[PLUG] Researchers study Linux,Windows TCO

[Tyler F. Creelan]

[...]

"Linux, along with Solaris, also came out ahead of Windows in terms of
administration costs, despite the fact that it's less expensive to hire
Windows system administrators. The average Windows administrator in the
study earned $68,500 a year, while Linux sys admins took home $71,400, and
those with Solaris skills were paid $85,844. The Windows technicians,
however, only managed an average of 10 machines each, while Linux or
Solaris admins can generally handle several times that."

"There were other costs the study was not able to quantify, according to
Robinson, such as security. While study participants were reluctant to
provide hard figures on the costs of security breaches, it appears that
the "cost for handling security issues on Windows systems was very high,"
says Robinson. The study revealed that Windows administrators spent twice
as much time patching systems and dealing with other security-related
issues than did Solaris or Linux admins. "

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-10-08-016-26-NW-BZ-MR

This segment of the study also looked interesting:

"Windows owners are responsible for ensuring that they comply with
Microsoft's licensing policies by maintaining inventories of software
products installed. Microsoft has threatened audits and lawsuits where it
believes companies have violated those policies.

Partially out of a fear of such legal action and the penalties that they
may carry, many companies have implemented costly software inventory
products to perform these audits internally. These products may range from
$5 to $50 per seat, depending on their functionality. Because Linux and
Solaris are not licensed in this fashion, companies that use these
products do not need to fear such penalties."