Linux vs. MS Windows

Novell ZENworks Linux Management gives IT administrators the ability to centrally control how they deploy and update systems inside the firewall. This industry-leading resource management solution offers best-of-breed Linux management capabilities at a much lower cost than the Red Hat* Network solution. As a result, businesses typically see a return on their investment within days of deployment. Novell ZENworks also gives organizations the ability to dramatically simplify management across their whole infrastructure by cost-effectively managing systems running Windows*, NetWare and Linux.

Also, many independent software vendors (ISVs) such as BMC, CA, and Tivoli and independent hardware vendors (IHVs) such as HP, IBM, and others have ported their management solutions to Linux. These large vendors treat Linux as a tier 1 operating system just as they do UNIX and Windows. In addition, small software vendors such as Cassatt, Scali, Scyld Software, and others offer Linux management solutions that integrate with those of the large IHVs and ISVs. Today, there are Linux management solutions available for every application area where Linux is used.

Besides these cross-platform management tools, YaST (which stands for Yet another Setup Tool) is a key differentiator between SUSE LINUX and other Linux offerings. YaST provides assistance with installation, configuration and administration. Once the system is configured and running, YOU (YasT Online Update) offers a unique system maintenance service. YaST manages all of the system configuration data behind the scenes and yet allows the user the freedom of manual configuration and editing of the system data if they so desire. In addition, YaST is completely open. It supports the common information model (CIM) standard and is compatible with third-party management solutions such as HP OpenView*, Novell ZENworks Linux Management, IBM Tivoli* and CA Unicenter*.

CLAIM: Administrative and management of Linux is difficult and inconsistent since there is a lack of sophisticated and effective tools.
FACTS:

• ZENworks 6.6 Linux Management provides precise control over the scheduling of Linux software updates, along with automated and intelligent Linux package dependency analysis and conflict resolution for smoother software installations. Using either an intuitive Web-based console or a powerful command-line interface, administrators can centrally configure and distribute software selections, manage users and organize groups of machines for installations and updates. ZENworks Linux Management is also included as part of the ZENworks suite, the only cross-platform systems management solution that supports Linux.

• In the press release for ZENworks 6.6 Linux Management, Fred Broussard, senior analyst with IDC said: "As Linux continues penetrating the enterprise, software necessary to manage Linux becomes more important, and it is helpful when a vendor known for this type of system management provides capabilities for managing emerging technology. With ZENworks Linux Management, Novell continues to provide a suite of products that meets a broad spectrum of customer needs."

• The powerful combination of Red Carpet and ZENworks now allows Windows, NetWare and Linux to be managed as one from a common console.

• The SUSE LINUX distribution from Novell provides a common administrative and management framework for both Linux and other products. These intuitive tools simplify and streamline management tasks.

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 features integrated management capabilities—including support for ZENworks Linux Management—which enable IT professionals to more easily deploy, configure and update Linux servers.

• YaST, which has been "open sourced" to facilitate the community's ability to use a common framework, is a comprehensive installation, configuration and administration tool. YaST gives IT personnel a common foundation for managing operating system components, network services, open source components and third-party applications. YaST now supports the common information model (CIM), a standard interface used by enterprise systems management solutions, which makes it easier to support large-scale IT environments and to interact with third-party systems' management tools. The AutoYaST feature allows IT administrators to automatically deploy Linux servers without user or IT intervention.

Customer Comments about Support and Training for Linux

- Reliable support: The open source and Linux community have always provided an exceptional level of support. (Find me a support person from a proprietary vendor to volunteer to write a small program for you in his/her spare time) Never underestimate the power of newsgroups. Training services: There has been Unix and Linux specific training available for a few years now. Expertise of IT staff: If there's significant Linux expertise within the organization, you're most likely to find Linux as well. Adoption by others in my industry: This is a human nature factor; most people like to know that they are not alone. Hardware support: Have been increasingly improving because of customer demand. Negative MS Windows experiences: We've all had our share of those, but it's getting to the point where people are fed up.

- Affordable training is important. Please flood the world with it. Novell's CNI's are legendary in their expertise.

- Linux is going to provide the same stable environment as unix is famous for. So why not get Linux for a very fair price and just pay the costs for support?

Customer Comments were gathered from visitors to Novell Cool Solutions web communities.

Customer Success: Support and Training for Linux
Overstock.com Sells to Millions using SUSE LINUX
"We don't have 'official' training programs for SUSE," said Jon Fullmer, Overstock's Lead Network Engineer. "We simply haven't needed one. The evolution of SUSE and YaST almost eliminated the need for training of our IT staff. If we bring in UNIX administrators, they can find what they need in YaST and we don't need to retrain them."

