Novell has hit back at a recent study sponsored by Microsoft which claimed that open source code is more difficult to manage than Windows, insisting that it "aims to confuse" the market. 

The study, carried out by Microsoft certified partner Security Innovation, claimed that Linux administrators took over two thirds longer to address new business requirements than their Windows counterparts. 

The study compared two teams of experienced IT administrators running Windows Server 2000 and Novell SuSE Enterprise Linux 8, then monitored their progress as they upgraded to Windows Server 2003 and Novell SuSE Enterprise Linux 9 respectively.

But Novell, which distributes SuSE, has pointed out numerous flaws in the methodology of the survey in a blog posting by one of its managers, Kevan Barney.

In particular Barney pointed out that few of the interoperability problems alleged in the report actually exist, and poured scorn on claims that such issues are not a problem for Microsoft.

"Security Innovation talks about Microsoft's 'integrated innovation' philosophy," he wrote.

"That philosophy is widely regarded as the primary reason Windows is an inherently insecure operating system allowing intruders to attack Windows through applications such as Internet Explorer, IIS, etc.

"This integration with strong dependencies makes it possible for an intruder/worm to bring down an entire system."

Barney added that there is little point comparing the patches released for the two packages tested, since the SuSE release is not just an operating system, but contains a huge number of applications which have their own patches.