IDC: Windows cheaper than Linux in some scenarios

IDG News Service - A survey from research company IDC finds that organizations running Windows 2000 spend less in the long run for some tasks, such as print and file serving, compared with organizations running Linux.

IDC's findings, published Monday in a study commissioned by Microsoft Corp., suggest that the Windows 2000 Server operating system has a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than Linux, mainly due to savings associated with staffing. The findings go against some claims in the industry that Linux is cheaper than Windows over time.

"Linux requires more care and feeding, basically. That's what the results are really telling us," said Al Gillen, research director for IDC's System Software group. "The amount of manpower required to run a particular [Linux] environment is going to be higher."

The TCO study dissected five specific workloads that it said are common to corporate IT departments, based on interviews with IT managers at 104 medium-sized and large organizations in North America.

The Framingham, Mass., research company found Windows 2000 systems to be more economical over a five-year span than Linux in four of the five IT scenarios researched. Those are network infrastructure, print serving, file serving and security applications, according to IDC.

Companies could spend 11% to 22% less with Windows 2000 for those scenarios, according to IDC. Microsoft's server operating system was found to require less spending on employees, IT training and outsourced IT support. The survey suggests that it takes more time to configure, program and support Linux systems than Windows systems. The main reason is that developers have access to mature and easy-to-use management tools for Windows, according to IDC.

Staffing, ongoing labor and support accounted for about 62% of the total costs of an IT system over a five-year span, IDC said.

The study counters claims from many open source proponents who contend that Linux is less costly in the long run due to lower costs for acquiring and upgrading hardware and software, as well as less money spent on security and maintenance.

IDC did agree that Linux can be acquired for free, or for a lower cost than that of Windows when purchased with support and maintenance services from commercial Linux vendors such as Red Hat Inc. and SuSE Linux AG. However, it said that software and hardware acquisition costs account for only about 10% of the TCO.

The acquisition costs for hardware and software cited by IDC in its survey are suspect, according to Stacey Quandt, an analyst at Giga Information Group Inc. She said Windows systems would