[clue-talk] saving money with Linux

[grant at amadensor.com]

> I think these are good comments.  One "contentious" point is that at
> some points in most folk's lives, you may be lucky/good/whatever enough
> to have made a few bucks, and there's a crossover in the curve between
> money and time spent messing with things to make them "just work".
>
> I think your last paragraph proves that point:
>
>>         For me, saving just $100 would be worth it to buy a used hard
>> drive and install it and learn some new programs. For many people with
>> more money than me, they might need an incentive of $500 or $1,000 in
>> savings in order to give it a try.
>
> There's a break-even point in there somewhere, and the commercial
> computer makers and OS makers know down to the penny where it is for
> their desired "marketshare" points.  They know exactly what prices to
> put on their products to get the numbers Wall Street wants out of their
> companies.  It's not difficult math, really... they just have to watch
> for changes in the "technology landscape" that disrupt their pricing
> models.
>
Actually, Linux saves me TIME and MONEY.   Administrative overhead is
less, not dealing with the registry mess saves time, and not having to do
a fresh install every 6 months is a real time saver.

In addition, it takes less time to set up, install, and configure a Linux
system from bare metal than a Windows system.  It only takes more time if
the machine comes with Windows, so I only have to run updates, where as
with Linux, I would need to wipe and rebuild, but even then, it can be
close.


Installing a Windows XP machine from bare metal takes 45 minutes, and then
the updates run about 2-3 days, then about 2 hours to install all of the
applications.   Installing a Linux machine from bare takes 12 minutes and
can take 3-4 hours to download all of the updates, including installing
all of the applications.  If I use a local proxy server, the second
machine is completely ready, including updates, in less than 30 minutes.

Administering a Linux machine on the desktop involves hitting the "OK
install the updates" button a couple of times a month, and no downtime.  
A Windows machine is only once a month, but the machine is not usable
while the updates are being installed, and then there is the 15 minute
reboot cycle.  In addition, there is another 30-45 minutes per month
updating the applications because there is no centralized check for
patches.   Secunia helps, but it is still a pain.  Add on to that the 5
hours 2-3 times per year cleaning up the viral infections, and the 30
minutes weekly cleaning up the mess with CCleaner and jkdefrag, and it
gets really nasty.

Add all of this to the 1-2 times a year that you have to wipe the drive
and install clean on Windows to restore original performance, especially
with how long the install takes, and Linux saves even more time.