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- <html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
- <script type="text/javascript" src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/analytics.js"></script><style type="text/css"></style>
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- <meta name="description" content="UNIX versus Windows NT -
- Information every manager should know when planning a corporate network or
- the purchase of server hardware.">
- <meta name="keywords" content="NT vs UNIX, UNIX vs NT, NT vs. UNIX,
- UNIX vs. NT, nt versus unix, unix versus nt, IIS, apache, sendmail,
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- freebsd, bsdi, linux, windows nt, corporate network, mail servers,
- operating systems, cost effective solutions, mission critical
- operations, sendmail, apache, iis, system administration, microsoft">
- <title>Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX</title>
- </head>
- <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><div id="wm-ipp" lang="en" style="display: none;">
- <div style="position:fixed;left:0;top:0;width:100%!important">
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- <table style="width:100%;"><tbody><tr>
- <td id="wm-logo">
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/" title="Wayback Machine home page"><img src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/wayback-toolbar-logo.png" alt="Wayback Machine" width="110" height="39" border="0"></a>
- </td>
- <td class="c">
- <table style="margin:0 auto;"><tbody><tr>
- <td class="u" colspan="2">
- <form target="_top" method="get" action="http://web.archive.org/web/form-submit.jsp" name="wmtb" id="wmtb"><input type="text" name="url" id="wmtbURL" value="http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/" style="width:400px;" onfocus="this.focus();this.select();"><input type="hidden" name="type" value="replay"><input type="hidden" name="date" value="20000815100517"><input type="submit" value="Go"><span id="wm_tb_options" style="display:block;"></span></form>
- </td>
- <td class="n" rowspan="2">
- <table><tbody>
- <!-- NEXT/PREV MONTH NAV AND MONTH INDICATOR -->
- <tr class="m">
- <td class="b" nowrap="nowrap">
-
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000706213010/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch" title="6 Jul 2000">JUL</a>
-
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- <td class="c" id="displayMonthEl" title="You are here: 10:05:17 Aug 15, 2000">AUG</td>
- <td class="f" nowrap="nowrap">
-
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20001017114158/http://unix-vs-nt.org/kirch" title="17 Oct 2000"><strong>OCT</strong></a>
-
- </td>
- </tr>
- <!-- NEXT/PREV CAPTURE NAV AND DAY OF MONTH INDICATOR -->
- <tr class="d">
- <td class="b" nowrap="nowrap">
-
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000706213010/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch" title="21:30:10 Jul 6, 2000"><img src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/wm_tb_prv_on.png" alt="Previous capture" width="14" height="16" border="0"></a>
-
- </td>
- <td class="c" id="displayDayEl" style="width:34px;font-size:24px;" title="You are here: 10:05:17 Aug 15, 2000">15</td>
- <td class="f" nowrap="nowrap">
-
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000816171907/http://unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/" title="17:19:07 Aug 16, 2000"><img src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/wm_tb_nxt_on.png" alt="Next capture" width="14" height="16" border="0"></a>
-
- </td>
- </tr>
- <!-- NEXT/PREV YEAR NAV AND YEAR INDICATOR -->
- <tr class="y">
- <td class="b" nowrap="nowrap">
-
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/19990508220433/http://unix-vs-nt.org/kirch" title="8 May 1999"><strong>1999</strong></a>
-
- </td>
- <td class="c" id="displayYearEl" title="You are here: 10:05:17 Aug 15, 2000">2000</td>
- <td class="f" nowrap="nowrap">
-
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020205110720/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/" title="5 Feb 2002"><strong>2002</strong></a>
-
- </td>
- </tr>
- </tbody></table>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td class="s">
- <a class="t" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517*/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/" title="See a list of every capture for this URL">179 captures</a>
- <div class="r" title="Timespan for captures of this URL">17 Jan 99 - 6 May 16</div>
- </td>
- <td class="k">
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/" id="wm-graph-anchor">
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- <td class="r">
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- <a href="http://faq.web.archive.org/" style="background-image:url(/static/images/toolbar/wm_tb_help.png);bottom:5px;" title="Get some help using the Wayback Machine">Help</a>
- </td>
- </tr></tbody></table>
- </div>
- </div>
- </div>
- <!-- BEGIN WAYBACK TOOLBAR INSERT -->
- <script type="text/javascript" src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/disclaim-element.js"></script>
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- <td>
- <h1>Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX</h1>
- <h3>by</h3>
- <h3>John Kirch</h3>
- <h3>Networking Consultant and
- Microsoft Certified Professional (Windows NT)</h3>
- <p><i>Last update: 7 August 1999</i>
- </p></td></tr></tbody></table>
- <table width="85%" cellspacing="0">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td>
- <hr>
- <h2>Executive Summary</h2>
- <p>IT managers worldwide are being confronted with the question, should
- we go with Microsoft Windows NT Server or one of the UNIX operating
- systems? As you may already know, UNIX is not a single operating
- system; it refers to a family of operating systems which includes AIX,
- BSDI, Digital UNIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, IRIX, Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD,
- Pyramid, SCO, Solaris, SunOS, just to name the more prominent ones.
- Windows NT Server is increasing in popularity, but is it increasing the
- productivity of your MIS operations? Most important of all, though,
- for you as a manager is, are you increasing the profits of your company
- when you choose a Microsoft solution?
- </p><p>The bottom line is, which is cheaper? Hardware costs, software
- licenses, technical support agreements, prices of upgrades/service
- packs, costs of hardware upgrades, profits lost for every hour of
- downtime, personnel costs for recovering/recreating data lost due to
- product defects in the operating system and/or hardware platform
- required by your choice of operating systems, and personnel costs for
- systems administrators, these are only some of the factors that
- contribute to the overall budget resulting from your decision. It is
- not a trivial consideration.
- </p><p>Although money is the bottom line for you as a manager, given the
- complex set of factors I've just presented, a technically superior
- combination of server hardware and operating systems could prove to be
- less expensive in the long run. UNIX is a mature, technically superior
- group of operating systems with a proven track record for performance,
- reliability, and security in a server environment. The almost thirty
- years of continual development, performed often by volunteers who
- believe in what they're doing, has produced a group of operating
- systems--and extremely powerful multiprocessor server hardware
- tailor-made to its needs, whose performance is still unparalleled by
- Intel hardware--that not only meets the demands of today's computing
- needs, but in many cases exceeds them.
- </p><p>Why Windows NT Server 4.0 continues to exist in the enterprise would
- be a topic appropriate for an investigative report in the field of
- psychology or marketing, not an article on information technology.
- Technically, Windows NT Server 4.0 is no match for any UNIX operating
- system, not even the non-commercial BSDs or Linux. A manager is not
- expected to have the technical expertise of a systems administrator
- with 15 years of industry experience. There is no shame in not having
- the facts, only in being ignorant of such facts, which will in the end
- cost your employer, and eventually all consumers, money. The aim of
- this article is to give you the resources which will enable you to make
- thoughtful and informed decisions regarding your organization's
- IT planning and operations.
- </p><p>The following article relies on my experience in this industry,
- which started back in 1979 with Chevron Geosciences Company, and on
- roughly 150 links to other technical articles, white papers, and
- executive summaries. At this point it should be noted that I am not
- promoting the product of any one company, nor would my employer benefit
- should you choose UNIX. My goal is to ease the burden of systems
- administrators, promote more efficient and economical computing
- worldwide, and encourage a more fair and diverse community of software
- vendors.
- </p><hr>
- </td></tr></tbody></table>
- <table width="85%">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td valign="TOP">
- <h2>Contents</h2>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#intro">Introduction</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#os">Operating Systems</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#costs">Product costs and licensing issues</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#functionality">Functionality</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#reliability">Reliability</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#management">System Management</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#performance">Performance</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#security">Security</a>
- </li></ul>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#misconceptions">Some Common Misconceptions</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#views">Views of Other MIS Professionals</a>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/feedback/">
- Feedback from Readers of this Article</a>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#web">Web Servers</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#conclusion">Conclusion</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#compare">Linux and NT Server 4.0 at a Glance</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#bigguys">What are Major Companies Deploying?</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#links">Related Links</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/legal.html">Disclaimers and Other Legal Information</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#acknowledgments">Acknowledgments</a>
- </li></ul>
- </td><td valign="TOP">
- <h2><a name="highlights">Highlights in this Article</a></h2>
- <ul>
- <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#ms-solaris">Why Microsoft uses Solaris instead of NT</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#ms-summit">Microsoft admits that NT trails Solaris</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#graphs">Graphical comparison of the various operating systems</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#stability">Which operating systems do professionals choose when
- stability is the most important issue?</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#win95">A little-known fact about <b>windows95.com</b></a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#KickAss">UNIX on a single processor PC outperforms a dual processor
- NT machine?</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#cisco">Cisco changing from Linux to Windows NT?</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#usps">Linux and the United States Postal Service</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#web">Web Server software; What do the Royal Family and the
- FBI have in common?</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#gui">Show me some UNIX, I want to <i>see</i> what it looks like!</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.netcraft.com/cgi-bin/Survey/whats">
- What is that Site Running?</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/resources.html">FreeBSD and Linux Resources with
- answers to the following questions:</a>
- <ul>
- <li>Where can I get Linux/FreeBSD to try this out?
- </li><li>Where can I buy a workstation/server with Linux/FreeBSD
- pre-installed?
- </li><li>Where can I find a consultant for these operating systems?
- </li></ul>
- </li></ul>
- </td></tr>
- </tbody></table>
- <table width="85%" cellspacing="0">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td>
- <p>
- </p><hr>
- <h2><a name="intro">Introduction</a></h2>
- The choice of server platforms can be difficult for managers who do not
- have highly specialized training in systems and network administration.
- In this paper, Microsoft Windows NT Server is compared to UNIX, a large
- family of commercial and non-commercial operating systems with a common
- heritage and many similarities. The main focus of the comparison is on
- the areas of functionality, reliability, system management, and
- performance. This paper is about servers, not workstations. Other
- factors, such as product pricing, quantity and quality of bundled
- software, and a section on common misconceptions about both groups of
- operating systems are presented to provide a more complete view of
- these products. The information used in this comparison is derived
- from a variety of sources: white papers, case studies by third parties,
- articles from technical periodicals, and observations made by IT
- professionals who have industry experience in the implementation and
- administration of both Microsoft Windows NT and various UNIX operating
- systems.
- <p>This article should be considered a work in progress. Anyone
- wishing to contribute to this project is welcome to send me <a href="mailto:feedback@unix-vs-nt.org"><b>e-mail</b></a>. Please confine your
- e-mail to <i>constructive</i> comments or criticism.
- </p><hr>
- <h2><a name="os">Operating Systems</a></h2>
- <h3><a name="costs">Product costs and licensing issues</a></h3>
- <p>Most managers will agree that the mere cost of an operating system
- is trivial when looking at the big picture. Although Windows NT Server
- 4.0 can be more expensive than some commercial UNIX operating systems,
- it can be had for trivial amounts at trade shows.
- </p><p>
- </p><center>
- <b>Price List for Windows NT Server 4.0 (Source:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.microsoft.com/products/prodref/458_pr_st.htm">Microsoft</a>)</b>
- </center>
- </td></tr></tbody></table>
- <center>
- <table border="2">
- <tbody><tr>
- <th>Product</th><th>Price (US-$)
- </th></tr><tr>
- <td>NT Server 4.0 (5-user version)
- </td><td align="RIGHT">$809
- </td></tr><tr>
- <td>NT Server 4.0 (10-user version)
- </td><td align="RIGHT">$1,129
- </td></tr><tr>
- <td>NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition (25-user version)
- </td><td align="RIGHT">$3,999
- </td></tr><tr>
- <td>NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition (50-user version)
- </td><td align="RIGHT">$4,799
- </td></tr><tr>
- <td>NT Server 4.0 Documentation Kit
- </td><td align="RIGHT">$69.95
- </td></tr><tr>
- <td>20 Quantity Client License
- </td><td align="RIGHT">$329
- </td></tr><tr>
- <td>Single Quantity Client License
- </td><td align="RIGHT">$19.95
- </td></tr></tbody></table>
- </center>
- <p>
- <table width="85%" cellspacing="0">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td>
- Is NT Server really worth its price? See <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea0797/nt/sub6.html">
- NT Lies: Lie 6 - NT Server is worth more</a></b>. What
- is not trivial, however, is that a networked operating system in this
- price range should ship without a telnet server, SMTP server (e-mail),
- disk quotas, news server, or at least a DNS server that works to
- customers' satisfaction (many NT administrators feel compelled to go
- with third party DNS solutions). In order to match the functionality of
- a BSDI installation, additional Microsoft products and third-party
- solutions would bring the final price of a comparable NT solution to
- around $4,000, according to <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bsdi.com/white-papers/compare">BSDI</a></b>.
- Maggie Biggs, a senior analyst in the InfoWorld who specializes in
- database technology and application design, development, and deployment
- via intranets and other networks, estimates a price of <b>$4,636 for a
- comparable Windows NT 4.0 solution</b> in her <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://currents.net/magazine/national/1524/inet1524.html">
- article</a></b> which compares NT 4.0 to Red Hat's <i>commercial</i>
- Linux (for only <b>$49.95</b>).
- Here one sees that successful marketing can often distract customers
- from considering their need for functionality.
- <p>NT is often chosen for budget reasons since many customers are not
- willing to pay for the more expensive hardware required by most
- commercial flavors of UNIX. More important, however, is the overall
- cost of implementation which includes system administration along with
- several other factors like downtime, telephone support calls, loss of
- data due to unreliability, etc. For a more detailed discussion of NT's
- hidden costs, see the following
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.informationweek.com/">
- InformationWeek</a> article:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Windows NT systems carry lower sticker prices than
- their Unix counterparts, but ongoing maintenance and
- support requirements can make them much more costly
- to run."
- <p>
- -- Martin J. Garvey,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.informationweek.com/692/92iuhid.htm">
- The Hidden Cost Of NT</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.informationweek.com/">
- InformationWeek</a>, 20 July 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>Tippett Studio, the company
- responsible for the graphics in <i>Starship Trooper</i>, which received
- an Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects, uses 130 SGI (
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sgi.com/">Silicon Graphics, Inc.</a>) machines running
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sgi.com/origin/products/irix.html">IRIX</a>, SGI's
- very own UNIX operating system. Tippett's studio operations manager
- explains why they use SGI with IRIX instead of an NT solution:
- </p><blockquote>
- "'SGIs are cheap for what they do,' says Tippett's Jeff Stringer, the
- studio's operations manager. 'The cost of maintaining an NT system is
- pretty high when you think of all the system administrators you have to
- hire.'"
