Linux And Windows tested again! over TCO

Two research reports sponsored by IBM argue that Linux is less expensive to buy and operate than Windows or Unix.
Robert Frances Group study, titled "TCO For Application Servers: Comparing Linux With Windows And Solaris" and commissioned by IBM, compared the cost of acquiring, implementing, and running an application server on Linux, Windows, and Sun Solaris, it found that Linux is 40% less expensive than a comparable x86-based Windows server and 54% less than a comparable Sparc-based Solaris server. The Linux server's costs were $40,149, compared with $67,559 for Windows and $86,478 for Solaris.
Pund-IT's conclusions are based on lengthy research with three companies: Alliance UniChem, Boscov’s Department Stores, and Zahid Tractor & Heavy Machinery. Alliance UniChem CZ s.r.o. is part of Alliance UniChem plc., Europe’s second-largest pharmaceutical wholesaler, its third-largest pharmaceutical retailer, and the fifth-largest international player in its industry. The company began its SuSE Linux deployment in 2002 with a data warehouse and logistics system project designed to replace the existing Windows-on-Intel infrastructure.

Boscov's, headquartered in Reading, Pa., and operating more than 40 department stores and outlets in five Eastern states, claims to have saved more than $2 million since its first Linux deployment on an IBM zSeries z900 server in 2001. Zahid Tractor, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is a supplier of heavy and industrial equipment used in construction, manufacturing, shipping, the oil industry, ports, airports, steel works, and transportation that began its Windows-to-Linux migration in 2002 as part of an open-source strategy to improve IT flexibility, reliability, and security, the Pund-IT report says