In addition to savings in training costs, SUSE LINUX also helps Overstock.com save in development costs. With the amount of software that comes with SUSE, the IT staff can rely on SUSE for what they need, without the need to seek and compile new tools. 

Customer Comments about Ease of Management
- It would be real nice to be able to run Linux on my desktop also instead of Microsoft Windows. And use Novell's NetWare and eDirectory solutions in combination with linux. Just make things easy for end-users so that they don't need to be "rocket scientists" to be able to run their computer and install applications. I believe that Novell's knowledge in products like ZENworks will make things easier on Linux Desktops with help of Red Carpet even if not connected to a network (Like setup.exe installs on Windows). I'm very excited to see what comes of this:-)

Customer Comments were gathered from visitors to Novell Cool Solutions web communities.

Customer Success: Administration and Ease of Management
Overstock.com Sells to Millions using SUSE LINUX
"YaST is one of the great achievements by SUSE," said Overstock.com Vice President of Technology Shawn Schwegman. "It's a comfortable, centralized tool. We had major struggles with previous solutions that lacked a good centralized management station." 

Customer Comments about Total Cost of Ownership
- Don't get me started on MS licensing. We are a small firm and can't afford the updgrade path MS has left us with.

- MicroSoft O/S's just keep getting more and more resource demanding, larger hard drives, more RAM, more Video memory, etc. We have to keep upgrading our hardware to keep up with the software.

- Licensing is not the real question (+/- some thousand dollars). It's all about the service (some "k" thousand dollars potential), and for LINUX a professional usage of LINUX requires SLES or RHAS or ... in order to provide continutity and reliability.

- I have staked my job here (against head office plans for Microsoft) on Novell. Now that the economy is down and they're feeling the MS pinch, and the market is heading toward Linux, I have it made.

- MS is trying to strangle hold us into their Financial Software/servers/OS's to the point where it would be extremely expensive to leave them. We hope to get while the gettin' is good.

- Linux code changes faster than proprietary OS's which allows you flexibility in adapting services for your business at NO extra cost. - Windows has gotten just plainly way too expensive. 500 dollars for office pro? come on! They are making themselves ripe for the picking in my opinion. I have been using OpenOffice at home and I am very pleased with it.

Customer Comments were gathered from visitors to Novell Cool Solutions web communities.

Customer Success: Total Cost of Ownership
Museum Saves 80% by Choosing SUSE LINUX over Microsoft
"We wanted to maximize our hardware investments and found that we could run more applications on a Linux server than on a Microsoft Windows server. With SUSE LINUX and IBM, we also saved nearly 80 percent over a Microsoft solution." 

--Jim Horio, Director of Information Technology, Asian Art Museum

ARS Altmann leaves Microsoft for SUSE LINUX Openexchange Server and Saves Big
ARS has already significantly reduced its licensing and administration costs, saving nearly 70 percent of the cost of a Microsoft solution.

"It is absolutely critical for us to be able to customize our environment," said Laubsch. "We're huge fans of open source because we save a lot of money and get greater security than in the Windows world. There is also a short reaction time to solve problems because it's often easy to find a solution on the Internet." 

--Peter Laubsch, IT Manager, ARS Altmann AG

Novell on Linux helps Vancouver Community College Save $1 Million
SUSE LINUX provides an efficient operating platform with low overhead, and Novell Nterprise Linux Services adds the management tools that were lacking in its previous Linux environment.

"It's my job to review the cost base of our entire infrastructure each year to make sure we get the most from our investments," said Stephen Forrest, Manager of Network Services at Vancouver Community College. "Linux is an extremely efficient platform and allows us to do more with less." 

Burlington Coat Factory Switches to USE LINUX and Slashes Costs
By running its enterprise on SUSE LINUX, Burlington has reduced its hardware costs tenfold from its previous UNIX environment, while creating a more reliable infrastructure. SUSE LINUX provides greatly improved uptime, particularly during peak transaction times around holidays, as well as the scalability to support multiple Oracle databases and a variety of storage devices.

"Without SUSE LINUX we wouldn't be as far along in deploying a heavy-duty data center," said Prince. "We also would have been more constrained by costs and would have ended up spending more money on a system not nearly as robust. SUSE LINUX gives us a level of reliability that retailers never could have afforded before." 

--Michael Prince, CIO, Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation

Top Contractor Combines SUSE LINUX, IBM and Oracle to Cut Costs by 70 Percent
Maximizing a relatively small IT budget, Manhattan Construction selected SUSE LINUX to run its enterprise more efficiently and with greater performance. The company has reduced its initial acquisition costs by 40 percent and anticipates a 70 percent reduction in annual support and maintenance costs. By hosting its own Web server, the company will save $60,000 a year.