Abstract
There is confl icting information in the IT community about whether security patch management in Microsoft Windows client and sever operating systems is more expensive than their open source software (OSS) counterparts. In 2004, the Product Strategy & Architecture Practice of Wipro Technologies conducted an independent study of 90 enterprises. The study compared security patch management costs of Windows and OSS systems. Based on the results of this study,

	Costs of patching security vulnerabilities of individual Windows-based systems are roughly comparable to those of similar OSS systems.
	On a per-patching event basis, Windows-based systems require less effort to patch than similar OSS-based systems.
	OSS-based systems faced with high-level and critical vulnerabilities are at risk longer than comparable Windows-based systems, and the number of OSS vulnerabilities is underestimated.
	Using patch-related best practices can reduce patching costs signifi cantly for both Windows and OSS systems.

Authors
Theo Forbath
Patrick Kalaher
Thomas O’Grady

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