I read this article over at ZDNet about how Novell has been linked to a press release with Microsoft that states that Windows has a lower TCO than Linux. Now in this case, its within a specific company, HSBC. The article is a shill for combining Windows and Linux together, which seems to be Novell's new goal.

<rant>Has Novell gotten the wolves and sheep mixed up? This is like Road Runner expecting Wile E Coyote to not try and kill him every time he runs past. I won't argue that TCO can be proven in specific cases any which way you want it to look. Not to mention that the best TCO savings are from moving away from UNIX based hardware and OS to Linux based hardware and OS.

The TCO for Windows to Linux can be a bit trickier, but the basics are still easy to figure out. Linux is less expensive to obtain than Windows and it can run on less expensive and a wider array of hardware. Windows has to make up a lot of ground just to break even. For me the specific direct costs aren't as great as the more esoteric cost savings that you achieve by not being controlled by a proprietary monopolistic company like Microsoft. Microsoft's primary goal is not to deliver great software and great user experiences. Their goal is to create and keep customers by any means necessary.

I would not hesitate to say that they will and have sacrificed their customers' experience in order to keep that customer locked into proprietary technology. The bloated, underpowered, security-hole-ridden code base of Windows is proof of that. Their conduct with OEMs, competitors, and their business practices are proof of their main goal as well. Microsoft just wants your money and they are willing to provide you with terrible software at a high price to prove it.

We must be stupid or insane (or both) to want Microsoft software in any way shape or form. </rant>

Now that I've gotten that out of my system... back to Novell.

I work in a huge corporation. We have very strict standards for operating systems. What is our standard? Well I think we use all of them (maybe not Amiga hehe). We have Unix, Linux. NetWare, Windows, IBM mainframes... the works. The thing is that we generally don't like to use different OS's for the same purpose. You don't often find a Windows and a NetWare server at a branch office doing the same thing for the users there.

I think this whole "Windows and Linux work together" thing is totally bogus. The only thing that is useful from an integration perspective is directory services. Although Microsoft's lame attempt at subverting the LDAP standard with Active Directory isn't the worst thing on the planet, I wouldn't want to run my Linux environment through it. In fact, Novell's directory services works best for creating a centralized directory service that can be synchronized to other directory services (like OpenLDAP on Linux) or used directly by your Linux infrastructure. AD is also easily synchronized to a centralized directory.

If this is what Novell and MS mean when they say "working together" then I say whoopdy-freakin'-doo! Directory services are commodities now. This is child's play and anyone with half a brain can work out a great directory services system that can serve all the user authentication and authorization across all the platforms you have using LDAP because ITS A STANDARD (except for Microsoft's AD but its close enough that you aren't hurt by their attempt at locking you in).

So if all these guys mean is that you should use Windows where it makes sense, and Linux where it makes sense, well then I say once more... whoopdy-freakin'-doo!

In order to keep your choices open and Microsoft at bay, I recommend that everyone implement Linux at every sane opportunity. Then use Microsoft technology very carefully and try your best to keep close to industry standards (this may be next to impossible). But here is a hint. Don't use ODBC to access MS databases, don't use Sharepoint and Project 2007 server for any Intranet or Internet online presence, and don't ever use ActiveX controls or Internet Explorer specific er... crap.

Enuf! I'm outta here