Guest blog: Microsoft "Get the Facts" rant

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The following is a rant from my co-worker Jason Cwik about Microsoft's Get the Facts campaign. We're working on getting an image of the offending ad. -- Luke

So, I was reading my trade rag today (yes, yes, eWeek, but it makes good for bathroom breaks), and I ran across one of Microsoft's wonderful "Get the facts" ads.

The chart compares Price/Performance for file serving. On the left is "One Linux image running on two z900 mainframe CPUs". On the right is "One Windows Server 2003 image running on two 900 MHz Intel Xeon CPUs". The units were "Cost per megabit per second", and the z900 was $415 and the Xeon was $40.

The conclusion is, please hold your laughter...

"Linux was found to be over 10 time more expensive than Windows Server 2003 in a recent study".

Ummm... yeah. If you're using a mainframe to serve files, you DESERVE to pay that much for your stupidity.

Sure, it would be 10x more expensive to drive a Kenworth to work than a Yugo, but who in their right mind would do it!?