Anti-Linux Microsoft advert falls foul of UK Advertising Standards

Oops, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has pulled up Microsoft over an advert that tried to claim that Windows cost less to run than Linux.


Unfortunately the advertisers only managed to achieve this claim by including the cost of the hardware into their "study" and putting Linux on a massive IBM Z900 mainframe (which it runs on quite happily by the way) against Windows on a tiny dual Intel Xeon 900MHz PC.


The IBM Z900 costs upwards of US$500,000 whilst the dual Xeon PC would probably cost around US$1,000 to US$2,000 (if you could still buy one these days). With at least a possible 250:1 head start on the hardware costs, it’s no wonder Linux failed this not-very-independant little test..