- <p>"Hiring is an especially big concern for the small studio. Unlike
- the super-studios, Tippett -- which designed the bugs that threaten
- humanity in "Starship Troopers" -- is an f/x boutique."
- </p><p>-- Greg Lindsay,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/article/0,2334,13125,00.html">
- Oscar Tech</a>, The Netly News, 27 February 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>For the most cost-conscious customer,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.linux.org/">Linux</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.netbsd.org/">NetBSD</a></b>, or
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a></b>
- would be the obvious choices. They cost <i>nothing</i>, yet they are
- just as stable and offer as much functionality as, if not more than,
- the commercial UNIX operating systems.
- </p><p>Journalists R. Scott Raynovich and Polly Sprenger at <i>LAN Times</i>
- indirectly point out the flexibility of the
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a></b> concept
- in their recent article on Linux and how
- commercial organizations can benefit from it:
- </p><blockquote>
- " . . . Linux
- can be downloaded for free over the Internet or obtained
- inexpensively with support and documentation from a
- number of commercial vendors. This makes it an
- attractive product for companies trying to reduce the
- cost of licensing and managing OSes.
- <p>-- R. Scott Raynovich and Polly Sprenger,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.lantimes.com/98/98aug/808b001a.html?st.ne.fd.mnaw">
- Linux legitimacy rallies NT skeptics</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.lantimes.com/">LAN Times</a>,
- 17 August 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- In <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremagazine.com/">Software Magazine</a>'s
- recent cover story on Linux, Ann Harrison points out how even large
- companies are finding a cost effective alternative to Microsoft in the
- deployment of Linux servers:
- <blockquote>
- "Randy Kessell, manager of technical analysis for a Southwestern Bell
- operation center, notes that
- because Linux allows his company to do more remote network
- administration and software loads
- than was possible with either Microsoft or NetWare products, it has
- driven down their network management costs."
- <p>-- Ann Harrison,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremag.com/Sept98/sm098cv.htm">
- In LINUX We . . .</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremagazine.com/">
- Software Magazine</a>, Cover Story, September 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>One reader informed me that
- mentioning Linux would detract from the credibility of this article. I
- beg to differ. The existence of such alliances as mentioned in the
- article
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980402S0013">
- Andreessen Sees Mozilla-Linux Upset of Windows</a></b> clearly shows
- that Linux is strengthening its presence in commercial environments.
- (For newcomers to this arena, Mozilla is the name of the
- Netscape/Communicator code and Marc Andreessen is Cofounder and
- Executive VP of Products at Netscape.) Also noteworthy is a new
- alliance between
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/">Sun Microsystems</a> and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.li.org/">Linux International</a>.
- (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a>:
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://slashdot.org/articles/9804211730214.shtml">
- Sun Joins Linux International</a></b>, 21 May 1998)
- Yet another recent development is <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.corel.com/">Corel</a>'s special relationship with
- Linux:
- </p><blockquote>
- ". . . <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.corel.com/">Corel</a>, which has already
- announced plans to build a Linux-based network computer, said it will
- next month post free Linux-based development tools to its Web site,
- joining a number of software companies supporting the Linux open source
- movement."<br>
- -- Erich Luening,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,21929,00.html">
- Corel joins Linux fest</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>, 8 May 1998.
- </blockquote>
- <p>The very latest headlines indicate that Linux is well on its way into
- the major leagues:
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2121004,00.html">
- Informix, Oracle ready to port to Linux</a></b>
- (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/">PCWeek Online</a>, 20 July 1998),
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/news/0720/20morac.html">
- Oracle to port database to Linux</a></b>
- (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/">PCWeek Online</a>, 20 July 1998),
- and
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,20863,00.html?st.ne.ni.rel">
- Netscape: Linux a top priority</a></b>
- (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>, 7 April 1998).
- </p><p>Historically, large corporations have steered clear of free software
- due to the unfounded assumption that anything free can't be worthwhile.
- The recent trend among some corporations is to use these
- cost-effective operating systems. Hewlett-Packard used Linux instead
- of its own HP-UX operating system "to port the Carnegie Mellon Mach
- kernel to HP
- PA-RISC in order to use it for their imagery work."
- (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ssc.com/lj/issue44/2355.html">
- full story</a>) Schlumberger chose Linux over SCO for its new point of sale computers.
- (<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ssc.com/lj/">
- Linux Journal</a>, November 1997, Issue 43, pp. 83-4) It is
- interesting to note that <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/">SunWorld
- On-Line</a></b> gives Linux positive press in one of its articles, <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline/swol-01-1998/swol-01-linux.html">
- Linux lines up for the enterprise</a></b>.
- </p><p>The September 1998
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremagazine.com/">Software Magazine</a>
- cover story reveals just how far Linux has managed to infiltrate
- corporate America and how it is not about to go away:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Tim Payne, director of
- database marketing at Oracle, says many of his company's corporate
- customers have made large
- investments in Linux. When Oracle announced in July that it would be
- offering 24x7 support for
- Oracle8 on Linux, he says 300 customers called the next day asking
- about availability. 'It's reliable,
- it's proven, it runs on commodity Intel boxes, and it's a really
- low-cost alternative to NT,' says
- Payne. 'The fact that you are going to be able to get enterprise
- quality support from Oracle to deploy on
- the Linux platform will help customers adopt Linux.'
- <p>-- Ann Harrison,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremag.com/Sept98/sm098cv.htm">
- In LINUX We . . .</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremagazine.com/">
- Software Magazine</a>, Cover Story, September 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>Since these operating
- systems are free for use even in commercial environments, many ISPs run
- on Linux or FreeBSD. NetBSD will run on practically anything: DEC
- Alpha, Motorola 68k (Amiga, Atari, Mac, MVME, Sharp, Sun3), PowerPC,
- Intel, DEC VAX, Acorn RISC, MIPS (Sony NEWS, DECstation), etc.
- OpenBSD's primary focus is on correctness and security. Linux is the
- most popular and will run on a wide range hardware: Sun, Intel, DEC
- Alpha, PowerPC, PowerMac, etc.
- Paul Krill's recent articles in
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">InfoWorld</a>
- (<b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980710.whlinux.htm">
- Linux picking up steam</a></b> and <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980715.ehlinux.htm">
- Linux supporters rally around freeware OS</a></b>) focus on the ever
- increasing support of major vendors and future plans for added
- functionality, i.e. support for Intel's 64-bit Merced processor.
- Currently, Linux is perhaps the fastest
- growing operating system on the market. For more information, see <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.linuxresources.com/">Linux Resources</a></b> or <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat Software</a></b>.
- </p><p>Nicholas Petreley, editor-in-chief of <i>NC World</i> and columnist
- for <i>InfoWorld</i> and <i>NT World Japan</i> provides an explanation
- for the rise of Linux and FreeBSD in IT departments:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Yesterday's college students learned their UNIX expertise on Linux and
- FreeBSD. Today they're working in IT departments, and many of them are
- openly hostile to both Microsoft and Windows NT. As a result, Linux,
- BSD, Solaris, and other forms of UNIX are finding their way into IT
- departments, both overtly and on the sly.
- <p>"For example, are you sure that's an NT server you're connecting to
- at work? IS employees in many corporations have secretly installed UNIX
- servers that provide native NT services. Why take such a risk? Linux
- and FreeBSD are free, as is SAMBA, the software that provides NT
- services. So the IS department saves money. And managers are unlikely
- to find out UNIX is behind the scenes because fewer people will
- complain about server downtime.
- </p><p>"Fewer people will complain because the servers are more stable than
- Windows NT. Linux, FreeBSD, and BSDI UNIX outperform Windows NT by a
- wide margin on limited hardware, and under some circumstances can
- perform as well or better than NT on the best hardware. Once behind in
- scalability features, UNIX on Intel is catching up and may soon surpass
- NT in the number of processors it can use, and how it uses them.
- </p><p>-- Nicholas Petreley,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ncworldmag.com/ncworld/ncw-04-1998/ncw-04-nextten.html">
- The new UNIX alters NT's orbit: The re-emergence of UNIX threatens to
- modify the future direction of NT</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ncworldmag.com/ncworld/">
- <i>NC World</i></a>, April 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>Even <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.economist.com/">The Economist</a> is now
- reporting on the rising popularity of Linux:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Oracle, a database firm, is planning to offer Linux versions of some
- of its software. . . . Even without such endorsements, Linux has
- achieved a measure of success. In only a few
- years, the program has evolved from a hacker's toy into software that
- is, at least in part,
- technically superior to Windows NT.
- <p>-- Stephen Morley,
- <b>Revenge of the hackers</b>*
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.economist.com/">The Economist</a>,
- July 11th - 17th 1998.<br>
- * Hyperlink is gone. Can be purchased from <i>The Economist</i>
- via their online archive.
- </p></blockquote>
- <h3><a name="functionality">Functionality</a></h3>
- What can you expect from Windows NT Server out of the box and from UNIX
- out of the box? NT can communicate with many different types of
- computers. So can UNIX. NT can secure sensitive data and keep
- unauthorized users off the network. So can UNIX. Essentially, both
- operating systems meet the minimum requirements for operating systems
- functioning in a networked environment. Put briefly, UNIX can do
- anything that NT can do and more.
- <p>NT is often considered to be a "multi-user" operating system, but
- this is very misleading. An NT server will <i>validate</i> an
- authorized user, but once the user is logged on to the NT network, all
- he/she can do is access files and printers. The NT user cannot just
- run <i>any</i> application on the NT server (in order to take advantage
- of the superior processing power of server hardware). An NT user can
- only run special applications that have been written in two pieces,
- i.e. client/server applications. When a user logs in to a UNIX
- server, he/she can then run <i>any</i> application (provided the user
- is authorized to do so), thus taking the processing load off his/her
- workstation. This also includes graphics-based applications since
- X-server software is standard issue on all UNIX operating systems.
- </p><p>For most businesses, e-mail has become an indispensable tool for
- communication, and most companies run their own internal/external
- e-mail systems. With Windows NT, you will have to buy a separate
- software package in order to set up an e-mail server. UNIX operating
- systems come with a program called <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sendmail.org/">Sendmail</a></b>. There are other
- mail server software packages (or <i>MTAs</i>, Mail Transport Agents)
- available for UNIX, but this one is the most widely used, and it is
- free. Some UNIX administrators feel that
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.exim.org/">exim</a></b> or
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.qmail.org/">qmail</a></b> are better choices
- since they are not as difficult to configure as sendmail. Both exim
- and qmail, like sendmail as well, are free for use even in a commercial
- environment.
- Many NT-based companies use
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/default.asp">
- Microsoft Exchange Server</a></b>
- as their MTA. This is an expensive solution with limited success in an
- enterprise environment. <b>Microsoft Exchange Server Enterprise
- Edition - 25 Client Access Licenses costs $3,549.00.</b>
- If you have more than 25 employees, the same package with <b>50 Client
- Access Licenses costs $4,859.00</b> (Source:
- <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/55/gen/pricing.htm">Microsoft</a></b>)
- For more information on this topic see
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/sendmail-exchange.html">
- Microsoft Exchange versus Sendmail:
- Views of Other MIS Professionals</a>.
- </p><p>Since Microsoft sees NT as a viable alternative to all other
- network-capable operating systems on the market, UNIX and Novell
- included, one would assume that NT would come with all the tools
- necessary to accomplish the most basic tasks required: file and
- printer services. Any systems/network administrator knows from
- experience that there are two important issues to be considered when
- setting up a file server or adding a new network user: security, i.e.
- passwords and file permissions; and quotas for limiting disk usage of
- any new or existing users or groups. Although NT provides basic
- password security, it only provides file-level security if you choose
- to use its proprietary filesystem called NTFS. More important than
- this issue, however, is that <b>NT does not provide any mechanism for
- limiting a user's disk usage!</b> UNIX and Novell, on the other hand,
- provide software for performing this seemingly elementary control.
- Microsoft has announced, however, that its not yet released NT Server
- 5.0 will provide "new storage management features such as disk quotas .
- . ." (see their press release, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/press/1997/sept97/winnt5pr.htm">
- Windows NT 5.0 Beta Delivered to Over 200,000 Developers</a>).
- </p><p>Another disk related design flaw in the Microsoft suite of operating
- systems is its antiquated use of "drive letters," i.e. drive C:, drive
- D:, etc. This schema imposes hardware specific limitations on system
- administrators and users alike. This is highly inappropriate for
- client/server environments where network shares and file systems are
- to represent hierarchies meaningful to humans. UNIX allows shared
- network filesystems to be mounted at any point in a directory structure.
- A network share can also span multiple disk drives (or even different
- machines!) in UNIX, thus
- allowing administrators to maintain pre-existing directory structures
- that are well-known to users, yet allowing them to expand the available
- disk space on the server, making such system changes transparent to
- users. This single difference between the UNIX and Windows operating
- systems further underscores the original intentions of their respective
- designers: UNIX was conceived as a client/server operating system for
- professional use, whereas Windows and its descendents sprang from DOS,
- an operating system that was never intended to be a player in a
- client/server environment, much less a server. For more detailed
- information on this topic, see Nicholas Petreley's article
- <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/petrel/np102896.htm">
- It will take less drive to make most PC operating
- systems work like Unix</a></b>.
- </p><p>Last but not least, UNIX operating systems are equipped with
- scripting languages (Bourne Shell, Korn Shell, C Shell, and sometimes
- Perl, just to name a few) and a "cron" facility for scheduling jobs to
- run at fixed intervals (every <i>n</i> minutes, every <i>n</i> hours,
- once a week, once a month, etc.). Cron scheduling is highly
- configurable and not just limited to these examples here. In short,
- high-level scripting languages + cron = a powerful resource for system
- administration, the likes of which cannot be found in Microsoft NT
- Server 4.0. A great deal of UNIX system administration is automated
- and customized for site-specific needs through the use of these tools,
- which in effect cuts down on personnel costs. As one reader pointed
- out, NT does have a "Scheduler" and an "at" command, and that Perl is
- available for NT. Yes, this is true, however, I don't feel that NT's
- limited cmd.exe scripting environment combined with the "Scheduler" or
- "at" can even begin to approach the functionality offered by the UNIX
- tools I've mentioned. One reader, Neil McKellar, provided an excellent
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/feedback/neil_mckellar.job_scheduling.html">
- example</a>
- which supports this statement.
- </p><p>Running automated tasks is only useful when the
- scripts/tasks/executables can be run without human intervention. So
- much that runs on NT is GUI-based, and thus, requires interaction with
- a human administrator. If seen realistically, the types of automated
- tasks that are being run in most shops are site-specific routines that
- have to be programmed by system administrators. Based on my own
- industry experience, it is a rare site indeed where Perl is installed
- on NT servers and there is any NT administrator who knows the first
- thing about Perl. The driving force behind buying cheap hardware goes
- hand-in-hand with the hiring practice of selecting the cheapest NT
- administrators available; after all, it's NT, all you have to do is
- point and click!
