TCO Myths and Politics
Think Linux total cost of ownership is less than that of Windows? Think again.
A few months back, in my “Shutdown” column entitled “A Mile in IT’s Shoes” (
http://www.linux-mag.com/2005-03/shutdown_01.html), I relayed the various technical challenges I was encountering while working on a pilot project to deploy a thin-client
Linux desktop for a large, institutional customer. At the time, the pilot program was ongoing and the jury was still out. Now, I have some bad news: the pilot failed and the customer decided not to deploy a Linux solution.
Why?
While the solution was sound and my customer liked what was delivered — indeed, the IT director of the company and many of his staff praised the solution for its innovativeness, its superior performance, and its excellent stability — the killing blow was the myth of superior Linux Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and misconceptions about the ease of migrating users.
A lot of people are under the impression that because Linux is a “free” operating system, it should be cheaper to deploy than an equivalent Windows solution, with its pile of add-on products such as Microsoft Office, virus scanners, network client access licenses (CALs), and so on. But as it turns out, after everything is said and done, in a large desktop deployment, guess what? Linux costs the same!
How can that be, you ask?
