There is a lot of debate about running Linux or Windows on the enterprise. Usually, each side throws lines like "Linux is not really free" (because of Total Cost of Ownership), "Windows is too unsecure", "Linux is slow to fix vulnerabilities", "Windows is too expensive", yada, yada, yada.
But what if you are starting a new tech-company? In other words, a lot of the points of the discussions above are null. All the IT will be done in-house by experts (your team), the systems will be tight-secure because you know how to disable services and close the unneeded ports. Etc.
Ok, so if security, reliability and functionality are not an issue, what is it? For me it ends up being two simple things: Knowledge and Price.
Knowledge is simple. If you know Windows, use Windows. If you know Linux, use Linux. If you know both...
Microsoft's Price Sucks for Startups!
I envy the LAMP guys, not because of the technology which I think is slightly behind Microsft's (VS + C# + .NET), but because they have way less concerns about pricing and licensing.
Let's hypothesize that you are starting your own web-based technology company. You and 2 other friends get together and make the big decision to do this. Two of you are developers that will work on the product, one will be the business guy. You guys didn't make the promised millions of dollars in stock options so it's not like you don't have to worry about paying the bills.
If you are a web-based tech company, this is the minimum (debatable) hardware and software requirements for you:
1 Server running Windows Small Business Server 2003 for Email, SharePoint, Domain Controller, etc.
1 Server running W2K3 Server as the front-end for the web-based app.
1 Server running W2K3 + SQL 2005 as the backend
2 Desktop machines for Development, with VS 2005 Pro, Office 2007, Windows XP
1 Laptop for the business guy, with Office 2007 + XP
A few assumptions about this scenario is that Source Control will be done in one of the existing servers and through some Open Source option (like SubVersion or CVS), because Microsoft Source Control solution is just outrageously expensive, you'll be buying your servers without software and that you are using a co-location facility.
How much will all that software cost? $7,775 according to Amazon.com's price.
That is for software alone! This is a pretty hefty price tag for a bootstrapped startup.
The problem is that Microsoft prices its product mostly for Enterprise consumption. Do you think Boeing cares if the $5,000-dollar server they just bought comes with a $900 Windows Server license? Maintaining that server alone will cost an extra $5,000 over the course of 3 years, so the price of a Windows Server is less than 10% of the TCO of it.
But startups don't think like that. 3 years? We might not be in business so I can't use that kind of math. I wish Microsoft would have some kind of special discount or package for startups and don't tell me about the Microsoft Empower for ISVs because it doesn't apply for web-based applications.
Just on the last week or so Edgeio and BlogNation have hit the floor. And now there is rumors that OmniDrive is facing the same end result.
I got to be honest with you all. Every time I hear a company has gone out of business I feel a bit of relief. First, because Sampa has outsurvived them. Second, and more importantly, because it brings a bit of sanity back into the Web 2.0 world.
There are just too many bad companies, and the noise level is just too high to get good press, good investors and good employees. Every time you go to meet with an investor they ask if you are a competitor of XYZ, and you never heard of XYZ before. And, to make matters even worse, XYZ is not even close to what you do, but all that they think is that there might be a similarity, thus it's *crowded*.
Sampa will outsurvive most Web 2.0 companies because we are not built in a feature idea. We are full business with a full product. We are not built with 10,000 lines of code outsourced to some second class development company. We've built a tremendous amount of IP. And we are not running our business like it's 1999. We spend, but spend wisely. And, finally, the most important thing of them all. We proved that people are desperate for products like ours and that *our* product is sticky.
Yes, there is the revenue issue, but we are doing well on that front and it can only get better from here.
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because it doesn't apply for web-based applications.
October, 2007