Making Headlines

Windows Vista debuted to moderate praise and lackluster sales - not the kind of reaction its creators and marketers had hoped for.

Until last week, cash-strapped businesses looking to avoid the cost of an upgrade to new Vista-compatible hardware could still buy Windows XP.

Now, however, Windows XP is available only as a costly "downgrade" from Windows Vista - if you buy a copy of Vista, a consumer can still install a (released circa 2003) XP operating system using the Vista license.

To many small firms, that is a strain on a Fort Lauderdale computer repair / IT support budget they'd just as soon do without - for good reason.

That said, for some companies still looking for an suitable alternative to Windows Vista, Linux has been getting a second, serious look.

With Linux, the latest distributions are free, easy to install, and customizable, harnessing your existing hardware without overtaxing it.

Moreover, it offers a wealth of productivity applications. A company may already have a computer repair / Linux expert on staff, but if it doesn't, paid support is usually available cheaper than it is via Microsoft.

Making the switch from Windows to Linux will certainly incur some costs as the employees and network support staff adjust to the new operating system's configuration settings, utilities, and applications.

The long-term savings could make it worthwhile, however.

While you can purchase boxed commercial versions of Linux that include network support, every Linux distribution is also available for free under the terms of the open source Gnu General Public License, or GPL.

Your software licensing fee is zero, compared with the $300 per seat for the full version of Windows Vista Business Edition. And, as yet another bonus, Linux lacks Microsoft's intrusive activation requirements.

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