|
Open source advocates of the Linux operating system have always emphasized that one of its major strength, against other commercial offerings such as Windows, has been its ability to offer it for free or below the price of Microsoft products. This has been upheld by many industry players until now.
An IDC study of Windows 2000 and Linux Server offerings, commissioned by Microsoft, have shown that in regards to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) the Redmond software giant has the upper hand.
The study evaluated Microsoft and Linux in the context of five specific workloads common to IT infrastructures today. IDC's findings suggest that Windows 2000 offers a lower total cost of ownership than a Linux-based server across four of these five workloads. These areas were file serving, print serving, networking infrastructure, security applications and Web serving.
The data was collected and analyzed from IT executives and managers across 104 North American companies in multiple industries
Microsoft’s senior director of Windows server development, Peter Houston, was delighted at the outcome and stated why Linux shouldn’t be taken at face value. “For Microsoft, the findings show that our investment in resources to engineer products that are comprehensive, easy-to-use, and deliver value "out of the box"' for key IT scenarios is paying off for customers in the form of lower TCO. Interestingly, even some representatives from the open-source community have said they aren't surprised by the study's results” Houston said.
However, there has been wide skepticism about the results of findings since Microsoft initially commissioned the study, and was simply seen as a public relations stunt. Houston was quick to point out the independence of IDC and how the study was conducted through a recognized leader in cost analysis methodologies.
“Microsoft asked IDC to run a careful, detailed and objective analysis of TCO comparisons between Linux and Windows 2000 across common IT workloads. The emphasis was on IDC to deliver independent, critical results for both operating systems. We can't speak for IDC; however, they have been very up front about the thorough, platform-neutral approach and overall research methodology they used to achieve their end results” he said.
Whether the new research findings will impact on business purchasing decisions remain to be seen. Since the late 1990s, Linux have slowly taken a dominant position in areas such as network and file serving where Microsoft has long endeavored to be competitive in. This is also one of a series of moves to slow the open-source movement. Last year, it has agreed to release portions of its product sources codes to authorized partners in ensuring they can develop and evaluate software with maximum compatibility and performance.
|
