Content deleted from Novell's web site...but not from Google's cache.

Nov 20, 2006

Now that Microsoft and Novell have partnered up, Novell's making nice and pulling down its rebuttal to Microsoft's "Get The Facts" site. Microsoft's site quoted studies that seemed to say that Windows was, in fact, superior to Linux. So Novell (headed by the very focussed [and possibly unbalanced] Ray Noorda) put up their own version: quotes that touted Linux's superiority. Quotes taken from the very same survey Microsoft used for their unabashedly pro-Windows site.

And now that Novell is taking the site down, I've pulled the page from Google's cache. This content originally appeared at www.novell.com/linux/truth/.

Microsoft's “Get the Facts” website summarizes and emphasizes the strengths of Windows as they appear in the reports and studies they provide (see www.microsoft.com/getthefacts). However, they fail to mention the strengths of Linux that are cited in those same reports. Here are some quotes from these publicly available reports which highlight some of the benefits of Linux.

• “Linux shows measurably improved TCO compared with UNIX and Windows in small firms, in organizations with customized vertical applications and in “greenfield” networking situations where there is no existing software infrastructure”
  (Yankee Group, “Linux, UNIX and Windows TCO Comparison,” April 2004).
• “Novell’s technical service and support organization has breadth and depth. It also has a substantial channel presence and partnerships with HP and IBM. All are the result of more than 20 years of experience in the operating system arena with its flagship NetWare platform and its recent SUSE and Ximian acquisitions. Such knowledge does not come cheaply, nor should it”
  (Yankee Group, “Linux, UNIX and Windows TCO Comparison,” April 2004).
• “The ability to modify and customize the Linux source code affords customers the most intriguing possibilities for custom application development. This ability stands in stark contrast to the closed or proprietary nature of the Windows operating system. In recent years, Microsoft has opened up Windows to a limited extent and released numerous APIs. This enables third-party ISVs to efficiently produce interoperable applications that more easily integrate with Windows. However, this is nothing like the changes developers can make with Linux, where there is total access. The open source philosophy is deceptively simple: allowing developers, programmers and engineers to read, modify and redistribute the source code via standardized Linux interfaces spurs software development and evolution”
  (Yankee Group, “Linux, UNIX and Windows TCO Comparison,” April 2004).
• “In summary, the Yankee Group’s TCO survey found that Linux does offer compelling cost savings, economies of scale and technical advantages, as many a satisfied user will attest. However, the cost savings and benefits are not automatic; they are not achieved without customer due diligence and they do not necessarily apply in every user scenario. Ultimately, the TCO and ROI of Linux may be less than, comparable to, or more expensive than UNIX or Windows depending on the individual corporate deployment circumstances”
  (Yankee Group, “Linux, UNIX and Windows TCO Comparison,” April 2004).

The content of this entry originally appeared at www.novell.com/linux/truth/. The report links originally went to download.microsoft.com/download/6/b/7/6b7c5fa1-fcc9-434e-b1e6-5025b7f97786/YankeePart1.pdf.

Keywords: | thought control | technology | marketing | communication |
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