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Story: Open source is 'below the radar' of local government

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Microsoft has, for some time, argues that the Total Cost of Ownership of Open Source software includes a high cost for expert support resources, and applies this to the cost of Windows Server versus Linux.

In my opinion, this argument is ill-founded. It is true that setting up a Linux server system may need skilled resources, while setting up a Windows Server system can often be done "out of the box" with almost no expertise at all. However, the skills needed to set up a Linux system are well provided by excellent books and by a huge free resource pool on the World Wide Web. True, some understanding of the concepts involved is necessary, but any intelligent IP practitioner will gain them by reading and will then be well placed, at relatively low cost, to support his system as it evolves.

On the other hand, when a Windows system goes wrong, the usual resort is just to restart it and try again. Why? Because the resources to diagnose and fix problems hardly exist at all. A Microsoft -certified practitioner might be able to work through a list of troubleshooting steps, but when they fail to help, as is usually the case, he is powerless to diagnose or fix the problems because the tools don't exist, the mechanisms are cloaked in proprietary secrecy, and the source code is unavailable to be studied or fixed. Sometimes the owner has to give up and admit that his task can't be carried out, or that another method has to be found.

The result is Windows systems that fail unpredictably, are insecure and cost their owners huge amounts of lost time - and sometimes other financial losses. In my view, the TCO consequences put Microsoft Windows in a poor light.

It isn't necessarily so for other proprietary software. More enlightened companies who devote a proper share of their revenues to quality, reliability and customer support can produce fine products with modest costs of ownership that can compete well with Open Source solutions. Many "legacy" products fall into this category and have been giving their owners good service for many years.

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