Microsoft has been challenging the assertion that Linux and OSS are free and offer a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than Windows. They urge customers to look beyond Linux being "free" and evaluate it as they would any other platform. The studies they released to support this idea focus on three specific areas that they claim will disprove that notion and will reveal hidden costs that drive the TCO up. The areas they cite are Staffing and Training, Support costs, and Administration and Management tools. Upon closer examination, however, we find that many of their claims are false or misleading. Here's an article published in the IT Manager's Journal Tracking the Evolution of IT that articulates the fundamental superiority of Linux in reducing TCO.

Four out of four experts agree: Linux lowers TCO
Can a company count on Linux to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an enterprise system? Reaction to this question from CIOs and IT managers usually goes something like: "Well, of course it saves money on the bottom line. No sky-high enterprise licensing fees every year. No over-the-top support subscription costs; you can maintain the code in-house. Way fewer security and access issues, keeping the system down time low. No paying for unnecessary bells and whistles in end-user software. No worrying about mandatory upgrades every year and a half."
-- From IT Manager's Journal Tracking the Evolution of IT 

We talked to independent analysts, developers, and IT company executives. They all pretty much agree on one answer to the question: Yes, generally there are fair to good TCO savings with Linux -- sometimes huge savings. But variables in every organization's mix will determine exactly what that monthly, quarterly, or yearly savings will be.

According to this recent study from Cybersource, entitled Linux vs. Windows: Total Cost of Ownership Comparison, for a company with 250 users, Linux solutions will cost between 27 percent and 36 percent less than Microsoft's products over a three-year period. This comprehensive study provides an analysis that utilizes costs based on hardware, software, networking, staffing, consultancy fees, Internet access, desktop productivity applications, training and miscellaneous system costs.
-- From Cybersource 

Staffing and Training
CLAIM: There is a scarcity of Linux expertise among IT professionals, which will make staffing difficult and expensive.
FACTS:

• The transition between Unix and Linux is fairly straightforward, so Unix expertise in an IT staff will translate directly into Linux expertise. And while Windows expertise is obviously more available today than Linux or Unix expertise, companies need to be aware that there will also be a training hit for Windows experts when it is time to upgrade to Longhorn. In other words, any change will require training. Here's an interesting analysis:

• For those who need to augment their expertise, Novell has an industry-leading Linux certification program and a full Linux curriculum.
• Novell certification courses are not limited to those with previous Linux or even Unix experience. Corporations can utilize the classes—which span the full spectrum of expertise—to get their staffs trained. See a complete list of courses and certifications.
• Novell is a leader in certification. According to a report by Gartner ("Novell Services focuses on Identity Management and Linux," June 2004.), "Novell invented the technical certification program in the late 1980s with NetWare certifications. Today, Novell delivers 2.5 million hours of training to 80,000 customers and partners per year. Novell's training services portfolio includes technical-skills assessment, advanced technical training, custom training and curriculum development, self-study, and certification and testing. It offers a training road map for ... SUSE LINUX. Novell has revamped its certification programs to make them practicum-based and continues to broaden its reach with nearly 2,400 Certified Novell Instructors (CNIs). In addition to the traditional Certified Novell Engineer (CNE), CNI and Master Certified Novell Engineer (MCNE) certifications, Novell now offers certifications for Certified Linux Engineer and SUSE-Certified Linux Professional. Companies should investigate Novell training services to appraise their technical staffs' strengths and weaknesses or establish Linux training and certification programs in their organizations."
• Novell has a number of different certification classes that corporations can utilize to get their staff trained, including:
• Linux Administration
• Linux Fundamentals
• Migrating to SUSE LINUX
• SUSE LINUX Administration Custom On-site Training

Support
 

CLAIM: The distributed nature of the OSS model diminishes its ability to respond to issues on a real-time basis.
FACTS:

• Many companies, including Novell, make Linux support a top priority. According to a report by Gartner ("Novell Services focuses on Identity Management and Linux," June 2004) "Novell's 20-year history in support services has yielded a well-developed set of offerings and support operations infrastructure. The structure of its support Premium Service offerings portfolio is a comprehensive six-tier model that provides the widest-scaled set of support options in the industry. The tiers scale according to factors such as tools and training, response time, number of incidents, access to support resource expertise, account management and dedicated resources. More significantly, the model Novell uses for coverage is not per-product-license-fee-based but is based on a list of supported products. Every tier of Premium Service support covers all the products on the supported products list and for all instances of the product in the customer's environment. This also is a unique approach in the support industry, where the norm is a support fee based on the percentage of software licenses."
• In addition to the vast free resources that are in place for Linux developers worldwide, Novell and other companies are bringing an additional level of professional support to Linux, making it more attractive to enterprises with an understandable aversion to risk. The mature, experienced technical support organization at Novell provides industry-leading 24 x 7 x 365 Linux support for businesses around the world. This infrastructure gives CIOs the peace of mind that comes from knowing Novell will be there to back them whenever problems occur. With more than 800 support personnel located in seven support centers covering every region of the world, Novell can deliver unmatched levels of service on a global scale. In addition, our support escalation procedures are designed to ensure quick resolution and guaranteed response times.
  
