Buried at the bottom of the [IBM-sponsored Linux TCO] report [by Robert Frances Group], it turns out, are RFG's findings that over a three-year period Windows is actually less expensive to support and administer than Linux on similar hardware ... An even bigger surprise is that Solaris [OS] service and support was less expensive than either Windows or Linux. Solaris ran $916 for the first year, $777 per year for the next two, and snuck in under Windows at $2,470." ... “But there is another, potentially bigger, problem with this report: The analyst firm polled IT execs at only 20 companies ... The experience of so few people is an inadequate foundation on which to make broad sweeping claims, such as Linux is cheaper than Windows, or vice versa, and thus prohibits IT from taking the study entirely seriously.