MS Won't Release Study Disputing Munich's Linux-Switch Savings 268
itwbennett writes "As previously reported on Slashdot, in November of last year, the city of Munich reported savings of over €10 million from its switch to Linux. Microsoft subsequently commissioned a study (conducted by HP) that found that, in fact, 'Munich would have saved €43.7 million if it had stuck with Microsoft.' Now, Microsoft has said it won't release the study, saying that '[it] was commissioned by Microsoft to HP Consulting for internal purposes only.'"
Re:Linux claimed to be cheaper than Windows (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not surprised.
Of course, there's nothing preventing the company from using commercially-supported distributions (like Red Hat) on critical systems if they really need the support and clones (like CentOS) on other systems.
well.. (Score:4, Informative)
they tried to advertise Windows and .NET with one of their "studies" years ago when the London Stock Exchange started using their products for it's trading system and they even made a nice video about it:
Get the Facts: The London Stock Exchange
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwSM55bsCrM [youtube.com]
but it looks like it didn't turn out that well..
London Stock Exchange to abandon failed Windows platform
http://blogs.computerworld.com/london_stock_exchange_to_abandon_failed_windows_platform [computerworld.com]
London Stock Exchange dumps Windows for Linux
http://www.linuxtoday.com/high_performance/2009100702835NWDPSV [linuxtoday.com]
The London Stock Exchange moves to Novell Linux
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/the-london-stock-exchange-moves-to-novell-linux/8285 [zdnet.com]
maybe they learned their lesson now
Re:Key to success is doing it right (Score:4, Informative)
Stick to printers that actually support Postscript... There is no reason to ever buy a printer that doesn't support postscript...
Re:Likely they don't want to reveal pricing data (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft has doubled the cost of Windows in one fell swoop with their dirty pricing tactics. Volume licensing was a pretty popular was for large companies to save money where they would buy all the licenses for Windows and have their PCs sent to them empty or with a preload image sent to the OEM by the company. But one year, Microsoft decided that every volume licensed version of Desktop Windows is "an upgrade" and so requires a retail version, OEM version or Mac OS X installed prior to installing the volume licensed version. So you have to pay for Windows twice to use it once. Their sales numbers went through the roof that year and lawyers out there didn't blink an eye.
There is no way they are "competing" with open source. The reality is they have acheived critical mass and have been milking and maintaining it ever since. But lately things have been eroding their critical mass as alternatives have grown increasingly more compatible and usable. It's a secret they would rather not have larger IT shops learn about. IT people are trying to keep their jobs and if they can save the company their cost in salary or more by moving to open source they will do it. They just have to know it's safe and "accepotable" to do so. And lots of things are enabling this to come true. Among these are the increase in web-based enterprise applications really helping this migration along.