14 DAY TRIAL // There is no doubt that Microsoft has invested a fortune to make Windows 8 a successful product and the company is now in full speed to bring Windows 9 to the market as soon as possible, with people close to the matter saying that it could launch in early 2015.
In the meantime, more and more companies, organizations, and government bodies across the world are switching to open-source software, clearly in an effort that hurts Microsoft and its image as it keeps pouring money in Windows.
First, it was just Munich. Then, China announced that it was building its own Linux-based operating system, while South Korea is now trying to do basically the same thing, planning to step away from Microsoft software by 2020. A pilot program is ready to begin, South Korean officials said, so by 2018 the government should know whether moving to open source is a good or a bad thing.
Basically, there are two main reasons why so many companies and government bodies decide to switch to open source and give up on Microsoft products: costs and security.
While there's no doubt that licensing costs are obviously lower in open source's case, some people warned that, in the end, Microsoft's products might be a little bit more affordable. We've already told you that UK government CIO Jon Creese believes that Microsoft offers cheaper products than the open-source market, but let's read his statements once again to see what he thinks:
“The point is that the true cost is in the total cost of ownership and exploitation, not just the licence cost. So I don't have a dogma about open source over Microsoft, but proprietary solutions - from Microsoft, SAP to Oracle and others - need to justify themselves and to work doubly hard to have flexible business models to help us further our aims,” Creese said.
Of course, it's up to the user, company, organization, or government to determine what the more affordable choice is, but it's pretty obvious that open source might have a fair advantage here.
As far as security is concerned, many decide to give up on Windows and switch to Linux because of back door claims that were made by several experts till now, including government officials.
Germany, for example, is one of the countries that suspected Microsoft of bundling back doors in Windows 8 to help the NSA spy on the government. The Federal Administration and other departments have been warned not to use Windows 8 because it might come with hidden code which can be used to access secret document and private details.
Microsoft obviously denied such claims with every single occasion, but it's no surprise that some governments are still afraid that Redmond might spy on their computers.
The software giant recently announced the opening of a transparency center whose purpose is to allow governments review the source code of its products in order to make sure that no back doors are hiding in its software.
It remains to be seen whether this could slow down the migration to open source, but it's pretty clear that Microsoft needs to act quickly this time.