[unisog] WHICH IS CHEAPER IN THE LONG RUN, WINDOWS OR UNIX?

[Wayne Wilson]

Paul L Schmehl wrote:


> 
> I would *love* to see an unbiased study comparing relatively like 
> Windows vs. Unix environments.  This isn't one.  It's a puff piece 
> trying to sell Unix as the answer to all problems, which it isn't.
> 
I don't think such a comparison is possible.  The real issue here is

that many of us accept the premise of the Windows PC.  There is
no other platform that has the application support, just plain and
simple.  We have lived through this argument re: Macintosh.  If
you draw the line in the sand over # of applications, you have only
one solution.

There are many other lines to draw in the sand that keep coming
up with Windows.


I think the real issue (that the numbers were backing) was what if an
organization adopts a different premise about computing than the
PC premise.  That other premise is that the computing environment is
designed to accomplish a narrow range of functions, determined
by some organizational decision making process.

That changes the definition of what the purpose of the computing
environment is from the PC model (where the end users
get to decide) to something like:

   People should be able to  do word processing, spreadsheets,
statistical analysis, web browsing, etc.....   How those are
accomplished is up to the IT department, not end users.

  Arguably, in an academic institution, this kind of model is not
going to go over very well, as most of us have accepted the freedom
of the PC model completely.

And then that brings us back to accepting the responsibility, if any,
that comes with that freedom.

And it also brings us to another kind of cost, not really explored
quantitatively very well anywhere, the cost's of having such freedom.
Maybe that cost means accepting higher levels of risk  and damage
control.

I would like to use a phrase to describe this aspect of the issue:

Denial of Productivity.  Yes, because that's the tradeoff the current PC
model has presented us in the era of the Internet.

Every probe, every attack that we have to respond to irregardless of whether that
attack or probe succeeded or had any chance of success, is a denial of 
productivity.