richlowe - 8:21 pm on Jun 26, 2002 (gmt 0)

Our experience, and keep in mind this is for corporate intranet web servers, is that the cost of Windows and IIS over a long term (5+ years) is far, far less than the cost of Linux and Apache. We performed our own internal study and factored in the cost of the software, maintenance costs, upgrades, time to support, training and so on. Windows 2000 server came out far ahead of Linux (even with all of the patching) and IIS came out ahead of Apache.

I have only just installed Apache 2.0 on a windows platform and so have not formed any opinions on this product yet. In a few months, perhaps, I will have some solid data about what appears to be a great new release of Apache.

Cost, however, should never be the primary criteria of this kind of decision. Cost is the least important of many different factors which go into a decision. I have found over my career that when I chose something based upon cost as a primary factor I wound up with that sore behind feeling. Yet when I chose something based upon features and requirements and a good analysis, then picked the product which fit the best, then and only then was it comfortable sitting down.

I have found that Apache (with a good front-end gui) is superior for a hosting solution. I like Apache in this environment because it gives the users (webmasters for small and medium sized shared hosting web sites) more flexibility without the server admin needing to get involved.

Linux is a great server platform, although we have found the cost to support, train and maintain is higher than windows 2000. As a desktop, though, Linux isn't even on the same planet as Windows XP. Linux has a long way (and I mean light years) to go before it is anywhere near Windows XP as a desktop solution for corporations.

Richard Lowe