- </p><p>To summarize, once you logon to an NT network, all you can do is
- read files and print. In a UNIX environment, once you log in to a UNIX
- server, you can <i>be</i> on that machine and do anything on it that
- you could do if you were sitting at its keyboard <i>and mouse!</i> With
- NT, don't plan on being able to set up an e-mail server with the
- software at hand. You will need to buy expensive mail server software
- like Microsoft Exchange Server separately. If your NT server should
- function as a file server - what else can you do with it really? -
- don't plan on being able to prevent users from crashing the server by
- filling up the disk(s) with their data.
- </p><p>Ease of configuration and being able to configure a server without
- causing downtime is yet another aspect of functionality:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Some versions of UNIX (Linux, for example) support loadable device
- modules. This means you can boot Linux and reconfigure its support for
- hardware and software on the fly. For example, you can boot Linux
- without support for the SCSI card you have installed. You simply load
- support for that SCSI card when you need to access one or more of the
- SCSI-connected devices, such as an optical disk for backup. You can
- unload the SCSI driver when you're finished. You can also freely load
- and unload support for sound cards, network cards -- even file systems
- such as HPFS, FAT, VFAT, and others (an NTFS driver is in the works).
- <p>"Any UNIX with loadable module support is therefore by nature more
- appropriate for a server environment because almost all configuration
- changes do not require system restarts.
- </p><p>"Windows NT doesn't even come close. Even insignificant changes to a
- Windows NT configuration require or request a shutdown and reboot in
- order to make the changes take effect. Change the IP address of your
- default gateway and you need to reboot. You can't even change the type
- of modem you use for a dial-up PPP connection without a reboot to
- update the system. None of these limitations exist in UNIX.
- </p><p>-- Nicholas Petreley,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ncworldmag.com/ncworld/ncw-04-1998/ncw-04-nextten.html">
- The new UNIX alters NT's orbit: The re-emergence of UNIX threatens to
- modify the future direction of NT</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ncworldmag.com/ncworld/">
- <i>NC World</i></a>, April 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>When it comes to more sophisticated networking functionality, it
- seems that Microsoft's NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition can't hold a
- candle to the more mature commercial UNIX operating systems. Although
- not essential to network performance, 64-bit computing is here today
- with these UNIX operating systems (as opposed to NT's 32-bit operating
- system). D.H. Brown Associates Inc. reports the results of their
- analysis as follows (the following quotation along with the table and
- the three graphs immediately following the table are excerpts from a
- Web page on Digital Equipment Corporation's site entitled
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix.digital.com/unix/v4/dhbrown/AIX43.htm">
- AIX 4.3 Leaps To 64-Bits In Dead Heat With Digital UNIX 4.0</a>):
- </p><blockquote>
- AIX 4.3 takes the lead in Internet/intranet networking features
- by providing the broadest set of TCP/IP extensions and adding
- value with a bundled Notes server. Digital UNIX comes in second
- place with strong network security capabilities, bundling not
- only Web-browsing capabilities but also Web-authoring tools, with
- Navigator Gold, and a solid set of TCP/IP extensions. However,
- Digital UNIX lacks advanced NFS features such as CacheFS and
- AutoFS. IRIX 6.4 places third, bundling CacheFS and AutoFS, and
- network security features almost as strong as Digital's. But IRIX
- lacks network time facilities (NTP) and TCP/IP capabilities such
- as IPv6 and IPSec. Sun follows, with good support for NFS
- functions and the second-place array of TCP/IP extensions.
- However, Sun relies on its own Web server, rather than Netscape,
- Microsoft or Apache, and lacks authoring tools as well as
- important services such as Novell's NDS directory service. HP
- provides strong Internet support within HP-UX, bolstered by its
- good showing in advanced Internet protocol function and network
- security, while lagging behind in support for advanced NFS
- capability. HP-UX, along with AIX, has also established a lead in
- supporting NDS. While Microsoft NT 4.0 provides Internet/intranet
- support that overall rates as "Good," NT lags behind
- the leading UNIX vendors due to poor support for directory
- services, network security, NFS, and few TCP/IP extensions.
- Microsoft has largely focused adding value to its bundled Web
- server product and to tuning its Java Virtual Machine.
- </blockquote>
- </td></tr></tbody></table>
- <table border="1">
- <tbody><tr><td width="226"></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">HP-UX
- 11.0</font></center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">Solaris
- 2.6</font></center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">AIX
- 4.3</font></center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">Irix
- 6.4</font></center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">Digital
- UNIX 4.0d</font></center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">NTS
- 4.0/EE</font></center> </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><b><font size="2" color="#000000">Extension</font></b>
- </td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"> </td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">IPSec</font></i>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">IPv6</font></i>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">RSVP</font></i>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">Partial</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">IP
- Multiplexing</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">IP
- Multicast</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Partial</center> </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><b><font size="2" color="#000000">Performance
- Optimizations</font></b> </td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"> </td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- <td width="62"></td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">Telnet
- in kernel</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">Kernel
- Sockets</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">TCP
- Large Windows</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">Zero
- Copy TCP/Hardware Checksum</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">Path
- MTU Discovery</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">OpenShortestPathFirst
- (OSPF)</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">RTP:
- Real Time Protocol</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">RTCP:
- Real Time Control Protocol</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- <tr><td width="226"><i><font size="2" color="#000000">Parallelized
- TCP/IP</font></i> </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">Yes</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">Yes</font></center>
- </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center> </td>
- <td width="62"><center>Yes</center></td>
- <td width="62"><center><font size="2" color="#000000">No</font></center>
- </td>
- </tr>
- </tbody></table>
- </p><p>
- </p><h3><a name="graphs">INTERNET/INTRANET NETWORKING FEATURES</a></h3>
- <p><img src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/AIX43_f.gif" alt="Networking Features Graph">
- </p><h3>RELIABILITY AND SCALABILITY</h3>
- <p><img src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/AIX43_h.gif" alt="Reliability and Scalability Graph">
- </p><h3>SYSTEM MANAGEMENT</h3>
- <p><img src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/AIX43_j.gif" alt="System Management Graph">
- </p><p>Copyright Digital Equipment Corporation 1995-1998. All Rights Reserved.
- </p><p>
- <table width="85%" cellspacing="0">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td>
- <p>See also D. H. Brown's
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.dhbrown.com/pdfs/osscorecard.html">
- Operating System Scorecard page</a></b> for other graphical comparisons
- of the operating systems compared above.
- </p><hr>
- <h3><a name="reliability">Reliability</a></h3>
- <p>In today's world, reliability is often more important than speed.
- Although performance is largely a function of hardware platform (see
- the next section), it is in the area of <i>reliability</i> that the
- choice of operating systems has the most influence. Even if one
- operating system offers more functionality, is more scalable, and
- offers greater ease of system management, what good are these
- advantages when a server processing real-time financial transactions is
- plagued by frequent crashes resulting in unacceptable downtimes? The
- analogy of a fast, economical automobile with lots of gadgets, and
- sporty appearance that frequently stalls in traffic despite repeated
- visits to the authorized service center is actually quite
- representative of Windows NT.
- </p><p>
- <a name="stability">One often hears about Windows NT Server</a>
- being referred to as a "stable" operating system, but this is not
- entirely accurate. Were it so, then we wouldn't be reading articles
- like <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea0797/nt/sub5.html">
- NT Lies: Lie 5 - NT is robust and crash-proof</a></b>, <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.gcn.com/gcn/1998/July13/cov2.htm">
- Software glitches leave Navy Smart Ship dead in the water</a></b>
- (Gregory Slabodkin, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.gcn.com/">
- Government Computer News</a>, 7-13-98),
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/opinion/0330/30coff.html">
- Corporate IT needs an engine that never quits</a></b> (Peter Coffee, PC Week 3-30-98) or <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/opinion/0413/13coff.html">
- We do not have a failure to communicate</a></b> (Peter Coffee, PC Week
- 04-13-98).
- When the author of these last two articles posed the question,
- "What do you use when failure is not an option?" he was bombarded by
- "three times the usual number of vigorous e-mail replies." Concerning
- these replies he states:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Notably, I did not get a single message from anyone who took the
- position that Windows NT was good enough. Quite the opposite: Several
- messages expressed a resigned expectation that Windows NT 5.0 would
- stagger out the door, burdened with immature add-on services but
- without achieving corporate-class reliability in its basic functions.
- <p>"I heard from one reader who said that at his site, Linux on a 486
- is outperforming Windows NT on a 200MHz Pentium, and he has Linux
- machines that have been running without interruption since before
- Windows NT 4.0 was released.
- </p><p>"I also heard from enterprise-class sites where Linux is considered
- a proven choice, with source-code accessibility outweighing the dubious
- advantage of more traditional vendor support. What others promise
- someday, Linux gives many users now--at a bargain price.
- </p><p>-- Peter Coffee,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/opinion/0413/13coff.html">
- We do not have a failure to communicate</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/">
- PC Week</a>, 4-13-98.
- </p></blockquote>
- <a name="ms-summit">Indeed,</a> Windows NT is a great improvement over Windows 3.1 or Windows
- 95, but it still has a long way to go before it can reach the level of
- stability offered by even the
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/">
- Open Source</a></b> (free) UNIX operating systems. When
- pitted against Sun Microsystems's Solaris, there's really no comparison
- at all. At the recent Microsoft Global Summit,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.crn.com/">Computer Reseller News</a> journalists
- Barbara Darrow and Stuart Glascock interviewed some of the attendees:
- <blockquote>
- "We have a
- Solaris box that hasn't been rebooted in two years," said
- James Domengeaux, president of Comspace.Com, a
- Houston-based Web reseller. In comparison, NT servers
- are rebooted often, he said. "That's a problem especially in
- e-commerce if you're talking transactions per second,
- because how many orders do you miss?" he said.
- <p>-- Barbara Darrow and Stuart Glascock,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980728S0004">
- Microsoft Admits NT Trails Solaris</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.crn.com/">Computer Reseller News</a>,
- 28 July 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
-
- <p>Windows NT's lack of stability is a known issue yet managers tend to
- deal with it in discrete ways, reports one IT professional:
- </p><blockquote>
- "'I know three companies that are silently putting more and more into
- UNIX . . . at the expense of NT, simply because NT falls over too
- often,' says Peter Flynn, a consultant in Cork, Ireland. NT is known to
- crash too frequently for many IT manager's tastes. Typical causes are
- memory access violations and I/O errors.
- <p>"These companies aren't inclined to talk about their decisions
- 'because of pressure from upstairs,' Flynn says. 'The
- buy-Microsoft-only ethos has taken over from the buy-IBM-only, and
- managers who decided [against advice from technology people] to use NT
- rather than UNIX are now unwilling to lose face,' he adds.
- </p><p>-- Mark Gibbs,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.nwfusion.com/intranet/0330linux.html">
- Lookin' into Linux</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.nwfusion.com/">Network World</a>, March 30, 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>Any IS professional who has worked in a Windows NT environment has
- intimate knowledge of the infamous "Blue Screen of Death," a situation
- in which the normal desktop windowing system disappears completely and
- is replaced by a full screen of hexadecimal numbers on a blue
- background. The <i>only</i> method of recovery in this situation is
- powering the machine off and rebooting. What causes "blue screens" in
- NT varies. In my own experience, the following can induce this state
- of failure:
- </p><ul>
- <li>When both IPX/SPX and TCP/IP protocols are used and technicians put
- a machine with a static IP address on a different subnet;
- </li><li>When some 16-bit Visual Basic applications are <i>not</i> being run
- in "separate memory space." NT does not run them in separate memory
- space by default. This is a <i>manual</i> configuration which should
- be set for each and every 16-bit application on the machine;
- </li><li>Certain brands of memory modules or cache will induce this, even
- though the same hardware runs fine under other operating systems, such
- as Windows 95.
- </li></ul>
- <p>In some situations, Linux too will complain about its hardware. I
- personally have not experienced this despite having installed Linux on
- a wide variety of hardware, but it may happen. It appears to happen
- mainly when one is compiling the kernel on a machine with bad memory.
- For more information see
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/">Signal 11</a>.
- The above list is by no means complete. As a matter of fact, Tim
- Newsham, a software developer for both Windows and UNIX platforms,
- found this short list very misleading:
- </p><blockquote>
- In the BSOD section you mention a few ways that a BSOD can be caused.
- I think this (small) list is misleading to the reader. There are
- <i>so</i> many ways that an NT system can crash, that by listing a
- small number you are likely to give the wrong impression. More
- dangerous yet is the fact that your cases mostly involve a person who
- is on the console doing something BAD to cause a crash. Many of the
- ways to crash an NT system happen inadvertently in the day-to-day
- operation of the system (indeed, leaving the system on too long while
- running a myriad of applications can cause bizarre crashes with little
- clue to their cause). Additionally malicious users can trigger crashes
- due to shoddy implementation in software modules such as the login
- program (LSA) or the tcp/ip stack.
- </blockquote>
- The "Blue Screen of Death" can be commonplace in some computing
- environments and is often difficult to troubleshoot due to the either
- cryptic or non-existent error reporting. In addition to this, NT is
- particularly prone to virus attacks on the Intel-based hardware. For
- operating systems on Intel hardware that must be booted from a hard
- drive, i.e. NT Server, the Master Boot Record of a hard drive can be
- the death of the operating system. Linux, along with several other
- UNIX operating systems that run on Intel-based hardware, can load a
- compressed kernel from a boot floppy, thus avoiding this problem. What
- this means is, an NT Server can theoretically be crashed by a virus
- written 10 years ago for MS-DOS computers. Anyone planning to deploy
- an NT Server in a mission critical environment should consider this
- fact. I personally have encountered MBR viruses in a corporate
- environment running Windows NT 4.0 (no Windows 95 clients!), and their
- effects are devastating. In addition to this, most viruses that would
- incapacitate a Windows operating system don't have an effect on UNIX
- operating systems since they often require the MS Windows environment
- to do their damage.
