[Biodevelopers] Re: Biodevelopers digest, Vol 1 #131 - 2 msgs

Ognen Duzlevski ognen at kc.rr.com
Thu Jun 19 23:20:31 EDT 2003


Allen Henry wrote:

>Since most of the bioinfo world still only exists in
>the academia and research areas, the suit would impact
>this community and force researchers (like below), to
>go to another -free- platform.
>
>However, in the real world, where $$$ has to be made,
>this will only help UNIX vendors. And from what I see,
>the business community has little problems with this
>since the numbers are out that the total cost of
>ownership of Linux exceeds that of other platforms.
>
Can you please quote an independent study claiming this?

I run a 40 node beowulf cluster and the cost of ownership is the 
hardware itself (cheap) and my time. Try doing that with a vendor like 
HP/tru64 combo for example. You will pay more for propriatory hardware, 
then you will need to pay even more if you want to upgrade, plus my time 
and support contracts for an obscure OS that you have to get special 
training for in order to be able to use fully (training will cost you 
extra). They will be happy to put you on some kind of a "gold" or 
"silver" plan for lots of $$$$$ to get routine stuff anyone should gets 
for free in the Linux world. Or, God forbid, try doing this with M$.

My 2 cents.
Ognen




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