As an open-source advocate and an avoider of all things Microsoft (the only Microsoft product I own is an Xbox 360 which has pretty much just become a glorified Netflix on-demand box) I love hearing stories about business running Microsoft-free. People seem to have this irrational subconscious Microsoft dependency thinking it is impossible, especially for business, to run Microsoft-free. Linux has matured into a viable desktop alternative. There is of course Macintosh (closed-source but not MS however much bettter). OpenOffice.org has also impressivley matured. I typically work out of Google Docs, but regularly use OOo Calc for spreadsheets and can easily move files to and from Excel and in many ways OOo Writer is more feature-rich, especially for complex layouts, than Word.
Business without Microsoft
8 September 2009 | 0 comments
From a server perspective, the case for Microsoft is even weaker. I cannot think of a single good reason to pay for Windows Server and IIS rather than use Linux and Apache. Even worse is the CAL racket, a complete rip-off.
Further, I think the TCO (total cost of ownership) argument is a myth. Are people really spending their time calling Red Hat for everything? How about Microsoft for that matter? I doubt it.
I would love to hear stories about business, large and small, running Microsoft-free.
