Study reveals Windows is cheaper than Linux

A Microsoft-commissioned study, which surveyed just 12 companies, has found that firms could save up to 28 per cent by developing certain programs with Windows instead of Linux.

The study, conducted by Giga Research and paid for by Microsoft, compared the likely costs over four years for a dozen medium-size and large businesses that were developing web-based portals. Giga examined the costs of creating a portal using Microsoft's Windows operating system and related development tools as compared with those of Linux-based systems using Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) tools.

Giga analysts wrote in the report: "The primary conclusion of the study is that Microsoft offers a substantial cost advantage over J2EE/Linux as a development platform for the applications considered."

Microsoft plans to use the study's findings in its effort to convince customers that Linux is not necessarily a cheaper alternative to Windows, once all costs have been taken into account.

Martin Taylor, the company's recently appointed general manager of platform strategy, said: "I want to make sure companies have facts in front of them. Every time I see a study that says customers think Linux has a total cost-of-ownership advantage, that's a sign people aren't seeing this information."

However, critics of the Microsoft-backed study noted the small sample size in the Giga study, which polled just 12 companies, seven of which were running Windows and five of which were running Linux.

Giga analyst John Rymer said surveying just a few businesses made sense, given that the research firm was trying to get an in-depth look at the costs involved.

"For this kind of a study what you want is a real deep look at a relatively small number of companies," Rymer said. "Frankly, it's just hard to do 50 of those [interviews] in any reasonable time frame."

Ina Fried writes for News.com