Tony Healy, Research Fellow with the Dallas-based Institute for Policy Innovation and Australian software developer, sends this account of the latest in the competition between open source vs. proprietary software:

Personally, I am not really interested in the marketing fights between Microsoft and public software. My view is that it's a decision for IT managers, and a horribly boring one at that.

However, here is a very interesting story from Australia that sets out some simple realities about the benefits of commercially developed software. These stories are of course a dime a dozen, but usually they're from the other side.

The story details the incredible simplifications that Australia's largest radio broadcaster found in switching from Linux to Windows. The scenarios sound realistic, and it raises the question of how many inefficiencies are being dutifully endured in other organisations for the sake of political correctness.

Extract:

"Network issues were taking hours out of our week. About 10 to 15 per cent of the week was spent on password and account maintenance."

Austereo was using Hewlett-Packard Open Mail for messaging on Red Hat Linux, together with a number of specialist on-air systems, none of which were integrated.

Prior to the Seachange project, users had to log on to up to six systems each day to do their work, and then had to maintain all the passwords.
Creating new user IDs was a nightmare.

"For a new staff member we had to create an account in five systems, and that work was split between the business team and local engineers."

The process typically took two hours and involved up to four people, he says.

Using a centralised console, new account creation in Microsoft takes "about two minutes".