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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Feb 04, 2005 - 02:03 PM
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Before the anti-trust case Microsofts OEM where prohibited by contract from shipping dual boot machines offering both Windows and Linux (or anything else). As part the of the anti-trust settlement MS was forced to stop this. Now I believe the punishment for shipping non-MS software on a desktop is loss of all of your co-branded MS advertising dollars. Why isn't IBM shipping dual boot Linux/Windows machines? Adding Linux to the initial disk image is free.
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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Feb 05, 2005 - 09:08 AM
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I admit that I haven't done IT purchasing for a while, but the last time I did it was with IBM. At that time (2001), they offered an option to have the hard drive installed with DOS, and not any of the the Windows operrating systems. This option was available to accompdate those companies that had MS Licensing agreements that already covered the cost of the operating systems. It was usually a price reduction of $80 from an identical model with Windows installed. My experience is that when doing corporate buying, IBM will create custom configurations for that customer for orders as small as 100-200 units that include these kind of options. All tier 1 manufacturers are ready to handle these types of orders for their coprorate customers, but don't make the information about these options available to their home/on-line customers. Normally, you have to deal with a corporate sales account manager to find them.
While this still forces you to pay a MS tax, it does give you a lower cost basis, an ability to compare apples to apples hardware, and a system that is properly prepared to have linux installed. Most corporate environments are prepared to, or even insist on, installing the operating systems and associated appication licenses as an image to promote unifomity of the machines and managability. So having the system arrive with a DOS hard drive is normally not a hardship in this type of environment.
If you are indeed looking at the TCO issues for linux, you probably need to consider that corporate buying patterns have different options and channels than the home/individual, and look at both sets when putting together your data. It can make a significant difference in the outcome.
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