Linux vs Windows - A price guide
Prices of non-OpenSource equivalents of OpenSource programs are sometimes tricky to establish because many packages have student editions and pro-editions that are differently priced and precise feature alignment is tough to establish. Street prices also frequently differ from "official" prices - and software is often a fraction of the price if it's bundled in with a substantial hardware purchase. (eg The official price of Windows Vista is $220 - but when it's bundled with a new computer, the hardware manufacturer might pay $50 or less). The methodology I used here was to pick the prices I get by typing "Buy <productname>" into Google and entering the lowest price I see in the adverts in the right-hand column. I've also rounded to the nearest $10 because $199.99 doesn't look like $200.
| Application Area |
Closed Source |
Price | Open Source "equivalent" |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office Automation | MS Office | $600 | Open Office |
| Operating System | Vista | $220 | Linux |
| Operating System | WinXP | $100 | Linux |
| Web Browser | Internet Explorer | $0 | Firefox |
| Image Processing | Photoshop | $650 | GIMP |
| 3D Modeling | 3D Studio | $390 | Blender |
| Audio Editing | WavePad | $39 | Audacity |
| Vector Graphics | Adobe Illustrator | $320 | InkScape |
| JAVA Development | JCreator | $80 per user | Eclipse |
| C++ Development | Visual Studio | $200 | KDevelop |
| Email Client | Outlook | $100 | Thunderbird |
| Presentation Manager | PowerPoint | $190 | Impress |
| Bug tracking & reporting | BugTrack | $190 | Bugzilla |
| Source control | Perforce | $900 per user | Subversion |
| CAD | AutoCAD | $150 | FreeCAD or QCAD "community" version. |
