According to the survey, which took the views of 1,000 IT
administrators and C-level executives (a collective term for Chief
Executive titles – CEO, CFO, CTO, CIO) worldwide, corporate
customers report that Linux provides businesses with excellent
performance, reliability, ease of use and security.
Despite the first-rate technical merits of the Linux operating
system, the survey found that the system is equal to but not
superior to Unix and Windows Server 2003.
The survey also reported that 90% of the 300 large enterprises
with 10,000 or more end users indicated that a significant or total
switch from Windows to Linux would be prohibitively expensive,
extremely complex and time consuming, and would not provide any
tangible business gains for the organisation.
"In large enterprises, a significant Linux deployment or total
switch from Windows to Linux, would be three to four times more
expensive and take three times as long to deploy as an upgrade from
one version of Windows to newer Windows releases," said Laura
DiDio, Yankee Group Application Infrastructure & Software
Platforms senior analyst.
"The instances where Linux imparts measurably improved TCO
[total cost of ownership] compared with Unix and Windows are in
small firms with customized vertical applications or new,
greenfield networking situations," she added.
The survey further found that although Linux's momentum is
undeniable, the open source operating system would not dethrone
Microsoft Windows as the leading server vendor in the next two
years. And Linux desktops are not expected to make a perceptible
dent in Windows' 94% market share between now and 2006.
