[Nolug] Windows Server 2008 vs Linux

I just thought I'd share this with everybody.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/compare/windows-server-vs-red-hat-linux.mspx

Now, let's rip this FUD apart. First, Microsoft acts as if RedHat is the
only option that enterprises would ever go with, and they say that while
RedHat itself is cheap, it's $2500 a year for support. Okay, that's
support, Microsoft. Why don't we compare apples to apples, and point out
that Microsoft's support is somewhere around $700 per incident? To me,
$2500 a year is FAR cheaper. I also find a lot of issue with the fact that
Microsoft claims that every distro of Linux is so different that migrating
from, say RedHat to SuSE is very difficult, if not impossible. One of the
key strengths of any UNIX architecture is the portability of files. The
file structure is based on an open standard, and you could very easily take
files from something like Turbolinux, and easily bring it back up on any
other distro of Linux, or perhaps BSD, Solaris, OSX, HPUX, etc... Linux
admins tend to keep the data files on seperate drives/partitions from the
OS, so you could simply install another OS on a new hard drive, and mount
the old data partitions under that OS, and continue right where you left
off. If you need something like a database, it's not hard to dump SQL to a
file and reimport it on the new server. And the configuration files are
generally flat text files, so how is your data somehow married to the
OS/distro that it originated on? Also, they make the claim that Windows
2003 has fewer published vulnerabilities than Linux. We all know that more
bugs will be FOUND in Linux, and they will of course be squashed rapidly.
But, due to Windows' closed nature, how many bugs actually EXIST but have
yet to be FOUND? The only valid argument that Microsoft brings up in this
article is about the management interfaces. They hands down win in that
department, but that's why you hear of UNIX guys working at places like
NASA, making $200,000 a year. UNIX OS's are definitely not easier, and you
do have to know what you're doing to accomplish the same thing that you can
do in Windows with a mouse click. So what? It is what it is. I also love
how Microsoft neglects to mention the fact that Windows Server 2008 is
playing catchup with the UNIX world by adding a new feature called Windows
Server 2008 Core. The core mode basically turns Windows Server into a
GUI-less command-line-based server OS. That way, it can run faster, without
the bloat and massive overhead associated with a GUI. Sound like any OS
you've ever used? Oh, that's right...UNIX/Linux/etc... And of course, once
you are using Windows Server 2008 in core mode, you suddenly lose that one
advantage that Windows has: its GUI based management interfaces. Those are
some great arguments, Microsoft.

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Received on 03/20/08