Advertising - read between the lines

I just viewed a flash advertisement for Microsoft Windows Server System. I won't reproduce the whole thing here, but the animation finishes with the quote:

"Windows Server offers a saving of 11%-22% over Linux in 4 out of 5 workload scenarios."

It attributes the source of this data as being an IDC study of the North American market, and offers a link to "Get the facts".

Let's assume this data is correct and in 4 out of 5 workplaces Windows Server is the most cost effective IT platform. What this data would also saying is that in 20% of cases Window Server is not more cost effective than using Linux. If your business were to go out and install Windows Server without thoroughly evaluating the Linux platform there is a 20% chance you would be wasting money, and that is a pretty big risk to take.

So as they say, Get the facts, evaluate all options before making a decision.