain an equivalent number of PCs ("Fat Clients"). Not surprisingly, everyone, including (giggle) Microsoft, has started claiming that they have the lowest TCO. I guess Microsoft has taken the Thin Client concept seriously (or are hedging their bets) because companies like NCD now market "Windows Terminals".

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