- <p>One real-life situation involving NT's reliability is reported by
- the University of Nebraska Press's Information Systems Department
- manager, Quinn P. Coldiron, who writes,
- </p><blockquote>
- Life after moving Cats [an order fulfillment and inventory system] to
- NT was a nightmare. The system was crashing two to three times a day
- with no reason that I could find. I was on the phone with Microsoft and
- Cats constantly, but nobody could figure it out. Microsoft had me apply
- Service Packs one through three and a few HotFixes, which helped, but
- it still was crashing at least twice a week with the infamous "Blue
- Screen of Death". After many weeks and about $1500.00 in phone support
- from Microsoft, the technical support rep told me that I should find a
- better software package than The Cat's Pajamas. This was not the
- solution I was looking for, since this is the package that a sizeable
- percentage of presses our size nationwide are running, so I was forced
- to bring the old Novell server back into production until I could
- figure something out. . . . Fourteen months later, we are running Linux
- as our server.
- </blockquote>
- <p>The UNIX equivalent of the "Blue Screen of Death" would be called
- "kernel panic." It obviously exists, since I have heard and read about
- it, but I've never been witness to it in my professional career.
- Although I am sure that UNIX servers do crash on occasion, these are
- extremely rare events. If and when a UNIX server crashes, it is almost
- always due to a hardware failure of some sort. Any software induced
- problems in a UNIX environment generally make themselves known over a
- period of time, sometimes in the form of overall gradual performance
- degradation of the system, giving the administrator ample time to track
- down the source of the problem, correct it, and stop/restart the
- <i>process</i> (very rarely the entire machine!) causing the problem.
- In general, a UNIX server is halted only in the following situations:
- </p><ul>
- <li>Due to a hardware failure, for instance, a hard drive fails;
- </li><li>A hardware upgrade needs to be performed;
- </li><li>A lengthy power outage has occurred and the backup power supply
- resources have been exhausted;
- </li><li>The kernel is being upgraded.
- </li><li>A beta kernel is being tested (not recommended for production
- environments).
- </li></ul>
- If none of the above the above occurs, then a UNIX system's uptime can
- be measured in years. NT, however, cannot boast of such periods of
- uninterrupted service. Even if one could eliminate the "Blue Screen of
- Death," NT is hampered by its own design and use of
- difficult-to-recreate proprietary binary configuration files, for
- instance, the NT registry. Read about a
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/massive-nt-failure.html">
- massive NT failure</a> that
- lead to over 10,000 NT machines being rendered useless for any task
- requiring network resources.
- <hr>
- <h3><a name="management">System Management</a></h3>
- <p>The argument that Windows NT is easier to manage due to its GUI
- (point-and-click graphical user interface) is unfounded. The
- advantage, if any, of GUI over CLI (command line interface, i.e. having
- manually to type commands from a keyboard) is questionable. The first
- assumption is that Windows NT has an advantage over UNIX because of its
- GUI. This is wrong. UNIX operating systems have a GUI as well (see
- this
- <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://citv.unl.edu/linux/LinuxPresentation.html#Ease of administration">graphic example</a></b>).
- </p><blockquote>
- "NT has long enjoyed an intuitive user interface for managing single
- systems, largely benefiting from the exceptional familiarity of the
- Windows look-and-feel adopted by the NT GUI. However, as users begin to
- deploy large numbers of servers, and geographically-dispersed servers,
- some of NT's architectural shortcomings for system management have
- become more apparent, deriving primarily from its design as a
- single-user system. The multi-user design of UNIX supports remote
- access at multiple levels, including the ability to login with a
- character session, via telnet, to edit configuration files, running GUI
- tools over the network-enabled X Window System, and now through Java
- versions of system management tools. NT currently enjoys none of these
- features. Rather, remote NT management typically involves either
- installing a local expert which Microsoft hopes will be easier due to
- NT's larger volumes and similarity to mainstream Windows versions or
- relying on layered system management products from Microsoft or third
- parties. Neither option, though, quite matches the efficiency of
- managing distributed UNIX systems."<br>
- -- Quoted from:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix.digital.com/unix/v4/dhbrown/AIX43.htm">
- An In-Depth Analysis of Five Commercial UNIX Operating Systems and
- Windows NT Server 4.0 (Enterprise Edition) by D.H. Brown Associates,
- Inc.</a>
- </blockquote>
- <p>See also: <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea0797/nt/sub9.html">
- NT Lies: Lie 9 - Zero administration is here.</a></b>
- </p><hr>
- <h3><a name="performance">Performance</a></h3>
- <p>Processing power is largely a function of computer hardware rather
- than of operating system. Since most commercial UNIX operating systems
- run only on high-end workstations or servers, it would be ridiculous to
- compare an
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/hardware/largescale/index.html">
- IBM SP2</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/servers/ultra_enterprise/10000/spec.html">
- Sun Enterprise 10000</a>, or a
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/servers/enterprise/450/;$sessionid$DSWFMQYAABX5HAMW0JZE45UBS1JHEUDO">
- Sun Enterprise 450</a>
- to anything Compaq or Dell produces. UNIX has
- been historically an operating system for high-end hardware. To say
- that UNIX outperforms NT based on the results of differing hardware
- would be unfair to Microsoft. On the other hand, Microsoft has
- reduced, rather than increased, the number of hardware architectures it
- supports. NT for MIPS has been discontinued due to lack of customers
- and PowerPC support is only marginal. NT, now reduced to only x86 and
- Alpha architectures will remain "a poor man's server" as it is commonly
- referred to in the IT business.
- </p><p>NT's lack of reliability is only surpassed by its lack of
- scalability. The superior scalability achieved by the commercial UNIX
- operating systems on their respective hardware is the reason why large
- corporations with high capacity computing needs cannot switch to NT
- even if they wanted to. Mary Hubley, Research Director with the <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.gartner.com/">GartnerGroup</a></b>, mentions in her article <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.gartner.com/public/static/datapro/industry/indnews6.html">
- NT and UNIX: Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object</a></b> (January
- 1998) that the public's overly positive perception of NT's
- capabilities is based mainly on marketing hype:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Many people believe that NT is easier to use than it actually is,
- scales better than it does, and is powerful enough to do what UNIX can
- do. But most of this perception is due to great marketing by Microsoft,
- and is not reality.
- </blockquote>
- If high performance Windows file sharing is of utmost importance,
- then one should consider choosing a server configuration that has
- broken the world speed record for such services, an SGI machine
- running IRIX:
- <blockquote>
- "Samba 2.0 has been benchmarked using the Ziff-Davis NetBench (R)
- benchmarking suite, as the world's fastest Windows server, achieving
- 193 megabits per second file serving performance on a Silicon Graphics
- (R) Origin 200 (R) server with 60 Windows clients."
- <p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://lwn.net/1999/0121/samba.html">
- Samba Team Releases Samba 2.0:
- World's Fastest Windows Server Software</a></b> as
- sent out on Sat, 16 Jan 1999 16:08:38 +1100 to recipients on the
- Samba Announcement Mailing List (samba-announce@samba.org) with
- the HTML version hosted courtesy of
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://lwn.net/">Linux Weekly News</a></b>.
- </p></blockquote>
- This announcement also reveals one <i>very</i> important fact regarding
- the interoperability with Windows NT domains:
- <blockquote>
- "Samba 2.0 features the first non-Microsoft implementation of the
- Windows NT Domain authentication protocols, allowing a Samba 2.0
- server to be seamlessly integrated into an existing Windows NT Domain."
- </blockquote>
- <p>For even more information, try visiting one of the many
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://samba.org/">Samba Web sites</a> located in 20
- different countries.
- </p><p>Ann Harrison's article provides an excellent testimonial from
- Southwestern Bell regarding how Linux outperforms NT:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Randy Kessell, manager of technical analysis for a Southwestern Bell
- operation center, . . .
- adds that his company is thinking about replacing
- their NT network server
- with Linux. 'Our preliminary tests show that the Linux solution is
- outrunning the NT solution,'
- says Kessell. 'It's much faster.'
- <p>-- Ann Harrison,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremag.com/Sept98/sm098cv.htm">
- In LINUX We . . .</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremagazine.com/">
- Software Magazine</a>, Cover Story, September 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ugraf.com/">European MikroGraf Corporation</a>
- has published the results of their own
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ugraf.com/unix-nt/jt/unix-nt.nob.html">UNIX vs
- NT</a></b> performance comparison and explains why:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Several times a month, customers in the printing and prepress industry
- ask us what server platform they should use: Unix or
- Windows NT. Windows NT might be acceptable for day-to-day operations in
- the average business, but does not handle the loads that
- publishers typically put on servers.
- </blockquote>
- <p>The interesting thing about MikroGraf's
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ugraf.com/unix-nt/jt/unix-nt.nob.html">
- UNIX vs NT comparison</a> is that the same hardware was used in two of
- the four tests, a Digital Model 2100: once with Digital UNIX as the
- operating system, and again with Windows NT on the same hardware.
- </p><p>To be fair, one should compare NT Server's performance to that of
- Linux or FreeBSD, since all three operating systems run on the same
- hardware, Intel, the hardware-type most often used with NT.
- Unfortunately, a truly objective analysis of performance would have to
- based on benchmarks, but these are not plentiful and usually only focus
- on specific areas like Web performance:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.calderasystems.com/news/features/971222.keylabs.html">
- Caldera OpenLinux vs. Windows NT: WebBench Performance Test</a>. The
- general consensus among IT professionals is, however, that Linux and
- FreeBSD greatly outperform NT. Considering that these UNIX kernels are
- custom-compiled to contain only the software actually required by the
- administrator, Linux and FreeBSD can function more efficiently than NT.
- Inherently, any operating system requiring fewer resources will
- outperform a more <i>bloated</i> operating system like NT. UNIX does
- not require a graphical user interface to function. NT does. Anyone
- knows that graphics require incredible amounts of disk space and
- memory. The same holds true for sound files, which seem to be so
- important to the Microsoft operating systems.
- </p><p>Benchmarks performed on similar UNIX operating systems using the
- same hardware are more meaningful.
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.tdl.com/~netex/mb/mb.html">Net Express</a>, an
- Internet retailer of x86-based hardware, whose systems are "designed
- for scientists, engineers and the telecommunications industry," shows
- what results can be achieved with the proper operating system:
- </p><blockquote>
- <hr>
- <h4><font size="-1">Byte UNIX Benchmark 3.2 for OS Comparison:</font></h4>
- <p><font size="-1">In addition we are presenting these Byte UNIX
- Benchmark 3.2 results for comparing the relative speeds of three
- popular UNIX/UNIX-Clone OS's. Tests were conducted on Pentium 133MHz
- machines with 32MB's of RAM, the Triton-II 430HX chip set and a
- BusLogic SCSI controller: </font><br>
- </p></blockquote>
- </td></tr></tbody></table>
- <table border="1">
- <tbody><tr>
- <th align="left" bgcolor="#0000FF"><b><font color="#FFFFFF">System</font></b></th>
- <th bgcolor="#0000FF"><b><font color="#FFFFFF">Bytemarks</font></b></th>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><font size="-1">Linux on a Pentium 133MHz </font></td>
- <td align="center"><font size="-1">12.2</font></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><font size="-1">BSD on a Pentium 133MHz </font></td>
- <td align="center"><font size="-1">9.8</font></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><font size="-1">Solaris 2.5 on a Pentium 133MHz </font></td>
- <td align="center"><font size="-1">6.2</font></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><font size="-1">Solaris on a Sun Sparc-II Ultra 167MHz System </font></td>
- <td align="center"><font size="-1">13.7</font></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td><font size="-1">Solaris 2.5 on an Orion Pentium Pro 200MHz </font></td>
- <td align="center"><font size="-1">13.5</font></td>
- </tr>
- </tbody></table>
- <table width="85%" cellspacing="0">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td>
- <blockquote>
- <p><font size="-1">From these results we can see that Linux is a very efficient
- OS. Scores for Linux on the Pentium 133 were nearly as fast as Solaris
- 2.5 on a 167MHz Sparc Ultra or a 200MHz Pentium Pro!!!</font></p>
- <center><p><i><font size="-1">Copyright © 1996 Net Express All Rights
- Reserved. </font></i></p></center>
- <hr>
- </blockquote>
- <p><a name="KickAss">Perhaps</a> an example of the performance
- advantage one could expect to find when choosing a UNIX operating
- system coupled with the
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a> (free)
- Apache Web Server can be found in an
- article by Sean Fulton that appeared in INTERNETWEEK on May 5, 1997,
- <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?CWK19970505S0103">
- Towers of Power -- We test five muscular Web servers aimed at high-end
- intranet applications</a></b>. For NT, the test results were pretty
- devastating:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Telenet System Solutions produced the most surprises during our tests,
- with a BSDi-powered, single-CPU system that kept up with-and in some
- cases outperformed-twin-CPU machines running Windows NT.
- <p>"The differentiating factor here was the BSDi 3.0 OS loaded on the
- machine and its Apache HTTP server software. All of the twin-CPU
- machines were running Windows NT 4.0 with Microsoft's Internet
- Information Server 2.0.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>While on the subject of Web Server performance, IBM has regained the
- title of fastest Web server with the introduction of its new 262 MHz
- PowerPC RS64-II microprocessor:
- </p><blockquote>
- "The new processor will also make IBM's S70 one of the fastest Web
- servers on the market when used in certain configurations, according
- to a certain benchmark test selected by IBM. In a 12-way configuration,
- the S70 delivered SPECweb96 performance of 9,081 HTTP operations per
- second, making it the first system to break the 9,000 barrier,
- according to IBM.
- <p>-- James Niccolai,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980812.ecrs6000.htm">
- New chip to debut in IBM's RS/6000 Model S70</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">
- InfoWorld Electric</a>, 12 August 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>For enterprise-level processing power, clustering wth Linux can
- produce awesome results at a modest price. In a recent report by
- Michael Stutz, NASA's Beowulf project sets an example for the
- the potential of such <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a>
- UNIX operating systems like Linux in the area of supercomputing:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Enter <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.beowulf.org/">Beowulf</a>,
- a system that uses a parallel-processing
- architecture and off-the-shelf machines running the freely
- available Linux operating system. One machine is the server
- node, and distributes a processing job to all of the other
- machines, which are client nodes.
- <p>
- "The total hardware cost for CCD's 24-node Beowulf cluster
- was US$57,000 -- as compared to most commercial
- supercomputers today, which cost between $10 million and
- $30 million. The cluster gives 2.4 gigabytes per second
- throughput, which means that a 200 GB hard drive can be
- scanned in only 20 seconds. While it took five to seven
- weeks to analyze the evidence of several intruders in the
- recent Israeli hacker case, Talleur said it would have only
- taken a few hours with Beowulf.
- </p><p>
- "The Beowulf project was developed at NASA by Thomas
- Sterling and Donald Becker in the summer of 1994; today,
- anyone can buy a Beowulf CD-ROM -- Red Hat
- Software's
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.redhat.com/product.phtml/EX1000/">Extreme Linux</a>
- package -- for $29.
