IT Myths

The IT, world like many other environs, is full of urban legends. We sometimes call them FUD and sometimes we call them "commissioned studies". Some are older than others, but every now and then they come around to haunt us in one form or another.

Linux is Free
This myth is spread by many well-intentioned free software advocates unaware that such blatant lie only harms its chances of adoption. Like with most myths there is some truth to this one: Linux is free for individuals who wish to experiment with it, but not for enterprises.

Even if a company decides to download free binaries from the Internet, switching to Linux will have its costs. The question to ask is how much less will it cost than choosing the alternative. Linux is a fix-and-forget kind of OS solution whose cost of adoption is biggest upfront — but with reduced maintenance over the life of its deployment. This fact sometimes leads many to conclude that it's adoption is costlier when it might in fact be significantly lower than a competing deployment whose upfront costs are nominally lower.

Windows OSs Have The Highest ROI and/or Lowest TCO
This one has been expressed by a number of "consulting" firms in their "commission studies" and is the result of creative number crunching. I don't mean necessarily that Windows OS costs are the worst in the business, just that they are not the shoo-ins many suggest.

For one, it is patently dishonest to suggest that all Microsoft to Microsoft transitions are friction free and require little or no re-training — wake up and smell the Vista, man! This is also an issue with Office 2003 and Office 2007 — fortunately there is third-party software to help with that one.

Another bit of dishonesty occurs when "consultants" fail to work into the Windows OS TCO/ROI the labor costs of things like Patch Tuesday as well as the high cost of antivirus software.

Macs Are Expensive
Again, the only way one can make such an assertion is to only factor in the sticker price. However such an assertion is the equivalent of suggesting to the police department that they could save on costs by dropping the training requirement from their recruits.
Macs may have a higher sticker price, but have lower maintenance costs than PCs and have a longer useful life. This needs to be factored into any serious study.

Now That We Have Java/C#, Who Needs C/C++?
Back in the 80s there were those using this same kind of logic to predict the demise of the different flavors of Assembler. Now the the tunnel visionaries have set their sites on virtual machine code. Please, guys, stop embarrassing yourselves. Another similar claim is the prediction made almost yearly that UML will replace all computer languages — please!

Relational Databases Are On Their Way Out
I think I've been hearing this one for the past 10 years. The telling part is that those who usually say such things have never had to setup a data store. Relational databases not only reflect the way we think about things, but they also allow us some of the best ways to scale massive amounts of information.

Open Source Software Is Not Fit For The Enterprise
This is one is usually spread by some well-know very ridiculous actors. The interesting part is that one of the most important professions in the world, Civil Engineering, follows pretty much an open source model. Anyone wants to say that Civil Engineering is not fit for the enterprise?

The Bottom Line
Information Technology is supposed to be based on science. Heeding rumors leads many companies to burn large amounts of money on useless pursuits. In the business world the most successful companies make solid IT investments and the losers fumble in this area. Success means not only thinking outside the box, but listening outside the echo chamber as well.