[PLUG] fun slashdot story: Microsoft's Hotmail conversion

[Rich Shepard]

On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Carla Schroder wrote:

> By their own words, the existing Unix infrastructure was the better choice.
> http://bsd.slashdot.org/bsd/02/11/21/1413247.shtml?tid=109
> "Converting a UNIX .COM Site to Windows"
> 
> The non-slashdotted doc is here:
> http://web.archive.org/web/20011123043914/http://www.securityoffice.net/mssecrets/hotmail.html

  The only accessible URL (other than /.) was to the Register.

  Fascinating article! What really caught my attention was the costs of
setting up 3,500 servers: $6,000,000 using MS Server, $15,000,000 using MS
Advanced Server and $0 using FreeBSD or linux. And, Redmond can say -- with
a straight face, no less -- that the Windows TCO is less than that of the
unices? Wow! What's worse is that too many people apparently believe them.

  The above are only the OS licensing costs -- no hardware, time to
install/configure/whatever. To poor folks like me, that's real money.

  Thanks, Carla. I don't know if this gives me hope or depresses me, but
it's certainly good to know.

Rich