Business without Microsoft Windows?
Things are tight these days. The economy is not what we could call thriving. More and more companies are looking at ways to cut costs. Reducing overhead and cutting jobs to make ends meet seems to be the common method of surviving the lack of big spending. While these methods are proven ways of saving company money, there are other ways to cut costs. Do you know how much money your company spends on software, software upgrades, and software licenses every year?
Windows and Mac OS X operating systems require continuous payments for licenses, updates, upgrades, maintenance, and support. In addition, Windows and Mac OS X require high performance computers and server systems. Well if you want them to perform at an acceptable speed you’ll need a powerhouse and lots of RAM. To cut costs on these investments, companies tend to buy cheaper computers. Many companies feel that the risks of adopting a cheaper technology solution are too great. Things like loss of data, system downtime, and the resulting productivity losses scare most companies away from open source and Linux technology. However, loss of data, system downtime, and the resulting productivity losses are problems that plague both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Linux is much more reliable and secure and experiences much less data loss or downtime than other competing operating systems.
Computer hardware failures are usually nobody’s fault. However, computer hardware is a lot like a car engine. If you buy a family type car and drive it sensibly, your maintenance costs will be minimal and the car will last for years. If you take the same car and drive it like a race car then the chances are it will cost a lot in maintenance and won’t last very long. Computers work much the same way. If the software is always running the computer at maximum performance and still asking for more, then chances are that computer won’t last long.
The way around this problem is by adopting Linux and freely available open source software. Linux is a free,high performance, quality operating system. Linux is being adopted by more and more companies and government institutions worldwide. Its uses and desktop appearance is similar to Microsoft Windows, thus easy to learn and use. Linux provides higher security, has less virus attacks (if at all), and more efficient in its use of hardware resources. Best of all, it is open source software that can be modified or adapted for almost any purpose. Open source software, especially free open source software applications are available for Linux that can replace almost any popular software you can think of. (Look here for more information on replacing proprietary software with free open source.)
Unfortunately, proprietary solutions are bought or leased, and deployed at very high costs in spite of the more cost efficient solutions available. Free open source software and Linux technologies are ignored, either due to lack of knowledge or fear of change. Those are the best reasons I could think of.
Here are some facts about Linux:
- A typical Linux computer with free open source software installed can cost up to 60 – 70% less to operate
- Linux and most open source software will require half the computer resources that Windows or Mac OS X and the associated software would require
- Linux comes with music, video, image, and internet software just like Windows and Mac OS X, however, most of the additional software you typically purchase to enhance Windows and Mac OS X are available for Linux – for free
- Linux versions, such as Ubuntu, come with free business software
- Linux installations can be upgraded and maintained without any additional costs
- Linux is more stable and much safer than its proprietary alternatives (almost no virus, malware, or spyware attacks – at least no successful ones)
- Linux is just as easy to learn as Windows or Mac OS X
- Specific software solutions are available from commercial vendors in addition to many specialized types of software that are free and open sourced – medical, design, accounting, science, education, and many more types of software are readily available (for free) and supported by their developers and a community of users
- Thousands of Linux forums provide free support, configuration, and installation information for both the end user and the administrator
If you’re in a position to make computing decisions for a small business, large corporation, school system, or anywhere else where costs are a concern then you owe it to the investors, customers, employees, and tax payers to at least give Linux and open source a try. Almost any computer will do. Simply download a version of Linux (I recommend Ubuntu for the beginner), install it, and give it a try.
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