- </p><p>
- -- Michael Stutz,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/14450.html">
- NASA Greets Beowulf</a></b>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.wired.com/news/">Wired News</a>,
- 17 August 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <hr>
- <h3><a name="security">Security</a></h3>
- <p>This topic is too vast and complex to be fully addressed in an
- article of this scope. Security is, however, very important.
- The following links are excellent starting points for comparing the
- security weaknesses of the various operating systems:
- </p><ul>
- <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/petrel/980713np.htm">
- Probing into C2 security claims: Is NT as secure as Microsoft has said it is?</a><br>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea0797/nt/sub2.html">
- NT Lies: Lie 2 - NT is less secure than UNIX</a><br>
- (Real security means taking a server off the network and locking it up!)
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea0797/nt/sub4.html">
- NT Lies: Lie 4 - NT Meets Military Standards</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.byte.com/art/9711/sec6/art3.htm">
- A BYTE article on Windows NT security problems</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.iss.net/vd/bill_stout/NThacks/ntfsdos.htm">
- NT secured filesystem (NTFS) can be read from Linux, bypassing filesystem security.</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.iss.net/vd/bill_stout/ntexploits.htm">
- Known NT Exploits</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.it.kth.se/~rom/ntsec.html">
- NT Security - Frequently Asked Questions version 0.41</a>
- </li><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://afcert.csap.af.mil/vulnerabilities.html">
- AFCERT - Security Issues for various operating systems</a>
- </li></ul>
- <hr>
- <h2><a name="misconceptions">Some Common Misconceptions</a></h2>
- <p><b>NT is a toy operating system</b>
- </p><p>For an operating system that <i>has</i> evolved from a toy operating
- system, it offers some professional functionality. Although it does
- not scale very well -- performance goes down with more than 4 CPUs per
- server -- it has come a long way. Although I would not recommend it as
- the primary operating system in an enterprise environment, it should
- yield satisfactory performance for small businesses with fewer than 250
- user accounts that do not run mission critical processes. Please keep
- in mind, however, that a single NT server will not be sufficient to
- service 250 users. The general recommendation is one PDC (Windows NT
- Primary Domain Controller) and two BDCs (Backup Domain Controllers).
- Having other server applications on the PDC is also not recommended.
- Should RDBMS, E-mail, Web, and other typical services be required,
- three NT servers will most likely prove to be insufficient.
- </p><p><b>By converting everything to Windows NT a company can eliminate
- the problems of a heterogeneous networking environment.</b>
- </p><p>The first assumption here is that a heterogeneous networking
- environment is a problem. I once worked at a company where NT and
- Novell coexisted with very little conflict. As a matter of fact, the
- very reason for this coexistence was because Novell outperformed NT in
- the area of file and printer sharing services. With UNIX, one can
- create Microsoft-compatible file and printer sharing without the users
- ever knowing that these services emanate from a UNIX server. For all
- they know, it's an NT server. This functionality is provided for in
- Sun's UNIX operating system, Solaris. Linux can use a software package
- called <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://samba.anu.edu.au/samba/">
- Samba</a></b> that ships with most distributions to achieve this. Samba
- is available for practically all UNIX operating systems. It has also
- been ported to VMS, MVS, OS/2, Stratus-VOS, Amiga, Novell, and MPE/iX.
- </p><p><b><a name="gui">UNIX is this outdated, cryptic, command-line based
- operating system.</a></b>
- </p><p>Wrong! CDE (Common Desktop Environment) is a GUI desktop (Graphical
- User Interface: you use a mouse to point and click, or drag and drop on
- a colorful "desktop"; this is the basis for Microsoft's success.). CDE
- ships with most commercial UNIX operating systems: Sun's <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/solaris/">Solaris</a></b>,
- IBM's <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/software/OS/aix43.html">
- AIX</a></b>
- Hewlett Packard's <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://software.external.hp.com/OS_transition/WHYTRANS.HTM">
- HP-UX</a></b>,
- DEC's <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix.digital.com/">Digital UNIX</a></b>, to name a
- few. For around $90 you can get CDE for Linux if you happen to be
- dissatisfied with your choice of <b>four GUI systems</b> that ship with
- Linux: OpenLook, the GUI that Solaris used to use; FVWM, an
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a> (free) GUI
- that has many similarities to the Windows 3.1 GUI; or FVWM-95, another
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a>
- GUI that mimics the Windows 95 GUI (when looking at a single
- window, one can't distinguish between FVWM-95 and Windows 95). TWM is
- the predecessor of the various FVWM window managers which also ships
- with Linux. If you've never had the opportunity to sit at a computer
- running UNIX, here are some <b><font color="RED">SCREENSHOTS</font></b>
- of these window managers:
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://e.themes.org/sqlgal.cgi?version=DR0.15">
- Enlightenment</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.plig.org/xwinman/screenshots/dtwm.gif">
- CDE</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/images/ted.jpg">
- TED</a></b> (TriTeal's CDE for Linux),
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.kde.org/kscreenshots.html">
- KDE</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.plig.org/xwinman/screenshots/fvwm-wlug.jpg">
- FVWM 1.24</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.plig.org/xwinman/screenshots/fvwm-geir.gif">
- FVWM 2.x</a></b>, <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.terraware.net/ftp/pub/Mirrors/FVWM95/screenshot-full.gif">
- FVWM-95</a></b>, <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://cslib.ecs.soton.ac.uk/wm/gfx/orig-olvwm.jpg">
- olvwm</a></b>(OpenLook Virtual Window Manger). These are only some of
- the GUI interfaces available to UNIX users. Matt Chapman's
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.plig.org/xwinman/">Guide to Window Managers for The
- X Window System</a> is an excellent resource on this topic. You will
- find many more screenshots on his site than I am able to list here.
- Keep in mind that almost all of these window managers are highly
- configurable; you shouldn't be surprised to see screenshots made of the
- same window manager which look completely different. As Matt states on
- his page, "Let's face it, people are different, and those that use
- computers use them in different ways for different tasks. So why do
- some think we should all use (suffer?) the same interface?"
- Ironically, it is Microsoft's graphical user interface that is lacking
- the features of customization.
- </p><p>As for the claim that UNIX is behind the times, it is still the
- operating system of choice for science, engineering, research, and
- higher education. Most engineers would choose UNIX over NT without
- hesitation. They are fully aware of its ability to be customized and
- its tuning capabilities for the optimization of specialized computing
- tasks. Readers' feedback to
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.isdmag.com/">isd</a> confirm this attitude:
- </p><blockquote>
- "As we suspected, most designers are adamant: They want their EDA tools
- to run under Unix. What's more, they say that Linux is
- technically excellent by every measure, and NT simply isn't. Painfully
- aware that technical excellence doesn't guarantee market
- share, many readers say that this time it should.
- <p>
- "Although readers' sentiments overwhelmingly backed Linux, we were
- impressed with the quality of the input . . . ."
- </p><p>
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.isdmag.com/Editorial/1998/CoverStory9807.html">
- Engineers Speak Out: Linux vs. Windows NT, Part 1</a></b><br>
- -- Murry Shohat, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.isdmag.com/">
- <i>Intergrated System Design</i> Magazine</a>, July 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p><b>Everyone is converting to NT anyway, we might as well gradually
- replace our UNIX servers with NT servers. It's the way of the
- future.</b>
- </p><p>If you talk to MIS managers of some large corporations who had UNIX
- and Novell two years ago, and then replaced their Novell servers with
- NT servers, you'll find that none of them can manage without their UNIX
- servers. It seems that heavy processing is still better accomplished
- with UNIX servers. So far in my career, every Oracle server I've ever
- seen was running on a UNIX server. One IT professional, however, did
- send me e-mail saying, "I support several installations of ORACLE on
- NT. There are performance and functional issues that I encounter which
- I have never seen on UNIX (Pyramid)."
- </p><hr>
- <h2><a name="views">Views of Other MIS Professionals</a></h2>
- <p><b>Robert Schindler, a mechanical engineer based in Florida who has
- been working for the past decade as a free-lance consultant for various
- Fortune 100 companies in the field of structural analysis, writes:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "It will be a long time before you hear me praise NT or any other MS
- product. I believe that Gates and his empire have done more to lower
- the standards of our society than anything else in my lifetime. If my
- product had the same quality as theirs, airplanes would be falling out
- of the sky hourly.
- </blockquote>
- <p><b>One professional who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job writes:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "At my day job I work at a big firm. It's one of the biggest of its
- kind in the world. We decided to go with a Network Monitoring and
- Management package from Cabletron. It's available on both NT and Unix.
- The people who would run it gave them a blank check for the system to
- be set up under NT because they were more familiar with NT than they
- were with Unix. About a year and a quarter million
- dollars later, they finally gave up on NT and did it over with Solaris.
- Why? NT just doesn't scale up.
- </blockquote>
- <p><b>Tim Newsham writes in response to this article:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "I develop software in NT and in UNIX. I despise NT. It is a horrid
- beast, it performs very very poorly and it is way too unstable. Some
- parts of NT are so broken that the majority of time porting software to
- the system involves working around microsoft bugs. It bothers me that
- so many people are migrating away from unix to NT. I can only imagine
- that eventually there will be a large anti-NT backlash as management
- types realize how much NT has hurt their organizations.
- </blockquote>
- <p><b>Joseph Day, a consultant in Chicago, replies to Jessie Berst:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "I do a lot of software development on both NT, and 95. I can't seem to
- understand why people are hyping up these platforms as being so great.
- . . . The support you get in the Linux community through netnews is far
- superior to anything that you will ever see with Microsoft products. .
- . . NT has a ways to go before it will reach the level of stability
- that Linux has.<br>
- -- Excerpts from a letter by Joseph Day entitled,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/talkback/talkback_72950.html">
- How did Microsoft pay you to write this article?</a>, Source:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/index.html">
- Jesse Berst's Anchor Desk.</a> February 16, 1998,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/">ZDNet</a>.
- </blockquote>
- <p><b>Torsten Holvak, a systems administrator in Laramie, WY, replies to Jessie Berst:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "Jesse: I'm sure Microsoft, like IBM in the 60s, would love to have
- people believe that choosing something other than their products would
- be a career-limiting move. But it just ain't so! I'd fire an employee
- for putting mission-critical e-mail or Web server applications on an NT
- machine rather than a UNIX box. We use FreeBSD for everything and there
- is nothing more stable. Not only are free UNIX servers faster, more
- powerful, and more stable than NT, but the support is better, too. Just
- try to get an answer from a Microsoft tech without paying big bucks
- and/or waiting on hold. And consider yourself lucky if it actually
- solves your problem. I find it hard to believe that this story appeared
- on your front page. It's embarrassing. I sure didn't THINK you were
- into spreading Microsoft
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://sagan.earthspace.net/jargon/jargon_21.html#TAG712">
- FUD</a>. <br>
- -- Excerpts from a letter by Torsten Holvak entitled,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/talkback/talkback_72969.html">
- I'd fire someone for using NT</a>, Source:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/index.html">
- Jesse Berst's Anchor Desk.</a> February 16, 1998,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/">ZDNet</a>.
- </blockquote>
- <p><b>Quinn P. Coldiron, Information Systems Department manager for the
- University of Nebraska Press, writes about his experiences with Novell,
- Windows NT, and Linux:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "After completing the morning duties, we normally run a complete Cats
- [an order fulfillment and inventory system] backup before we continue
- with closing which usually would take two hours to complete on the
- Netware server. The Linux machine was able to do the entire backup in
- 45 minutes, cutting a little over an hour off our closing time. This
- increase in speed came from a decrease in hardware because the Linux
- server was running only 32 MB in RAM and IDE hard drives where the
- Netware server had 64 MB in RAM and SCSI drives. The speed increase has
- been noticed in daily work also. I get almost daily remarks that the
- system seems to be running faster and more reliable.
- <p>"We have recently upgraded the CPU to a 200Mhz Pentium and have
- upgraded the Memory to 64 MB to handle the newest plans of making this
- server replace our Windows NT file/printer server, which still crashes
- about twice a month for no reason, even after an additional $1,500 in
- tech support with Microsoft. This single computer running Red Hat Linux
- will replace both our Novell Netware 3.11 server and our Windows NT 4.0
- server, while decreasing total hardware requirements. With the recent
- advances from the Samba team in supporting the NT domain structure and
- the December 1997 release of Red Hat 5.0, I expect to have a very
- efficient and inexpensive server for our Windows 95, Windows NT and
- Macintosh clients. <br>
- -- Quoted from: <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ssc.com/lg/issue29/coldiron.html">
- Replacing Windows NT Server with Linux</a></b>
- </p></blockquote>
- <p><b>On September 29, 1997 Nick Johnson writes in a
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://dev4.byte.com/joncon/_fmsg00441.html">Byte Forum</a>:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "From an administrator perspective, I have a very difficult time taking
- an operating system seriously when it needs 128 megs of RAM, two
- 200-Mhz processors and 8 gigs of hard drive space just to run a small
- intranet web server, especially when the OS crashes and reboots from a
- simple, standard TCP packet. NT is just impossible to consider when
- reliability and speed are required. You could perform the same task I
- mentioned above on a 386 with 16 megs of RAM running FreeBSD, without
- paying the high Microsoft price tag.
- </blockquote>
- <p><b>
- Mike Hucka, a UNIX administrator and programmer in Michigan, writes:</b>
- </p><blockquote>
- "What boggles my mind is <i>why</i> people are investing so much in NT
- solutions when there is so much evidence that the UNIX solutions are
- more mature, stable, less expensive, and perform so much better? Why?
- What is wrong with people?
- <p>"Do people simply not know about the capabilities of UNIX?"
- </p><p>"Do people think that UNIX systems are too difficult to use? I may
- be biased, but when I look at desktop environments such as CDE on a
- Sun, or KDE, I think that's pretty close to what you find on a PC or
- Mac. And there is a TREMENDOUS amount of documentation for UNIX now
- available -- just consider all the books published by
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.oreilly.com/">O'Reilly & Associates</a>,
- or the online manuals available at Sun's site <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://docs.sun.com/">http://docs.sun.com</a></b>, or any of
- hundreds of sites with information about every imaginable aspect of
- UNIX.
- </p><p>"And not only that, but you can get free versions of UNIX that are
- comparable in stability and scalability to Solaris, and will run quite
- well on PC class hardware if you so choose.
- </p><p>"And to top it all off, you can get source code."
- </p></blockquote>
- <h3><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/feedback/">
- Feedback from Readers of this Article</a></h3>
- <p>This is a new external section containing some of the best feedback
- I have received in response to the article.
