Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX

[Charles Behney <charlesaugust@theriver.com>]

Hot off the http! Nothing but the facts on NT's gooey lack of legacy and
enterprise. A Must Read!
http://www.kirch.net/unix-nt.html

> 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.
>


CAB

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX

                                                 by

                                             John Kirch

                  Networking Consultant and Microsoft Certified
Professional (Windows NT)

Executive Summary

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 system
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?

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.

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.

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 these facts,
and prove that they are facts, because facts are not debatable.

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.
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