Baseline: Hunting for a Return on Linux

“Can companies save big bucks with Linux? It’s a definite
maybe.

“IBM is the poster penguin for large vendor support of Linux. It
says you can save big bucks using the “free” operating system on
its servers, compared to the Unix servers of newly ardent Linux
supporter Sun and others.

“A study by the Robert Frances Group, sponsored by IBM and
published in August, said that a Linux server costs $475,000 less
over three years to deploy and support than an equivalent Sun
server installation running Solaris, Sun’s version of Unix.

“‘When the Internet boom happened a few years ago, customers
built out originally with Sun solutions,’ says Stuart McRae, IBM’s
manager of its xSeries server line. ‘Now they need something that’s
more affordable…'”

Complete
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