Linux MythsMicrosoft's web site includes a page that gives numerous reasons why Linux is inferior to the NT operating system. You can find the page here. Just in case Microsoft decides to remove the page from their site you can find the text here. Linux is a clear challenge to Microsoft's product line - primarily their Windows operating system. Microsoft has developed techniques over the years to battle commercial competitors. It uses a combination of legal and illegal tactics to crush competitors. But Linux and other Open Source Software cannot be crushed. In spite of Microsoft's wealth, they're unable to curb the popularity of Linux because there's no one company that controls it. Their conventional tactics don't work but they try anyway. Their "Linux Myths" web page is one such poor attempt. If you're tuned into what's happening in the world of Linux and Open Source software, you see the web page for what it really is. It's a desperate attempt to convince us that Linux is unfit for serious IT applications. Yet, we know that Unix/Linux is the engine that powers most machines that provide services to the Internet today. We know that:
Additionally, we know that Linux is making significant inroads in the corporate office. We know that:
The millionaires at Microsoft don't want the revenue stream to disappear. They have to milk their temporary market advantage for as long as they can. This means battling the Linux threat no matter how futile it is. It also means that stretching the truth - a technique that has served Microsoft so well for so long - is being stretched even further in an attempt to battle an enemy that is largely unaffected by Microsoft's usual anti-competion techniques. If you're not tuned in to the world of Linux and Open Source software, you may think that what Microsoft says on their Linux Myths page makes sense to you. If you've made a career of the computer industry and you wish to prosper, you need to get up to speed on the realities. You don't want to be the only MCSE left when the world has moved to more reliable and more secure computing platforms, such as Linux. To help you put things into perspective, we'll respond to some of what appears on Microsoft's Linux Myths web page. Hype? ...Hype!Microsoft uses the term "hype" when referring to Linux. In case the irony in this escapes you, understand that hype is what made Microsoft what it is today. Microsoft is not successful because it sells high quality products. It's successful because it knows how to sell to computer users who don't know what constitutes quality software. Old technologyMicrosoft states that "Linux fundamentally relies on 30-year-old operating system technology and architecture" - a statement that is both correct and incorrect at the same time. The statement is incorrect because Linux development didn't begin until 1991. Work on NT began earlier which makes Linux the more "modern" operating system if you're simply counting years. The statement is correct in that Linux was designed to have the best features of Unix. Unix is a technology that first appeared decades ago. It has evolved over the years and kept up with innovations in hardware, systems and security design, etc. Linux and other Open Source software benefit greatly from the lessons learned over those years - especially in the area of security. Microsoft wants you to think of Unix and Linux as that 1959 Ford Fairlane your father used to drive. The reality is that they're contemporary operating systems with state of the art features. Rational thinkers wouldn't penalize Windows NT because of its Windows version 3 predecessors nor would they assume that Linux is the way Unix was 30 years ago. PerformanceIf you're not totally sick of hearing about "independent" benchmark tests, you should be. The benchmark tests you read about in the trade publications are seldom independent or fair. For every benchmark showing that NT is faster than Linux, Solaris and NetWare there are others which show the reverse. We know that Linux is faster than NT but it is impossible to prove. Microsoft's wealth and present market share means that there's no shortage of "independent" testers who are willing to publish reports that show NT performance is superior. There's also no shortage of pickpockets in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Benchmark testing is a fine art and requires a great deal of detailed technical knowledge of the systems being tested and attention to detail. Few people are capable of doing a good job and most are incapable of knowing when comparing certain system characteristics even makes sense. Our advice - forget about benchmark testing when comparing systems. You'll never have objective results. It'll just be one more variable to be concerned about and confused over. Treat benchmark tests as just another lie you should not fall victim to. ReliabilityMicrosoft doesn't say that Linux is not more reliable than NT. They say that "..there are no real world data or metrics and very limited customer evidence to back up these claims." The reality is that Blue Screens of Death simply don't happen with Linux. Typical Linux machines deployed as servers run continuously without failure. Linux machines have been up for hundreds of days and only taken down deliberately to upgrade the operating system kernel, replace dated or failed hardware, etc. Real world data or metrics? Simple. Ask someone you know who runs Linux about reliability. If you or your company absolutely need lengthy studies and reports published by the MBAs at expensive market research firms to tell you what every Linux user already knows, then stay with the expensive operating systems you now use - and pray that your competitors do the same. JournalingThe wonderful thing about Linux and Open Source software is that a feature that's lacking today may appear next month. At the time Microsoft criticized Linux for not having a journaling file system, it didn't. Since Linux is stable and highly reliable, journaling was not a high priority for the developers. Journaling is critical when you use an unreliable operating system that can crash and corrupt data on disk. If you're running NT, for example, journaling should be important to you. Shortly after Microsoft's criticism of the lack of journaling in Linux, the Reiserfs journaling file system was introduced. Recently, the ext3 journaling file system was released. Additionally, other journaling file systems are currrently either in development or are being ported to Linux from Unix. Uptime guaranteesFrankly, we couldn't stop laughing at this one. Microsoft says "there are no OEMs that provide uptime guarantees for Linux, unlike Windows NT where Compaq, Data General, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Unisys provide 99.9 percent system-level uptime guarantees for Windows NT-based servers." This sounds like a great business to be in - selling insurance policies on Linux reliability. You charge customers for telling them that their Linux box will be up 99.9 % of the time. Linux does the rest by not failing. TCOMicrosoft says that a free operating system doesn't mean a low Total Cost of Ownership and that the cost of licensing the OS is a small part of the TCO. We couldn't agree more. There are many costs that affect TCO. You need to consider the cost of:
Linux has the best TCO of all operating systems because:
SecurityMicrosoft criticizes Linux security and praises NT security. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past ten years, you know that Microsoft products generally and Windows, Word, Excel, and Outlook specifically are responsible for more computer downtime hours than all other operating systems combined. Even Microsoft's own web site was shut down for days a few years back as a result of a simple TCP/IP-based attack. Their site's uptime is frequently affected by relatively simple attacks, misconfiguration of their firewalls, and ignorance of things that even novice network administrators know. This was illustrated in January of 2001 when their site was down for over 24 hours because they didn't know that their DNS servers should be distributed for fault tolerance. Microsoft serves as one of the best examples of how NOT to design your network, web site, software, etc. Taking security advice from Microsoft is a silly thing to do. While Windows users were busy spending their work days dealing with the aftermath of viruses like Melissa and ILOVEYOU, users of other operating systems were conducting business as usual. If you want to keep security-related downtime to a minimum, avoid computing platforms that have a long history of security problems. |