Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (2634 mails)

[Randall R Schulz <rschulz@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday 01 March 2007 12:52, John Andersen wrote:
> On Thursday 01 March 2007, Randall R Schulz wrote:
> > I know that not every application area is covered by FOSS software,
> > but all the common, business-oriented "productivity" applications
> > are there plus a formidable range of niche applications.
>
> Not good enough for a large percentage of the market unfortunately.
>
> ...

But that's not what I was refuting. Naturally, if Windows is the only 
platform that supports the applications you run, then talk of 
alternatives or comparative costs is moot.

I was answering the claim about the cost of SLED vs. Windows. For the 
sizeable population of users for whom both operating systems are 
technically viable options (i.e., they both could support the work for 
which the system is to be used), the Windows system is going to cost 
more. A single productivity app alone--say, DreamWeaver vs. Nvu, 
Photoshop vs. Gimp, MS Office (or even just Word) vs. OpenOffice.org, 
etc.--will tip the cost advantage towards the Linux solution.

The only real point I was making is that to compare the cost of a bare 
Windows license with the cost of a SLED support license is not a valid 
comparison because it ignores the larger cost to Windows users of the 
applications they'll have to purchase to make their computer useful.


Randall Schulz
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