Linux cheaper than Windows

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted that Windows is a lot more expensive to run than Linux, despite claiming for years that the opposite is true. In an interview with VARBusiness, Ballmer confessed that Linux had changed the game significantly and "we haven`t figured out how to be lower-priced than Linux. For us as a company, we`re going through a whole new world of thinking." The argument now being issued by Microsoft is that its products cost more because they are worth more. "We are actually having to learn how to say, `We may have a high price on this one, but look at the additional value and how that value actually leads to a lower cost of ownership despite the fact that our price may be higher`," says Ballmer. [More at VARBusiness]

Microsoft plans to launch a new version of its consumer-friendly MSN Web browser. Version 8 of the MSN browser is expected to bring with it a new sleek design and a host of features the company hopes will make managing e-mail a whole lot simpler. The Redmond giant is also promising a collection of tools to ease the process of protecting against viruses, handle digital photos and Web browsing. The company also said it would offer MSN8 as a separate subscription for users who do not already use MSN Internet services. Although Microsoft would not say how much the subscription would be, the move is another significant break with the Internet`s "free" culture.

Apple has unleashed Xserve, the company`s new rack-mount server which the company claims will outrun just about anyone when it comes to Web serving, disk performance and mission-critical applications. The Xserve is a G4 processor-based system and runs Mac OS X Server. Not traditionally associated with the server environment, Apple claims its Xserve will outstrip a similarly configured server by more than 60% when serving pages using the Apache Web server. The dual 1GHz PowerPC G4 processors each run with 2MB of Double Data Rate L3 cache and up to 2GB of DDR SDRAM memory. Storage of up to 480GB is available on four hot-plug ATA/100 drives, making the Xserve a significant 1U server player.

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