Re: [Fwd: Samba beats NT at its own game...]

[Daniel Szalay <DSzalay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hmmm, I don't think I can completly agree with your analogy...

> What I meant was, you can't give M$ $35 and expect a full verison of NT 
workstation to connect to your server. <

Why not? It will connect regardless if you purchase a license or not.

> You are purchasing the ablility for an OS you already own to connect to
that server. <

No, you are purchasing a piece of paper that says you have permission to
connect to a NT server.

 > So it really is not $35 a client, its more its $735, if your statement
that NT & Office is $700 true <

The cost of the full version of NT Workstation is around $230. What
additional software you run is not a factor. It could be say, AutoCAD or
some other non MS application. Yes, 35 bucks buys you "permission" to
access a NT server. But I can't see including the cost of the OS in the
cost of connecting to a network. Lets say you purchase NT Workstation.
Nobody says you have to connect it to a MS network or any network for that
matter.  If you never connect to a network, you still have a functioning
PC. The additional cost only occures when you want to connect  to a NT
server, NetWare server, etc . Linux is the exception. So if you have a
Linux / Samba server your cost would be $230 compared to $265 for a NT
system. Thats not really a whole lot more. What am I missing? (no
disrespect implied)

> The $35/client is just icing on the cake after you have blown over $1000
per 
client pc on an OS and office/productivity software. <

I would not say blown, more like spent. No matter what you are running on
the desktop, sooner or later you will have to buy software. We can't have
everything for free! But isn't the client fee no different than any other
"per user" piece of software?

> I am going to leave out the other costs that come with Microsoft products
like
downtime, I think everyone knows about that stuff. <

I hear that statement all the time, and I've heard  horror stories, but I
really have not had a whole lot of problems with NT. I've put in three NT
networks in my company (in serveral buildings) and I don't have a lot of
problems. And I'm a big Novell Fan! I've had more trouble with non-MS
products. Ask me about ARCserve 6.0 sometime...

>... who refused the linux option BTW. <

What is BTW?

Dan