At the corporate level, the Linux platform just can't deliver the total cost of ownership (TCO), integration, ease-of-use, and functionality benefits that Windows offers by comparison. It's a line that has been repeated for many moons, only this time Microsoft Canada decided to try and prove it. Thus, the software giant hired Richmond Hill, Ont.-based VAR Compugen Inc. to review Windows Server 2003 and enterprise-level distributions of Linux from Red Hat and Novell's SuSE, and examine the practical implications of using one operating system (OS) versus another. The test compared the usability characteristics of the three OSs in terms of performing a set of typical IT tasks from setting up user profiles to installation and to managing desktop security.

It seems as though the Linux versus Windows debate has drifted into that same space where each side's proponents rail against the other with near religious fervour; not at all dissimilar to the Macintosh versus PC argument. Regardless Alec Taylor, senior manager, platform strategy for Microsoft Canada in Mississauga, Ont., said there were two reasons for the company's efforts to compare Linux and Windows: Canada's prosperity gap with the United States and the migration occurring to Intel's x86 platform -- which squarely pits Windows against Linux for market share.