- </p><hr>
- <h2><a name="web">Web Servers</a></h2>
- <p>The life-blood of the Internet is the Web. This is the face that
- the public sees. If your site is slow, plagued with technical problems,
- or inaccessible, this will surely have adverse effects. Since most
- large corporations are UNIX-oriented, they normally go with Web server
- software like Apache or Netscape-Enterprise.
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a></b>
- was conceived with UNIX in mind. It is free and currently rules the
- Internet. Roughly <i>half</i> the Web servers on the Internet are
- running Apache (see
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.netcraft.co.uk/Survey/"><b>the Netcraft Web Server
- Survey</b></a>). Microsoft's IIS Web server software does not even
- amount to one-quarter of all Internet-connected Web servers. Apache is
- currently being used by
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://java.sun.com/">Javasoft</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.fbi.gov/">The FBI</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ft.com/">Financial Times</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.imdb.com/">The Movies Database</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.w3.org/">W3 Consortium</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.royal.gov.uk/">The Royal Family</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford University Libraries Automation Service</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.mit.edu/"> M.I.T.</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a>, and the
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a>.
- Netcraft also mentions that "Virtual hosting company
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.rapidsite.com/">Rapidsite</a>
- is now the fifth placed server in the survey. Their hosting system,
- running a personalised version of Apache, supports 44,280 domain names
- on 39,905 distinct ip addresses. An achievement, and probably the
- world's largest hosting system." You will recall that in the
- performance section of this article the
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#KickAss">UNIX-Apache marriage put the NT-IIS one to
- shame</a>. Not only is Apache fast, it's free.
- Apache's rule over the Internet has also been recognized by
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ibm.com/">IBM</a> who now has a partnership with
- Apache:
- </p><blockquote>
- <b>IBM Teams Up With Apache</b><br>
- "IBM will ship the Apache HTTP server with the IBM WebSphere Application
- Server, helping
- current Apache users to evolve to e-business solutions. As part of the
- WebSphere Application
- Server package, IBM will provide commercial, enterprise-level support for the Apache HTTP
- Server. In addition, IBM will be a full participant in the Apache HTTP Server Project, a
- collaborative development effort, and will make contributions to enhance the capabilities of the
- Apache HTTP Server. <br>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ibm.com/News/1998/06/223.phtml">
- IBM helps companies turn simple web sites into powerful e-business
- solutions</a>, IBM News, 22 June, 1998.
- </blockquote>
- <p>For the most robust Web server a corporation could ever need,
- Netscape-Enterprise is a great choice. Although it is not
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</a>
- like Apache, it will meet the most demanding needs. Netscape-Enterprise
- is used by such
- companies as
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bmw.de/">BMW</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.dilbert.com/">Dilbert</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sgi.com/">Silicon Graphics</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.shell.com/">Shell</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/">Sun Microsystems</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sybase.com/">Sybase</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ferrari.it/">Ferrari</a> and
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.vatican.va/">The Vatican</a>.
- </p><p>Microsoft's IIS is one of the few things that actually comes with
- Windows NT. It does not possess any special or unique qualities not
- already found in other Web server software. It excels neither in speed,
- nor in popularity, nor in the number of concurrent hits it can handle.
- It is currently being used by
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.compaq.com/">Compaq</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.nasdaq.com/">Nasdaq</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.nfl.com/">The National Football League</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.exxon.com/">Exxon</a>,
- and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://shop.tesco.co.uk/">Tesco</a>.
- To further substantiate my claim
- that Microsoft IIS is not up to speed, while testing the validity of the
- links for the sites above, I discovered that
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://shop.tesco.co.uk/">Tesco</a> was unable to service any
- requests between 00:02:53 and 00:53:07 GMT on Monday, 22 June 1998.
- Their Web server kept returning the message <b>HTTP/1.1 Server Too
- Busy</b> despite my repeated attempts from my own domain and from
- other domains I telnetted into. The Web server never did manage
- to deliver their home page. I simply gave up after 50 minutes of
- seeing the same error message from various clients in various domains.
- I have only ever seen this message from IIS Web servers.
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://shop.tesco.co.uk/">Tesco</a> is running
- Microsoft-IIS/4.0. Telnetting directly into their Web server on port
- 80 revealed another unprofessional aspect of their site. Despite the
- wide availability of ntp servers the world over, their system clock was
- off by 8 minutes and 51 seconds.
- </p><p><a name="win95">For</a> Windows 95 and NT users, one of the most
- popular places on the Web to get freeware and shareware is a site
- called <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.windows95.com/">www.windows95.com</a></b>. Due to
- the immense popularity of the site it requires a robust operating
- system and performance oriented Web server software. Since all the
- software offered at this site is exclusively for Windows 95 or NT, and
- the overall flavor tends to be very pro-Microsoft, one would assume
- that NT servers running IIS would be the logical choice for their
- Internet solution. Well, here's
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.windows95.com/about/faq.html">a quote from one of their own Web pages</a>:
- </p><blockquote>
- <b>What hardware and software is Windows95.com running on?</b>
- <blockquote>
- We use Pentium Pro computers running the BSDI UNIX operating system
- with Apache Web server software. Our servers are connected to the
- Internet via multi-homed T3 connections.
- </blockquote>
- </blockquote>
- Note: This quote is from February 1998. They recently changed their
- name from Windows95.com to WinFiles.com although they still have use of
- the windows95.com domain name. This change took place in March 1998.
- <p>To verify what an Internet site is running at any given time,
- try the following link:
- </p><center>
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.netcraft.co.uk/cgi-bin/Survey/whats">
- What is that Site Running?</a></b>
- </center>
- <hr>
- <h2><a name="conclusion">Conclusion</a></h2>
- <p>Ironically, it seems from the observations of experienced system
- administrators that UNIX would be the operating system of choice either
- for installations on a tight budget or huge corporations with a demand
- for high-powered multi-processor servers requiring a scalable operating
- system. <i>Washington Post</i> Staff Writer, Elizabeth Corcoran,
- provides us with a real-world example:
- </p><blockquote>
- Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, for instance, has used Sun
- workstations and servers to process checks for several years. It
- recently bought several top-of-the-line Sun servers to handle the
- demands of a million bills a day. The choices, said James Holtman, CBIS
- vice president, were either Sun servers or IBM mainframes. Microsoft's
- technology "isn't quite there yet. It has a ways to
- grow to match those-size systems," he said.<br>
- (<i>The Washington Post</i>, Sunday, February 8, 1998; Page H01)
- </blockquote>
- Provided that a company is small to medium-sized, has few
- mission-critical processes to be run, is willing to hire additional
- administrators for their Microsoft Exchange and Internet Information
- Server(s), and has a substantial budget for Microsoft's "per server" or
- "per seat" licensing scheme, then NT would be the operating system of
- choice. The <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/">Aberdeen<i>Group</i></a></b> has published an excellent <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/research/comp/onsite/case1/body.htm">
- case study</a></b> on migrating to Windows NT.
- <p>NT is also an excellent choice for managers who need to show that
- they used up their fiscal year budget for hardware/software
- expenditures. Perhaps this is why it requires no prior purchase
- approval within federal agencies; "NT has become the 'unofficial'
- standard operating system for the federal government. Federal
- employees whose responsibilities include the acquisition of computer
- hardware/software require prior written approval from above before
- ordering a UNIX operating system or hardware which cannot run Windows
- NT. For Intel-based hardware or Windows NT, no prior approval is
- required." (as reported by a vendor of Sun solutions who wishes to
- remain anonymous)
- </p><p>For small shops or power users on a budget, or even medium to large
- businesses who are beginning to escape the antiquated mind-set that
- performance is best gauged by the last figure on the sales receipt,
- Linux or FreeBSD can easily exceed the performance and functionality of
- an NT solution, do it with inexpensive Intel-based hardware, and do it
- for $0.00, a price Bill Gates will find difficult to beat. Why invest
- in an operating system that will require expensive training and
- re-training with each new NT release? UNIX/Linux administrators are
- plentiful and generally more technically capable than their NT
- counterparts (most UNIX administrators have some coding/scripting
- skills seldom found among the new generation of "NT admins"). Why spend
- almost $5,000 for MS Exchange Server (this price only covers 50 client
- accesses), which in some companies, seems to only be able to handle the
- e-mail of a few hundred employees when you can use the built-in
- "Sendmail" mail server software that ships with Linux, a tried and
- proven application capable of supporting the e-mail demands of
- thousands of employees?
- </p><p>As to the actual overall features and performance of the two
- operating systems, it seems that UNIX wins hands down. It offers a
- variety of vendors (no threat of a monopoly), scalability, more
- efficient use of system resources, remote administration, remote
- computing, multi-user capabilities, large palette of (professional)
- software resources, vendor independent standards (POSIX), control of
- users' disk usage (unlike NT), and can't be crashed by viruses written
- 10 years ago for DOS computers. But the most important thing of all to
- remember from this article when trying to choose between Windows NT and
- one of the many UNIX operating systems is this:
- </p><blockquote>
- A <b>UNIX</b> operating system will give you <b>choices</b>: any type
- of hardware, CLI or GUI, commercial or GNU, diverse choice of vendors.
- It is <b>dynamic</b>, i.e. you can build a customized kernel to fit the
- specific computing needs at hand.
- <p><b>Windows NT</b> will give you <b>restrictions</b>: only Intel or
- Alpha; no CLI, only GUI (try booting NT into CLI-only mode) and then
- only one GUI (no wide choice of windowing systems as can be found under
- X); only commercial MTAs, only Microsoft (ever heard of another company
- marketing "NT Server clone" operating systems?), etc. NT Server is
- <b>static</b>, i.e. you will never be able to build a customized
- kernel. One size fits few.
- </p></blockquote>
- <p>Although Microsoft is not the only "restrictions-oriented" software
- vendor promoting its own closed, proprietary solutions, one would hope
- that organizations promoting open systems and solutions would prevail.
- Netscape is one vendor that promotes diversity and points out
- Microsoft's pro-restriction, anti-choice stance regarding various
- products:
- </p><blockquote>
- [Our] strategy is in sharp contrast to that of vendors like Microsoft,
- whose business model depends on customers upgrading to the most recent
- version of each operating system. Consider that Microsoft's component
- model, ActiveX, and the underlying components are designed to run only
- on 32-bit Windows. Many Microsoft APIs also run only on 32-bit Windows.
- For example, an application that uses ADSI (Microsoft's API to access
- the LDAP directory protocol), will not run on existing Win16 clients,
- much less on Macintosh or Unix systems. Netscape's LDAP API is
- available on 17 platforms in C and many more in Java. In addition,
- Microsoft's future platform services like "Viper's" transaction
- processing and "Falcon's" messaging only runs on NT 5.0 - an Oracle
- database running on Unix, for example, is not supported. The difference
- is clear: with Microsoft, developers write to the Windows platform,
- with Netscape, they write to the Internet platform.<br>
- -- Netscape,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://developer.netscape.com/docs/wpapers/crossware/#advantages">
- Netscape ONE Advantages</a>
- </blockquote>
- <p>It would seem that the question of which operating system to choose
- would be academic at this point based on the information I have
- provided here, yet every day some highly-capable systems/network
- administrator somewhere is told by his/her manager that the company is
- switching over to NT. The administrator is left stunned and confused,
- for he/she already knows the information contained in this article. It
- is the management of your company who should be reading this. All too
- often management rocks the boat and disrupts the harmony of stable,
- economical, and technically superior implementations when they suddenly
- discover that an unapproved operating system has been in use for quite
- some time, based solely on political reasons:
- </p><blockquote>
- "The corporate IT managers notice someday what is that box in the
- corner and they tell them that it's the departmental Web server that's
- been running for a year and a half, and by the way it's running Linux.
- One normal reaction is to upgrade it immediately to NT, but what
- happens is that they go back to Linux because the performance
- dropped.<br>
- --
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/interviews/980409torvalds.htm">
- Linus Torvalds talks economics and operating systems</a>, InfoWorld, April 9, 1998.
- </blockquote>
- This very type of incident happened at <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/cisco.html">Cisco Systems
- Inc.</a></b> but despite the order from senior management to switch
- over to NT, they are still running Linux (get the
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#cisco">details</a></b>). Obviously, some of the technical
- staff refused to comply with this order. Why do you think that
- technical people risk losing their positions over this issue? I'll
- leave this question for you to answer.
- <p>If you are a manager, try to use this information wisely to enhance
- the computing environment at your facility. Talk to your technical
- people and ask them what works. Make the right decision. Don't be
- fooled by salespeople who use buzz words but can't explain them, let
- alone explain their pertinence to <i>your company's</i> computing
- goals. Seek out companies who have implemented both Microsoft
- <i>and</i> UNIX servers for the type of solution you are considering.
- Try meeting with their technical people to get objective, first-hand
- reports on the feasibility, difficulty of implementation, and
- initial+ongoing maintenance costs associated with your proposed
- solution.
- </p><hr>
- <h2><a name="compare">Linux and NT Server 4.0 at a Glance</a></h2>
- <p>Since NT is often chosen on the basis of cost-effective hardware
- solutions, Linux will be the UNIX system in this comparison, for it
- thrives on Intel hardware.
- </p><p>Note: Only the items/features that actually <i>ship</i> with each
- operating system are listed here. Perl 5.0, for instance, is available
- for all platforms, but Microsoft does not provide this with its
- operating systems. On the same note, most distributions of Linux ship
- with only about four GUIs (window managers) to choose from, yet you'll
- note from a previous section in this article, that this is only a small
- number of what is available for Linux, or any other UNIX operating
- system for that matter.
