Sounds like spam from a software pirate or some other flighty come-on, doesn’t it?

I’ve been looking at Novell’s new SuSE Linux Enterprise software and thought I would do a little cost comparison between Novell’s Open Workgroup Server and Microsoft’s latest Small Business Server.

Check the how to buy page for yourself for pricing.

Now, consider that OWS replaces the windows server with exchange, windows on the desktop AND Office on the desktop for $110 per user. For five users plus the server, M$ charges:

5 User Standard SBS Server with Exchange
$1473.69 (best price on froogle)

Windows XP Pro OEM (Can’t login to domains with Home Edition).
Search PN# E85-00086
5x $129.95 = $649.75 (you have to skip past the non-licenses and ebay auctions to see the real price.

Windows Office 2003 Small Business OEM
Search PN# 588-02636
5x $204.97 = $824.85

M$ total: $2,948.29
OWS total: $660.00

That is just shy of 78% savings for very comparable, if not superior, functionality.

Maintenance and upgrade protection are cheaper too at $75/year/seat for OWS.

Microsoft still doesn’t have anything at that level to compare to Zen either. Consider the built-in XEN virtualization and you’ve really got something to address compatibility for legacy software. You can run your existing Windows XP license in a Xen Virtual machine and continue to run your Quickbooks or other legacy applications that you think you can’t live without.