Get the Facts on Windows and Linux

A 2002 Microsoft-sponsored study of total costs of ownership over five years for working corporate infrastructure in North America shows that lower staffing expenses are a large part of an 11-22% cost advantage for Microsoft Windows.

Server preference and deployment trend study by Management Insights, a leading global market research firm. The data shows that for small and medium Value Added Providers (VAPs) both Linux deployment for the past year and likely Linux usage for the coming year is expected to remain flat.

Microsoft-sponsored benchmarks prove that multiple Windows Web servers perform better than a Linux mainframe acting as a Web server consolidator. An independent review by Meta verified the integrity of the results.

Although the initial hardware and software costs for a Linux server can be lower than those of Windows, higher expenses for application software and ongoing support raise its total cost of ownership to comparable levels.

Analyzing real-world custom application-development projects pinpoints areas where Microsoft tools save money: lower product costs, lower labor costs due to simplified development processes, and lower maintenance costs.

In terms of time and complexity, deploying Windows is easier and faster than deploying Red Hat Linux, whether installing from scratch or configuring an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) installation.

WebBench test results show higher throughput for Windows compared with two Linux operating systems. Testing included combinations of static and dynamic content requests targeting server configurations of 1–8 processors.

File-server benchmarks measured superior peak performance for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition compared with Red Hat Linux in all hardware configurations from 1–8 processors.

An analysis based on enterprise architecture requirements shows that Microsoft technologies are nearly one-third the cost to implement compared with IBM WebSphere products when building a browser-based order-entry system.

Embedded systems design on Windows has lower costs, needs fewer engineers, and finishes faster than on Linux, based on an analysis of 100 active development projects.