For a single developer, who is developing a .NET application, what is the difference in cost between:
- Linux, using MonoDevelop, Mono Framework, and Apache, and
- Windows XP Pro, using Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2005, and IIS 6.0
[Note: Edited heavily. If I’ve changed the meaning, feel free to roll back. – Jon]
This is more of a suplementary answer then a definite answer but I still think it has merits. The question has two answers:
The cost of development tools are roughly the same in a sense. If you go with closed-source you are paying for things upfront (like buying visual studio and free tech support.) If you go with open-source you will pay in the future (free development tools but you have to paid for great tech support [need for extremely hard problems or nasty bugs] and contributions to the original developers as a token of appreciation.) It is a matter of picking your poisons. The same apply if you mix-and-match the two.
The cost of development tools is irrelevant. The big cost of software is not the tools. You can get great tools for a single developer for like $2,000. However, a rockstar Software Engineer can demand a salary of $100,000 a year. Clearly, the cost of development is not in the tools but in the Software Engineers.