“Search engine Google has deployed 4,000 Linux servers, with
plans to increase to 6,000 this year, making it possibly the
largest Linux installation in the world.”
“Google said it turned to Red Hat (stock: RHAT) Linux primarily
because of the cost. The OS itself costs nothing, compared with
$500 to $900 per server for Windows servers. And the hardware is
also cheap. Red Hat runs on commodity white-box PCs rather than
more expensive RISC Unix servers.”
“Support was another factor in choosing Linux, Google said. The
company has Linux expertise in-house, and values the ability to
look at the source code to correct problems, rather than having to
rely on a vendor. And where the in-house expertise fails, Google
has found the Linux community responsive with fixes.”