  Novell service contracts also allow customers to buy only as much technical support as they need—and then integrate Linux support with their other support needs. Our service professionals can help businesses evaluate the overall service levels their systems require, then choose the service that will best support their needs and objectives—regardless of size.

Peer-to-Peer Support

One of the great advantages to using open source code is that it is infinitely customizable, and there is terrific peer-to-peer support offered by other developers who are using the same code base. This is a tremendous asset for the developers who work in a large organization to create specific applications that are tailored to the needs of their enterprise. The distributed nature of open source software provides an increased opportunity to get support via three popular mechanisms: Mailing Lists, Forums, and Wikis.

When developers encounter a problem, there are thousands of mailing lists specific to sofware packages and Linux distributions that have searchable databases full of solutions to problems people have had. If you don't find it by searching, you can send out an email that will be received, in most cases, by hundreds of other people who are using the same software you are. Jason Jones, a Linux developer and early adopter, vouches for the speed, reliability, and specificity of this kind of support when he says, "The specific answers to my specific questions have usually come in less than 10 minutes from more than 5 sources."

Through mailing lists, Linux developers usually have access to the creator of the software package, who can provide more tailored answers than any manual could ever have.

Forums provide the same quality of response, but are conducted online. Wikis, a relatively new addition to the support offerings, provide a mechanism for expertise to be distilled, improved, and constantly updated via a robust searchable online interface. All of these resources combine to offer a fast track to Linux expertise to anyone willing to ask questions.

Administration and Management Tools
Manageability is a key factor in determining any system's total cost of ownership. When it comes to installing, deploying, updating or securing Linux servers, blades, desktops or laptops, the unique Novell resource management solutions make it easy and cost-effective to manage these assets throughout their entire lifecycle.

Novell ZENworks Linux Management gives IT administrators the ability to centrally control how they deploy and update systems inside the firewall. This industry-leading resource management solution offers best-of-breed Linux management capabilities at a much lower cost than the Red Hat* Network solution. As a result, businesses typically see a return on their investment within days of deployment. Novell ZENworks also gives organizations the ability to dramatically simplify management across their whole infrastructure by cost-effectively managing systems running Windows*, NetWare and Linux.

Also, many independent software vendors (ISVs) such as BMC, CA, and Tivoli and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) such as HP, IBM, and others have ported their management solutions to Linux. These large vendors treat Linux as a tier 1 operating system just as they do UNIX and Windows. In addition, small software vendors such as Cassatt, Scali, Scyld Software, and others offer Linux management solutions that integrate with those of the large IHVs and ISVs. Today, there are Linux management solutions available for every application area where Linux is used.

Besides these cross-platform management tools, YaST (which stands for Yet another Setup Tool) is a key differentiator between SUSE LINUX and other Linux offerings. YaST provides assistance with installation, configuration and administration. Once the system is configured and running, YOU (YasT Online Update) offers a unique system maintenance service. YaST manages all of the system configuration data behind the scenes and yet allows the user the freedom of manual configuration and editing of the system data if they so desire. In addition, YaST is completely open. It supports the common information model (CIM) standard and is compatible with third-party management solutions such as HP OpenView*, Novell ZENworks Linux Management, IBM Tivoli* and CA Unicenter*.

CLAIM: Administrative and management of Linux is difficult and inconsistent since there is a lack of sophisticated and effective tools.
FACTS:

• ZENworks 6.6 Linux Management provides precise control over the scheduling of Linux software updates, along with automated and intelligent Linux package dependency analysis and conflict resolution for smoother software installations. Using either an intuitive Web-based console or a powerful command-line interface, administrators can centrally configure and distribute software selections, manage users and organize groups of machines for installations and updates. ZENworks Linux Management is also included as part of the ZENworks suite, the only cross-platform systems management solution that supports Linux.
• In the press release for ZENworks 6.6 Linux Management, Fred Broussard, senior analyst with IDC said: "As Linux continues penetrating the enterprise, software necessary to manage Linux becomes more important, and it is helpful when a vendor known for this type of system management provides capabilities for managing emerging technology. With ZENworks Linux Management, Novell continues to provide a suite of products that meets a broad spectrum of customer needs."
• The powerful combination of Red Carpet and ZENworks now allows Windows, NetWare and Linux to be managed as one from a common console.
• The SUSE LINUX distribution from Novell provides a common administrative and management framework for both Linux and other products. These intuitive tools simplify and streamline management tasks.
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 features integrated management capabilities—including support for ZENworks Linux Management—which enable IT professionals to more easily deploy, configure and update Linux servers.
• YaST, which has been "open sourced" to facilitate the community's ability to use a common framework, is a comprehensive installation, configuration and administration tool. YaST gives IT personnel a common foundation for managing operating system components, network services, open source components and third-party applications. YaST now supports the common information model (CIM), a standard interface used by enterprise systems management solutions, which makes it easier to support large-scale IT environments and to interact with third-party systems' management tools. The AutoYaST feature allows IT administrators to automatically deploy Linux servers without user or IT intervention.