- </p></td></tr></tbody></table>
- </p><p>
- <table width="85%" border="1">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td width="28%"><strong>Component</strong></td>
- <td width="28%"><strong>Linux</strong></td>
- <td width="32%"><strong>Windows NT Server 4.0</strong></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td width="28%">Operating System</td>
- <td width="28%">Free, or around $49.95 for a CD-ROM distribution</td>
- <td width="32%">Five-User version $809<br>
- 10-User version $1129<br>
- EE 25-User Version $3,999</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Free online technical support</td>
- <td>Yes,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.linux.org/help/howto.html">
- Linux Online</a> or
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.redhat.com/">
- Redhat</a></td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Kernel source
- code</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td width="28%">Web Server</td>
- <td width="28%">Apache Web Server</td>
- <td width="32%">IIS</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td width="28%">FTP Server</td>
- <td width="28%">Yes</td>
- <td width="32%">Yes</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td width="28%">Telnet Server</td>
- <td width="28%">Yes</td>
- <td width="32%">No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>SMTP/POP3 Server</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>DNS</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>Yes, though reports indicate that it is a broken implementation
- with limited functionality.</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Networking</td>
- <td>TCP/IP, IPv6, NFS, SMB, IPX/SPX, NCP Server (NetWare Server),
- AppleTalk, plus many other protocols</td>
- <td>TCP/IP, SMB, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, plus many other protocols</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>X Window Server<br>
- (For running remote <br>
- GUI-based applications)</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Remote Management Tools</td>
- <td>Yes, all tools</td>
- <td>Web Administrator 2.0 (a recent addition)
- offers a large, but still not complete,
- set of tools.<br></td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>News Server</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>C and C++ compilers</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Perl 5.0</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Revision Control</td>
- <td>Yes,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/RCS.html">
- RCS</a></td>
- <td>No</td></tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Number of file systems supported</td>
- <td>32</td>
- <td>3</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Disk quotas support</td>
- <td>Yes</td>
- <td>No</td>
- </tr>
- <tr>
- <td>Number of GUIs (window managers) to choose
- from</td>
- <td>4</td>
- <td>1</td>
- </tr>
- </tbody></table>
- <table width="85%" cellspacing="0">
- <tbody><tr>
- <td>
- <p>
- </p><hr>
- <h2><a name="bigguys">What are Major Companies Deploying?</a></h2>
- <p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon.com</a></b><br>
- Amazon.com Books, the world's largest on-line bookstore, relies on
- DIGITAL UNIX AlphaServer 2000 systems to keep its Internet business
- open around the clock. DIGITAL VLM64 technology keeps data highly
- available to customers. "The extensive Web server capabilities of the
- DIGITAL AlphaServer series, coupled with its smooth upgrade path,
- provided the perfect solution for our rapid growth curve."
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.boeing.com/">Boeing</a></b><br>
- Operating systems: HP-UX, IRIX, Solaris, and more NT than some of
- its technical staff would prefer. <br>
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/#boeing">Read what Linus Torvalds has to say about Boeing!</a></b><br>
- Web server: Netscape-Enterprise 2.01
- </p><p>The <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.dallascowboys.com/">Dallas Cowboys</a></b><br>
- Operating systems: <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sgi.com/Products/hardware/servers/products/Irix.html">
- IRIX</a></b>
- (Silicon Graphics UNIX Operating System) and UNIX System V Release 4.0<br>
- MTA: Netscape Messaging Server 3.01<br>
- Web: Netscape-Enterprise 3.0
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.dow.com/">Dow Corning</a></b><br>
- "We're a global operation and have always used mainframes. Choosing
- Sun was a higher risk than other choices, but they really impressed us
- with their technology and commitment. Now that we've worked with Sun,
- if we had to do it over again, we wouldn't even consider making a
- different decision. Sun is doing an outstanding job." <br>
- -- Mark Smith, Manager of Information Technology Systems, Dow Corning
- </p><p>
- <b><a name="ms-solaris" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.hotmail.com/">Hotmail</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.microsoft.com/">The Microsoft Corporation</a></b>
- <br>
- This free Web-based e-mail service runs a mixture of Sun Solaris and
- FreeBSD. Apache 1.2.1 is the Web server software. After Microsoft
- purchased the company in December 1997, they tried to migrate to NT,
- but ". . . the demands of supporting 10 million users reportedly proved
- too great for NT, and Solaris was reinstated." Get the full story:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/hotmail.html">
- Solaris calls Hotmail shots for Microsoft</a>.
- </p><p><b>
- <a name="usps" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.usps.gov/">
- United States Postal Service</a></b>
- <br>
- "The United States Postal Service deployed over 900 Linux based
- systems throughout the United States in 1997 to automatically recognize
- the destination addresses on mail pieces. Each system consists of 5
- dual Pentium Pro 200MHz (PP200) computers and one single PP200 all
- running Linux." <br>
- -- John Taves,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://members.aa.net/~jtaves/linux.htm">
- Linux is reading your mail</a>, April 8, 1998
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.yahoo.com/">Yahoo!</a></b><br>
- ". . . A couple of days later we added a FreeBSD box to our cluster
- of Web servers. Not only did it out-perform the rest of our machines,
- but it was more stable. A few weeks into this experiment and we were
- sold. Although the price was certainly attractive, it was the
- stability, performance, and access to the source code that sold us.
- Ever since then we've used FreeBSD almost exclusively for production as
- well as our development environment."<br>
- -- David Filo, Co-founder of Yahoo! (<i>FreeBSD News</i>, Issue 1)
- </p><p>This list of <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/">businesses using Linux in
- their day-to-day operations</a></b> seeks to inform the public about
- the reality of Linux as a viable alternative to commercial UNIX
- operating systems. Companies such as
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/cisco.html">Cisco Systems Inc.</a></b>,
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/sony.html">Sony WorldWide Networks</a></b>, <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/mercedes.html">Mercedes-Benz</a></b>, and <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/taxi1.html">Yellow Cab Service Corporation</a></b>
- are mentioned. A description of the capacity in which Linux is being
- deployed accompanies each company's listing.
- </p><p><a name="cisco">InfoWorld recently wrote about the possibility of</a>
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz/cisco.html">Cisco Systems Inc.</a></b>
- switching from Linux to Windows NT:
- </p><blockquote>
- "Speaking of platform changes, Cisco Systems may be switching over its
- internal network of print servers. Apparently, the company's current
- infrastructure is based on Linux and works very well, but that hasn't
- stopped the guys at the top from wanting to mess with it. I'm told
- that in light of Cisco's ever-cozier relationship with Microsoft, its
- senior management issued an order that the existing system be trashed
- in favor of a Windows NT-based setup. Word has it, though, that
- inertia has won out, and despite the order from on-high, the printing
- system is still -- you guessed it -- Linux-based.<br>
- -- Robert X. Cringely,
- "No Sunday in the Park: Rain Pushes platforms closer to the precipice," in:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">InfoWorld</a>, February 23, 1998, vol. 20, issue 8, p. 115.
- </blockquote>
- <p><a name="boeing">Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, mentions</a>
- in an interview with InfoWorld that Linux can often be on the
- "unofficially approved list" at some companies:
- </p><blockquote>
- "But not many people want to come out of the closet to officially say they are using Linux.
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/">NASA</a></b> is very open about
- supporting Linux, as are universities. I know that Linux is used in
- places like <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.boeing.com/">Boeing</a></b>, but I
- can't point people to a Web page that says so.<br>
- -- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/interviews/980409torvalds.htm">
- Linus Torvalds talks economics and operating systems</a>, InfoWorld, April 9, 1998.
- </blockquote>
- <p>See also
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/webservers.html">
- Web Servers of 101 Prominent Companies/Organizations</a></b>.
- </p><hr>
- <h2><a name="links">Related Links</a></h2>
- <blockquote>
- <p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bell-labs.com/user/tal/papers/ntdesktop/ntdesktop/ntdesktop.html">
- Providing Reliable NT Desktop Services by Avoiding NT Server</a></b><br>
- by Thomas A. Limoncelli, Robert Fulmer, Thomas Reingold,
- Alex Levine, Ralph Loura,<br>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bell-labs.com/">Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs</a>.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://dtf.external.hp.com/linux/">
- HP Delivers 24x7 Worldwide Support For Linux Systems and Applications</a></b>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sunworld.com/swol-04-1999/swol-04-idcnt.html">
- NT looking great on paper</a></b><br>
- Microsoft has stolen mindshare from Unix, says IDC<br>
- by Steven Brody,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sunworld.com/">SunWorld</a>,
- 19 April 1999.<br>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9904/21/ntpaper.ent.idg/">
- CNN.com's version of this same article.</a>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2242246,00.html">
- NT beats Linux ... maybe</a></b><br>
- "Study finds NT is faster than Linux as a Web server...at least
- according to MS-sponsored tests."<br>
- by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/sr/">Sm@rt Reseller</a>,
- 15 April 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.dhbrown.com/dhbrown/linux.html">
- Linux: How Good Is It?</a></b><br>
- D.H. Brown Associates, Inc., 12 April 1999.
- <!--<P><B><A HREF="/web/20000815100517/http://advisor.gartner.com/n_inbox/hotcontent/hc_2121999_3.html">-->
- </p><p><b>
- Divorcing Thin Server Software from the Hardware<br>
- This article is no longer available.</b><br>
- Please direct inquiries concerning this article to the
- <a href="mailto:gginfo@gartner.com">GartnerGroup</a>.<br>
- by J. Staten,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://advisor.gartner.com/">GartnerGroup Advisor</a>,<br>
- "This document examines this issue in detail, particularly the differences
- between Linux and FreeBSD, the current de facto leaders in the market."
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://pages.cthome.net/iact/24x7-NTreal.html">
- IACT's 24x7 Report</a></b><br>
- by John Drabik,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://pages.cthome.net/iact/">IACT</a>
- (International Alliance for Compatible Technology).
- <!--<P><B><A HREF="/web/20000815100517/http://www.freebsd.org/~andreas/benches/index.html">-->
- </p><p><b>Comparison between FreeBSD 3.1 SMP and SuSE Linux 6.0 SMP<br>
- (Author has removed this article from FreeBSD's site.)</b><br>
- "Looks promising for the Linux 2.2.3 SMP kernel, but actually FreeBSD
- is still 19% faster."<br>
- by Andreas Klemm,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD.org</a>,
- 14 March 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit19990311.html">
- Windows 2000, Users Zilch:<br>
- The Y2K Disaster Parading as Microsoft's
- Windows NT Marketing Plan</a></b><br>
- by Robert X. Cringely,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.pbs.org/">PBS online</a>,
- 11 March 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,389494,00.html">
- IBM to Linux-ize PCs</a></b><br>
- by Carmen Nobel and Scott Berinato,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/">PC Week</a> Online,
- 15 February 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/stories/news/0,4153,387766,00.html">
- Linux: Enterprise-ready</a></b><br>
- "2.2 kernel's multiprocessing, improved memory
- management deliver enterprise goods"<br>
- by Henry Baltazar,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/">PC Week</a> Labs,
- 1 February 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,31511,00.html">
- Computing heavyweights warm to Linux</a></b><br>
- by Stephen Shankland, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 27 January 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.theregister.co.uk/990126-000022.html">
- Windows NT could triple enterprise upgrade costs - report</a></b><br>
- by John Lettice,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>,
- 26 January 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,31458,00.html?st.ne.fd.mdh">
- New version of Linux posted</a></b><br>
- by Stephen Shankland, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 26 January 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/issue/0,4537,387506,00.html">
- Linux Up Close: Time To Switch</a></b><br>
- by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols & Eric Carr,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/sr/welcome.html">Sm@rt Reseller</a>,
- 25 January 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?990123.whlinux.htm">
- Linux bandwagon grows</a></b><br>
- by David Pendery, Dan Briody, and Ed Scannell,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">
- InfoWorld Electric</a>, 23 January 1999.<br>
- "Momentum behind the Linux platform will soon surge again with both Hewlett-Packard and
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.tivoli.com/">Tivoli Systems</a></b> planning to extend their
- management platforms to the open-source Linux platform, according to high-ranking
- officials at the two companies."
