[KLUG Advocacy] TCO Windoze vs Linux

[Mike Williams]

By now I think everybody's heard of the Microsoft-commisioned "study" 
that states that Total Cost of Ownership is lower with Windows servers 
than Linux ones in most roles.  Ignoring the various false assumptions 
that made such a result possible, the main reason they gave for this was 
the relative immaturity of Linux's management tools.  Can somebody who 
knows them comment on this?  I've only worked as an IT person in 
Microsoft environments, and I can say that while a GUI is nice to have, 
management tools are not all that great on Windows.  Pre Windows 2000 
they're downright awful.  How bad are Linux tools?  Does it have 
anything to match the tricks in Active Directory like remapping My 
Documents to a server share and assigning software packages to be 
installed as needed on workstations?  For that matter, do those AD 
tricks actually work as advertised, as I've never used them?