IT seems that Novell has now joined the "Windows is cheaper than Linux" choir.
In a recent joint Novell/Microsoft press release, HSBC, which is a customer of joint technology from the two companies, claims that Windows has a lower total cost of ownership than Linux.
In the release, Matthew O'Neill, group head of distributed systems for HSBC Global IT operations, states that the bank's existing Linux environment is more expensive to maintain than its Windows environment. "Some will be surprised to learn that our Windows environment has a lower total cost of ownership than our current Linux environment."
HSBC claims it will achieve cost savings by reducing the number of Linux distributions it uses and by improving the interoperability of its open-source operating system deployments with Windows. "Our decision to simplify our mixed-source environment with Microsoft and Novell will allow us to reduce the cost and complexity," said O'Neill.
This is a huge U-turn for Novell which used to claim that Microsoft was sucking cash away from innovative software projects.