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,31060,00.html">
- Notes headed to Linux</a></b><br>
- by Erich Luening, Staff Writer,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 18 January 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.performance-computing.com/columns/penguin/9901.shtml">
- Linux 101</a></b><br>
- by Jon maddog Hall
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.performance-computing.com/">
- Performance Computing</a>,
- January 1999.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,30027,00.html">
- Linux shipments up 212 percent</a></b><br>
- by Stephen Shankland, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 16 December 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1998-12/lw-12-freebsd.html">
- The story on FreeBSD: What you should know about this important free
- OS</a></b><br>
- by Cameron Laird and Kathryn Soraiz,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.linuxworld.com/">LinuxWorld</a>,
- December 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,29416,00.html">
- Unix trounces Windows NT in testing</a></b><br>
- by Stephen Shankland,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 1 December 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.abcnews.com/sections/tech/FredMoody/moody981120.html">
- Charge of the Linux Brigade</a></b><br>
- by Fred Moody,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.abcnews.com/">
- ABCNEWS.com</a>,
- 20 November 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28215,00.html?st.ne.ni.lh">
- Microsoft: Linux a threat to NT</a></b><br>
- by Dan Goodin, Stephen Shankland, and Paul Festa,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 2 November 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.opensource.org/halloween/">
- The Halloween Documents</a></b><br>
- "Microsoft Confidential" Documents with annotations and comments<br>
- by Eric S. Raymond, 30 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19981029S0001">
- Unix Growth Still Outpaces Win NT</a></b><br>
- by Andy Patrizio,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/">TechWeb</a>, 28 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,28065,00.html">
- Gates "on the warpath"</a></b><br>
- by Bloomberg News,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 28 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?EET19981026S0028">
- Finding Unix ain't broke, chip side balks at NT</a></b><br>
- by Richard Goering,
- EE Times, Issue: 1032, Section: Special Report: Workstations And Windows NT,
- 26 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sjmercury.com/business/center/unix102798.htm">
- Unix back in the fight with NT</a></b><br>
- by Miguel Helft,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sjmercury.com/">Mercury Center</a>,
- 26 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/windows/stories/main/0%2C4728%2C358782%2C00.html">
- Wall Street Is Bullish on NT</a></b><br>
- by Michael Moeller,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/winpro/">WindowsPro Magazine</a>,
- 16 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,4436,2149216,00.html">
- Novell to unveil directory services on Linux</a></b><br>
- by Mary Jo Foley,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/sr/">Sm@rt Reseller Online</a>,
- 13 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,26490,00.html">
- Intel pushing unified Unix</a></b><br>
- by Brooke Crothers, Staff Writer,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 17 September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/issue/0,4537,349576,00.html">
- Quality Unix for FREE</a></b><br>
- by Brett Glass,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.smartreseller.com/">Sm@rt Reseller</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com//">ZDNet</a>,
- 7 September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com.au/news/onsun/sept98/">
- ABC switches to Sun SAP environment:<br>
- The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has successfully
- migrated its SAP development platform from NT to Solaris, running on
- Sun boxes</a></b><br>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com.au/">
- Sun Microsystems Australia</a>,
- <i>On#Sun</i>, vol. 5 issue 2, September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.independent.co.uk/net/981005ne/index.html">
- Beware the penguin, Bill</a></b><br>
- by Charles Arthur,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.independent.co.uk/">The Independent</a>,
- 5 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.computerworld.com/home/features.nsf/all/981005rc1">
- Intranets On A Shoestring</a></b><br>
- by Chris Lindquist,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.computerworld.com/">Computerworld</a>,
- 5 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.idg.co.nz/nzweb/b252.html">
- Gates pushes hometown to Linux<br>
- Linux-based document system costs 10% of Windows NT solution</a></b><br>
- by Christine Burns,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.idg.co.nz/nzweb/nzweb.shtml">
- Computerworld News</a>,
- 4 October 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/windows/nt/security/ntbugtraq/">
- Service Pack 4 vs. NT 5 (a.k.a. NT2000)</a></b><br>
- by Russ Cooper,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com//">ZDNet</a>,
- 29 September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.performance-computing.com/opinions/throttle/9809.shtml">
- NT's Cloudy Future</a></b><br>
- by Mark Hall,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.performance-computing.com/">Performance COmputing</a>,
- September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,4436,2140612,00.html">
- New Security Flap Over Windows NT</a></b><br>
- by Mary Jo Foley,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.smartreseller.com/">Sm@rt Reseller</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/">ZDNN</a>,
- 23 September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/Database/98_Sep/21/Fea.01.gwif.html">
- Linux Surfaces As Alternative to Windows NT</a></b><br>
- by Masahiro Nakamura, Staff Editor,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://nc.nikkeibp.co.jp/eng/">Nikkei Computer</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.nikkeibp.asiabiztech.com/">AsiaBizTech</a>,
- 21 September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit19980910.html">
- A Fight to the Finnish<br>
- Why Linux Quite Appropriately Scares
- the Bejesus Out of Microsoft</a></b><br>
- by Robert X. Cringely,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.pbs.org/">PBS online</a>,
- 10 September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.msnbc.com/news/193825.asp">
- Dell ships PCs, servers with Linux</a></b><br>
- by Connie Guglielmo of
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/">ZDNN</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.msnbc.com/news/">MSNBC</a>,
- 8 September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremag.com/Sept98/sm098cv.htm">
- In LINUX We . . .</a></b><br>
- by Ann Harrison,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.softwaremagazine.com/">
- Software Magazine</a>, Cover Story, September 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/CUTTING/lat_linux0824.htm">
- Linux, an Alternative to Microsoft Windows, Shows Value of
- Free Software</a></b><br>
- by Leslie Helm, Times Staff Writer,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.latimes.com/">Los Angeles Times</a>,
- 24 August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/14450.html">
- NASA Greets Beowulf</a></b><br>
- by Michael Stutz, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.wired.com/news/">Wired News</a>,
- 17 August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/windows/wpro/9809/fs_datacenter_01.html">
- Is NT Ready for the Data Center?</a></b><br>
- by Joseph P. McGarvey,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/winpro/">Windows Pro Magazine</a>,
- 26 August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980728S0004">
- Microsoft Admits NT Trails Solaris</a></b><br>
- by Barbara Darrow and Stuart Glascock,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.crn.com/">Computer Reseller News</a>,
- 28 July 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www2.computerworld.com/852564bb0045a5c0/69747ca2461a6aee852564ea0052c19c/7c87db1b2bb59d56852564ec00700a32?OpenDocument">
- NT vs. UNIX: An uphill battle</a></b><br>
- by Kevin Burden,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.computerworld.com/">Computerworld</a>,
- August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?CRW19980817S0029">
- Open OS Provides Flexible, Stable Computing Platform --
- Linux Environment Offers Endless Possibilities</a></b><br>
- by Paula Rooney,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/">Computer Retail Week (TechWeb)</a>,
- 17 August 1998, Issue: 215, Section: Business Solutions
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.lantimes.com/98/98aug/808b001a.html?st.ne.fd.mnaw">
- Linux legitimacy rallies NT skeptics</a></b><br>
- by R. Scott Raynovich and Polly Sprenger,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.lantimes.com/">LAN Times</a>,
- 17 August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.byte.com/art/9801/sec19/art4.htm">
- Putting Unix in All the Right Places:
- The reports of Unix's death are greatly exaggerated.</a></b><br>
- by John Montgomery,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.byte.com/">Byte</a>,
- January 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,25013,00.html?st.ne.fd.gif.c">
- Report: Wait on NT 5.0</a></b><br>
- by Ben Heskett,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.news.com/">CNET News.Com</a>,
- 6 August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980629S0013?st.ne.fd.mnaw">
- Users Should Skip NT 5.0, Analysts Say</a></b><br>
- by David Wilby, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/">TechWeb</a>,
- 29 June 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue31/raymond.html">
- Open Source's First Six Months</a></b><br>
- by Eric Raymond,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.linuxgazette.com/">Linux Gazette</a>,
- August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sunworld.com/sunworldonline/swol-08-1998/swol-08-linuxvnt.html">
- Linux versus NT:
- Are you getting the most from your OS?</a></b><br>
- by Cameron Laird,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sunworld.com/">SunWorld Online</a>,
- August 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://cnnfn.com/hotstories/washun/9807/23/senate/">
- Foes fire at Microsoft</a></b> <br>
- <b>"<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.real.com/">RealNetworks</a> exec tells
- Senate panel software giant 'breaks' his product"</b><br>
- by staff writer John Frederick Moore,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://cnnfn.com/">CNN Financial Network</a>,
- 23 July 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bootnet.com/youaskedforit/lip_linux_manifesto.html">
- Linux manifesto</a></b> (A
- <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bootnet.com/boot.html">boot</a></b>
- interview with Linus Torvalds)
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980717.whorlinux.htm">
- Oracle to port database to Linux after all</a></b><br>
- by Paul Krill, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">
- InfoWorld Electric</a>, 17 July 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?980717.whinformix.htm">
- Informix gets set to embrace Linux</a></b><br>
- by Paul Krill, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">
- InfoWorld Electric</a>, 17 July 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2120879,00.html">
- NT: One step forward, two steps back</a></b><br>
- by Mary Jo Foley, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/">ZDNN</a>,
- 20 July 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?INW19980427S0003">
- NT Needs Patch To Comply With Y2K</a></b><br>
- by Ellis Booker, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.techweb.com/">TechWeb</a>
- (InternetWeek, issue 712), 27 April 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.isdmag.com/Editorial/1998/CoverStory9807.html">
- Engineers Speak Out: Linux vs. Windows NT, Part 1</a></b><br>
- by Murry Shohat, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.isdmag.com/">
- <i>Intergrated System Design</i> Magazine</a>, July 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.pcquest.com/editorial/edit-may98.html">
- The "Decline" and Rise of Unix</a></b><br>
- by Prasanto K. Roy, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.pcquest.com/">
- PC Quest</a>.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pccomp/features/fea0797/nt/">
- NT Lies</a></b><br>
- by Ed Bott, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/">ZDNet</a>, July 1997.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://slashdot.org/articles/9804211730214.shtml">
- Sun Joins Linux International</a></b><br>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a>, 21 May 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://slashdot.org/articles/980529098226.shtml">
- Update on Sun joining Linux International</a></b><br>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a>, 29 May 1998.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://earthspace.net/~esr/writings/cathedral-paper.html">
- The Cathedral and the Bazaar</a></b><br>
- by Eric S. Raymond, 29 January 1998.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/research/comp/viewpnts/1997/v10n20/97090178.htm">
- Microsoft: The Joker of Enterprise IS Computing</a></b><br>
- by The <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/">Aberdeen<i>Group</i></a></b>,
- Executive Viewpoint, Volume 10 / Number 20, September 29, 1997.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/research/comp/whtpaper/1998/98031201/98031201.htm">
- Interoperability: Possibility or Elusive Dream? -- An Executive White Paper</a></b><br>
- by The <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/">Aberdeen<i>Group</i></a></b>, March 1998.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/ab_abstracts/body1.htm">
- <i>OnSite</i> - Case Study: Migration Migraines</a></b><br>
- by The <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/">Aberdeen<i>Group</i></a></b>, 1997.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/ab_abstracts/body2.htm">
- Case Study: Horns of a Dilemma</a></b><br>
- by The <b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.aberdeen.com/">Aberdeen<i>Group</i></a></b>.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/all/970724windows">
- Windows NT no match for UNIX, IDC says</a></b><br>
- by Rob Guth, <b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.computerworld.com/">Computerworld</a></b>, 7-24-97.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/petrel/np102896.htm">
- It will take less drive to make most PC operating
- systems work like Unix</a></b><br>
- by Nicholas Petreley, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">InfoWorld</a>,
- 28 October 1996.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayTC.pl?/97poy.win3.htm#linux">
- 1997 Product of the Year Award: Operating Systems - Network Operating System</a></b><br>
- by Eric Hammond, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">InfoWorld</a> Test Center.
- </p><p><b>
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayTC.pl?/97poy.supp.htm">
- 1997 Product of the Year Award: Best Technical Support Award</a></b><br>
- by Ed Foster, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">InfoWorld</a> Test Center.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://odin.appliedtheory.com/linux-activism/">
- Linux Reviews and Articles</a></b> by Christopher Blizzard. <br>
- This page lists 65 articles or reviews of Linux.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://currents.net/magazine/national/1524/inet1524.html">
- Linux Grows Up: Red Hat's commercial Linux beats NT at its own
- game</a></b>, by Maggie Biggs.<br>
- The author is a senior analyst in the
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.infoworld.com/">InfoWorld</a>
- Test Center. She specializes in database technology and application
- design, development, and deployment via intranets and other networks.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline/swol-01-1998/swol-01-linux.html">
- Linux lines up for the enterprise:
- Is there a place in your shop for this inexpensive UNIX?</a></b><br>
- by Rick Cook, in:
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.sun.com/sunworldonline/swol-01-1998/">SunWorld - January 1998</a>.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.nwfusion.com/intranet/0330linux.html">
- Lookin' into Linux</a></b><br>
- by Mark Gibbs, Network World, March 30, 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://guide.sbanetweb.com/press/nw818.html">
- Doing the math to resolve the NT vs. UNIX debate</a></b><br>
- by Wayne Spivak, Network World, August 18, 1997
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.iserver.com/servers/compare/bsd_vs_nt.html">
- The advantages of using BSDI BSD/OS over Windows NT Server</a></b><br>
- iServer - Verio Web Hosting Inc. - Virtual Servers
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/sr/business/opportunity/980211b.html">
- Linux: Not Just For Geeks And College Kids Anymore</a></b>, by Jason Perlow,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/">ZDNet</a>, February 11, 1998.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/issues/1613/pcmg0068.htm">
- Leaning Toward Linux: Powerful, robust, and free, Linux is worth
- investigating, especially if you plan to set up an Internet
- domain</a></b> by Neil Randall,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/issues/1613/contents.htm">
- ZDNet - PC Magazine Online, July 1997, Vol 16, No. 13.</a>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://citv.unl.edu/linux/LinuxPresentation.html">
- Replacing Windows NT Server with Linux</a></b> by Quinn P. Coldiron,
- Information Systems Department manager for the University of Nebraska
- Press.
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix.digital.com/unix/v4/dhbrown/AIX43.htm">
- An In-Depth Analysis of Five Commercial UNIX Operating Systems and
- Windows NT Server 4.0 (Enterprise Edition) by D.H. Brown Associates,
- Inc.</a></b>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bsdi.com/white-papers/compare">
- Comparing BSDI and NT:
- Building Intranet and Internet Servers with BSDI and Windows NT</a></b>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.standishgroup.com/syst.html">
- The Standish Group - SUN Also Rises: Solaris Vs. NT</a></b>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.bitwizard.nl/unixnt.html">
- BitWizard B.V. "UNIX vs. NT"</a></b>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://pubsys.cmp.com/nc/701/701hreportb.html">
- THE H-REPORT: Which Operating System For Your 'Intranet'?</a></b>
- </p><p><b><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ssc.com/lj/issue46/2494.html">
- Linux Helps Bring <i>Titanic</i> to Life</a></b><br>
- Daryll Strauss,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ssc.com/lj/">LINUX Journal</a>,
- <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.ssc.com/lj/issue46/">Issue #46</a>, February 1998.
- </p></blockquote>
- <hr>
- <h2><a name="acknowledgments">Acknowledgments</a></h2>
- <p>I would like to welcome three new editors who are volunteering
- their services to the UNIX versus NT Organization: Bengt Kleberg,
- Gregory J. Pryzby, and Robert G. Werner.
- </p><p>My very special thanks to Martin Vermeer, who, thanks to his advice
- on form, argumentation presented herein, as well as having provided
- numerous valuable and sometimes explosive links, has been,
- and continues to be, an invaluable contributor to the
- positive development of this dynamic project. My deepest appreciation
- goes to the translators who have been generous enough to donate their
- time to this worthy cause: Brian Lin for the Traditional Chinese and
- Simplified Chinese versions, Davor Ocelic for the Croatian translation,
- Hanus Adler for the Czech translation,
- Kobayashi Osamu for the Japanese translation, Donghun Han for the
- Korean translation, Bruno H. Collovini for the Portuguese translation,
- and Ilgam Vasilyev for the Russian translation, and Carlos
- Lizárraga C. for the Spanish translation.
- My thanks also to Nat Makarevitch, Sebastien Blondeel, and
- Dennis Allard who are currently working on the French translation,
- and to Guglielmo Alfieri, Michele Dalla Silvestra,
- and Sergio Felleti who are working on the Italian translation.
- </p><p>I would also like to thank the many readers who have contributed
- links to important new articles on this topic, for instance, Lance
- Bayless, Klaus A. Brunner,
- Radovan Bukoci,
- Peter Chen, Reinier de Vos,
- Martin Espinoza,
- Ariel Faigon, Paul Fischer, P. Gopalakrishnan,
- Colin Kabaara,
- Raj Mathur, Howard McKinney,
- Adrian Mikeliunas,
- Mike Miller, Mike Stephens, Jim Mohr,
- Gene Mosher, Philip Obbard,
- John Oram, Conrad Sanderson, Markus Senoner, Steve Sinnott,
- Ryan Sumner, Raj Warty, Ken Webster, and countless others.
- </p><p>Equally appreciated is the constructive criticism from Keith H.J.
- Bevins, Joris Braakman, Marty Cawthon,
- Phillip Chu, Baruch Cochavy, Nicholas Donovan,
- Julian Elischer, Steve Fuller, Alex Gogan, Jake Hamby, Peter Jeremy,
- Adam Johnson, Geoffrey King, Hannu Krosing, Greg Lehey, Kimberly
- McBride, Richard Smith, and David Waine, to name just a few.
- </p><p>No less important was the assistance provided by Leif Erlingsson and
- Damon Conway back around the end of March when I had to upgrade my
- connection and needed their mirroring services, both of whom continue
- to provide mirrors to this site. Last but not least, my thanks to Ryan
- Sumner for his everlasting moral support on this project.
- </p></td></tr></tbody></table>
- </p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://validator.w3.org/"><img border="0" src="./Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX_files/vh40.gif" alt="Valid HTML 4.0!" height="31" width="88"></a>
- </p><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815100517/http://www.unix-vs-nt.org/legal.html">©1998 kirch.net Consulting, Inc.</a>
- </p></center>
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