Or at least it tries

Apr 7, 2005 13:20 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft continues to apply deadly blows to his number one enemy, Linux. The Get The Facts company through which Microsoft is trying to fight all the pro Linux arguments, has added another successful action that took place during Open Source Business Conference.

What did Microsoft intend to prove? That Windows Server 2003 is as reliable as RedHat Enterprise 3.0.

Because there are no benchmarks for the reliability of an operating system, Microsoft gave VeriTest the task of conducting a test in which during 4 days 18 Windows administrators competed against 18 Linux administrators.

They had to repair errors that have been introduced on purpose in three Hewlett-Packard ProLiant DL380 G3 servers: an infrastructure one, an email one and the third for file sharing and printing.

What did the test show? It showed that during the 26 hours, the downtime of the RedHat system was 4 hours, 59 minutes and 44 second while the one for Windows was 4 hours, 20 minutes and 19 seconds. Moreover, the troubleshooting took with 33% less for Windows than for Linux.

Microsoft was thrilled and decided to use the results in an advertising campaign.

But what VeriTest didn't test was the virus resistance of the two operating systems, or that perhaps is not related to reliability? Another thing that hasn't been tested is how long it takes for a security update to be installed on the two systems.

One other thing that hasn't been taken into account is that 1 hour of downtime for a Windows system is 3 to 4 times more expensive than for a Linux downtime.