Scott M. Morris

Introduction

Linux has sure come a long way in recent years. By this, I mean that it is now practical to use in the enterprise for more than just servers. Especially if you're talking about SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. It is secure, reliable, cuts costs, increases productivity, integrates very nicely into a Windows environment, and is easy and intuitive. Let's take a look at two of these points: cutting costs and increasing security.

In what ways does SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 help cut costs?

To introduce the answer to this question, let's take into account the very basics of what is installed onto a desktop computer in the enterprise environment. You will need to have an operating system to run the computer. You will also need to have some kind of productivity software. Generally, this is a suite of office tools, such as word processing, spreadsheets, and a slide presentation software of some kind. Let this be our definition of the most basic enterprise desktop.

Now, let us consider the costs involved with two setups, each of which will give us this basic enterprise desktop.

First off, calculate the price of the Microsoft Windows operating system plus the cost of Microsoft Office. You are looking at a figure somewhere in the range of $500. That is a lot of money, especially considering that this figure is on a per desktop basis. You will be spending this amount for every desktop in your enterprise. If you have 20 computers, this is $10,000 out the window.

Now let's take into consideration that the purchase price of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 already includes the OpenOffice.org office productivity suite. The great thing about OpenOffice is that it can open and save all of the Microsoft Office formats, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. It can even export the Adobe PDF file format, which Office cannot do. Also, note that the cost for this desktop and office suite are about an eighth to a tenth of the price of the Microsoft products. Considering the costs of the 20 desktops in your environment, the money you could be saving could mean a round trip for two to Hawaii with some really nice accomodations.

How does SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 cut costs? The operating system plus the office suite are less than one eighth the cost of Windows and Office.

How does SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop increase security?

Another huge benefit is that the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop operating system is about 99.6% more secure than a typical Windows desktop. The SUSE machine will not get bogged down with spyware, adware, viruses, worms, or any other types of malware. It is simply not susceptible to those types of attacks. This means way less down-time and maintenance for your computers. Not only that, there is no need to waste money on antivirus software. You simply don't need it.

How much more secure is SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop than Windows? In a recent study, several computers were connected to the Internet. The observers wanted to see how long before each machine was hacked (or breached). The average unpatched Windows computer lasted about 70 minutes. Many of the Linux computers stayed up for four months, at which point the study was terminated. Good security means that you will have less down time. You won't have to work so hard to maintain your systems. You won't have to clean up your network after someone has hacked into it.

Let's say load up SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on your 20 computers we discussed earlier. Not considering all the other benefits, let's look only at the savings on security software. You will not have to buy the $59.99 antivirus programs for any of your SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop systems like you would if you were using Windows. That's enough for a brand new set of nice golf clubs.

How does SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop increase security? It is not susceptible to the spyware, adware, viruses, worms, and other maladies that plague the Windows operating system. It is way less hackable than Windows is.

Conclusion

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 will increase security. You won't get viruses and you won't get hacked. It will also reduce your costs. You get the office suite installed with the operating system. You will have an increase in productivity. And you will get to go to Hawaii with some really nice golf clubs.