[CS-FSLUG] OT: Study shows Microsoft, Linux costs neck-and-neck

[Frank Bax]

At 08:02 PM 4/5/05, Don Parris wrote:

>On Apr 5, 2005 7:55 PM, Fred A. Miller <fmiller at lightlink.com> wrote:
> > http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5654036.html?tag=nl.e589
> >
>
>They forgot to mention whether the study was funded by McSofty or not.
>  Hmmm...  On the other hand, at least they're not running around
>claiming that MS is actually cheaper to run. Ha!  Makes me think they
>told MS, "look, we gotta at least make it look fairly even - that way
>people won't think we've cooked the numbers".


Actually, the article states "In the independent study ..." - that's why it 
has middle of the results.  MS and Linux supports fund many of these 
studies amd only release results of the one that they like the results of.

>Look, I understand that the costs of maintaining an IT infrastructure
>will ramp up with size & complexity - blah, blah, blah.  But how does
>the cost of Linux ramp up on a par with Windows?  Granted, RHE runs
>about the same as Winxx these days.  Still, I'll have to claim
>Missouri residency for now.


So you are saying number of machines per customer might not be consistent 
in a study that favours one platform over the other?  What a 
surprise!  These studies can be made to favour either platform by simply 
choosing a sample population that will produce expected results.  I'm not 
suggesting that the results of a survey are tampered with.  I'm saying that 
if Microsoft asks you to do the survey, you can do the study several times 
and give Microsoft the results they expect to see - any investigation about 
that single survey would appear legit.  Same thing if survey was requested 
by a Linux supporter.