In the months leading up to the launch of Windows Vista, there’s been a lot of speculation about what businesses will do in the face of a new OS, especially an OS with such high hardware demands. Will IT departments kowtow to Microsoft’s upgrade cycle yet again or will a few businesses take the opportunity to break out of the Microsoft box–by revamping their enterprise with Linux or OS X desktops? As appealing as OS X can be, Apple hardware is a tough sell for an IT department on a shoestring budget. Linux, on the other hand, is just about the most cost-effective deployment that you can imagine. Sure, deploying, maintaining and supporting Linux brings its own set of challenges, but at least it isn’t pricey to boot. Find out how Linux flavor of the month Ubuntu stacks up against Redmond’s latest in a two part series from eWeek.

To see how Ubuntu stacks up against Vista:
– see this Article at eWeek Part 1 | Part 2