[plug] How MS-Windows cost one man over $2000 - and he doesn't even use it

[Scott Middleton]

<snip> 
> Don't know how much it actually cost him, but at least two hours of his 
> time fielding queries from his staff, contacting me etc and probably at 
> least ten times that in lost staff time across roughly 30 people, plus 
> a small bill from me for time spent investigating his mail system. Call 
> his time $120 an hour (conservative estimate), and his staff's time $20 
> an hour, and he's lost at least 2 x $120 + 20 x $20 == $640. Amortise 
> that across his roughly 20 workstations and the price of MS-Windows for 
> him just went up $32 a workstation.

Had a similar experience recently. We do some work for a national
company. While we don't maintain the Linux servers we do some of the
hands on stuff because the IT guy lives in Adelaide. The internal
network (win98 with Mozilla mail/browser) was safe but the sales people
all have WinXP laptops. Welchia/Nachi spread to all 15 Laptops and was
flooding the LAN badly until the Sysadmin blocked them off. I had to
remove the viruses from 15 Laptops in half a day. It was quite a site to
see 15 laptops spread out over our workshop. 
While i don't know indirect losses i did charge $50 per laptop to remove
the viruses. At least off the laptops where the person was smart enough
to bring a power cable before the battery went flat. :)
Even in the end it was decided that this would probably happen again so
a partition-able switch was bought to keep future infections in one
area.

While it is sad in one way, in another, there is always a fiscal bonus
for IT guys. When an outbreak happens there always seems to be a lot of
negativity to the people on the field, I always wonder if this filters
up and magnifies. Do the people on top feel it? If all things were
actually equal then Bill must feel like an ant in the focus of a 10 year
old boy with a magnifying glass.

Regards


-- 
Scott Middleton <scott at LinuxIT.com.au>

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