Here's an amusing Novell Linux advertisement that makes light of the abandonment of Windows NT 4 by Microsoft.

This highlights the defining difference between Windows and Linux. With Linux, a particular company isn't selling you the limited, revokable right to use their systems. The company is selling you their services to maintain and repair your systems. That's right folks, Linux is as much your system as it is theirs. Maybe those support services even cost more than a bucket full of Windows licenses. But there's no expiration date on when you need a problem solved. If there is a problem then the people you are paying should fix it. And, with Linux, if they don't fix it to your satisfaction you can grab the phone book and find someone else who will. Or you can even fix the problem yourself if you have the skills.

With an "abandoned" version of Windows your only recourse is to spend a fortune to upgrade every piece of hardware and software you own and then hope the problem has been solved. And if it hasn't been solved then you may be allowed to file a problem report on the newer version. But for the average business a problem report filed with Microsoft comes explicitly without any expectation that the problem will ever be fixed. And sometimes when it is fixed you'll find it is only provided with an upgrade to a new version.

Labels: linux