Most US businesses say there is very little difference between the cost of maintaining a Windows versus a Linux-based corporate computing environment, according to a new study from IT industry analysts, the Yankee Group.
A Reuters report via eWeek quotes Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio saying that the main cost difference is determined by the amount of time it takes to develop applications or ensure the security of servers. "What we found is that costs are not really dependent on the underlying functionality in the core operating system," DiDio said.
The report in eWeek said that 88 percent of respondents to the study said that the quality, performance and reliability of Windows was equal to or better than Linux. Linux has been locked in competition for the last several years against Microsoft’s Windows Server software for a share of the corporate market, according to the eWeek report.
In most cases, both Linux and Windows are growing at the expense of Sun Microsystems‘ Unix-based servers, which were instrumental in the growth of the internet during the 1990s.
eWeek Enterprise News | Study Shows Microsoft, Linux Neck-and-Neck
Related NevOn post: