Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 12:42:46 -0700 From: Bora Akyol <akyol@wireless.Stanford.EDU> To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Opinions? Message-ID: <199607171942.MAA28449@wireless.Stanford.EDU> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 17 Jul 1996 12:02:32 MST." <1073.837630152@time.cdrom.com>
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> While I don't disagree with any of your major points, and agree that > NT is *definitely* something we should be afraid (very afraid) of, I > think you missed one important point about it which Microsoft will be > the last to mention in their sales hype: Cost. > > Task: Create a small ISP using 3 or 4 PCs which will provide web > service, POP email accounts, News, DNS, dial-in SLIP/PPP and general > routing. Say we're also projecting between 500-1000 users as our > target customer base within a 6 month timeframe (and, assuming we live > in an area where coverage is still somewhat spotty, that's not an > unrealistic expectation at all) so we need to make sure we can grow > into that without too much pain since we'll already be going insane > trying to get the billing set up, the tech support hotline staffed, > etc. The last thing we need is for our tech to run out of steam > halfway down the line. > > Now, go price 3 copies of NT Server plus the 1000 user commercial pop > package you'll have to buy along with the relevant DNS, News and > SLIP/PPP software (also throw in NFS so that you can eventually share > filesystems with that SGI Challenge machine you've got your lustful > eyes on and will buy once you hit 500 users to take some of the load > off). See the total you're quoted. Suffer heart failure. Be revived > by paramedics. Send $39.95 from your hospital bed to Walnut Creek > CDROM for *one* copy of FreeBSD and swear off Microsoft forever. :-) > > Seriously, NT looks attractive from a single-user standpoint, I'll > give it full marks for that, but once you try and put together even > half of the packages you get for free under UNIX to create a small ISP > or business server application, you're talking some serious bucks and, > from everything I've heard, you won't even get close to the > performance of a well-tuned *BSD box doing the same thing once you're > done. > > Eventually I suppose that Microsoft will catch on to this and/or the > free software community will provide some of the missing pieces, but > that doesn't help today's customers very much. > > Jordan > I agree with this, even as a single, technical user NT was not viable for me. I needed NFS, mail service, X windows, Tex/Latex/Xdvi. Here is the prices: 1_ NT student version 99.00 2. XServer+NFS = $400.00 3. Mail Server= DOn't know 4. Latex/Tex/Xdvi = Free Cost = 499.00 plus 100.00 for tolerating the .INI files, using \ instead of / probably. FreeBSD cost me nothing and came with all the stuff that I needed. Of course if you are a novice user, the learning curve for UNIX is much steeper than NT since we don't have graphical user interface. But hacking a tk interface should not be that hard. RedHat software has a good GUI for system management that pretty much does everything so it is possible. Bora
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