Comparing Microsoft Windows NT and Unix

The decision to utilize Microsoft Windows NT horde or one of the many Unix operational(a) systems is the concern of many IS managers around the humans today. Unix is non a single operating(a) 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 a a few(prenominal). Microsoft Windows NT has a well- cognise reputation. solely when these managers buzz off to consider whether or not choosing a Microsoft product female genitals increase the companys lolly.The equal of the network operating system (NOS) lead be the ultimate factor in their decision. It is not just the initial cost of the hardw atomic number 18 however, but rather many other factors completelyow admit to be considered to insure that further main(prenominal)(prenominal)tenance costs ar not overwhelming. For instance, software licenses bequeath pauperization to be procured. Technica l support agreements result need to be assessed. The costs of upgrades/service packs, hardware upgrades will need to be weighed for twain types of systems.Determining which system has a greater point of glitches net be a factor in estimating lost profits for both hour of downtime. If the company should experience a glitch, how substantial will personnel costs for recovering/recreating data be? Knowledge satisfactory systems administrators will need to be employed to maintain the system. This task is not to be taken lightly as these are only some of the situations to be considered prior to making a decision on which NOS to purchase.Since accruing costs is a primary concern for managers, the conditions previously discussed give an indication that a crew of server hardware and operating systems seems to be the just about cost-effective survival of the fittest for long term utilize. Unix is a fully developed, group of operating systems known for its work, reliability, and sec urity in a server environment. On the other hand, Windows NT Server has the advantage of Windows 95s popularity. This background knowledge operating system is already beingness use in homes and offices everywhere.Before making the operating system decision a manager should consider visiting the local library to research the ill-tempered subject. It will be toilsome to find current un one-sided literature. hardly a determined manager or QM student should be able to separate the all important(predicate) information from personal preferences. Most of the older books are concerned with theory utilize Unix as a guide. For current information, periodicals are the best source. un slight as stated earlier, much of it is very biased one way or the other. The preferences are split down the inwardness with half of the professionals supporting Unix or a Unix variant and the other half supporting Microsoft products.Operating systems (OS) were originally developed as a immense set of i nstructions for large mainframe computers in order to deem the hardware resources of the mainframe. Thereafter, they have been developed to run on little and smaller computers, first mini computers then on the new personal computers (PC). But, the main job of the OS was the selfsame(prenominal), a layer surrounded by the hardware and the user.The main reason for having an OS is for the application programmers to have a common bow upon which to run their applications, no matter what hardware is being used. One important function of the OS is to perform file management. This allows applications to read or keep to disk, regardless of the hardware being used or how it is stored. Without this feature programmers would have to write new programs for every different type of hardware and every different type of hardware configuration. However, Microsoft Windows is the dominant PC OS, so just about of the applications written today are written for the Windows environment.When business es initially began to use desktop PCs in the 1980s, there was no connection amid PCs and mainframes or between the PCs themselves. The PC was normally used for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Soon users treasured to more(prenominal) efficiently share resources than disk swapping allowed. A solution emerged, networking, and to adjudge these resources, network operating systems (NOS) were developed. At first NOSs allowed the most basic of functions kindred sharing printers and files. Soon the NOSs role expanded greatly to management of the resources in the local network, and to link up with other local area networks (LAN), thus creating wide area networks (WAN).NOSs controlled the network through a server. The server only controlled the resources directly linked to it and the PCs used a second OS that controlled their particularised hardware. Peer-to-peer networks later developed. While using a peer-to-peer LAN there was no need for a dedicated server, which was great for small businesses with few users. But with many users and large amounts of data, a greater need surfaced for a dedicated server.Managers without knowledge or experience with systems and network administration find it difficult to choose a server platform. This report will attempt to comparison and contrast Microsoft Windows NT Server and Unix, a mixture of commercial and non-commercial operating systems originating from the same source so they share many similarities. The main focus of the news report is to assist managers in choosing a network operating system using quantitative methods. The issues of comparison discussed are in the areas of product costs and licensing, functionality, reliability, and performance. These are presented to provide a more complete view of these products.Most managers will agree that the mere cost of an operating system is trivial when evaluating the speculative picture. Although Windows NT Server 4.0 can be expensive, a Unix variant can be bought for a minor dollar amount. In order to match the functionality of a BSDI (a variant of Unix) installation, additional Microsoft products and third party solutions would bring the final harm of a comparable NT solution within a reasonable cost.What can you expect from Windows NT Server and from Unix immediately after acquiring the systems? NT and Unix can both communicate with many different types of computers. Both Unix and NT can secure tender data and keep unauthorized users off the network. Essentially, both operating systems butt against the minimum supplicatements for operating systems functioning in a networked environment.As computers become more and more utilized in our world today, reliability is the more significant feature, even more important than speed. Although performance is largely a function of hardware platform, it is in the area of reliability that the choice of operating systems has the most influence. An operating system whitethorn offer more functionality. Al so, it may be more scalable. To add to that it may even offer greater ease of system management. But if you are constantly being challenged with glitches in the system and are unable to even get any use out of the system because it is always down, what good are these advantages?Processing motive is largely a function of computer hardware rather than of the operating system. Since most commercial Unix operating systems run only on high-end workstations or servers, Unix has historically been considered 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.One should compare NT Servers performance to that of Linux or FreeBSD, since all three operating systems run on the same hardware which is Intel, the hardware-type most often used with NT. A truly unbiased comparison of performance would have to be based on benchmarks, but these are few and usually only focus on specific areas like sack per formance. There are some specific issues that affect performance. Unix does not require a graphical user interface to function while NT does. fine art require incredible amounts of disk space and memory, the same holds true for croak files.This report provides assistance to managers in selecting a NOS to implement. Comparison points have been presented which are factors in the decision making process. These decision factors have become unmixed through research and experience. Each specific decision factor is weight down on its significance concerning the network operating system. Listed below is the comparison of the factors between Unix and NT.*The training factors are based on amount of training required, less training is rated as more desirable.Using quantitative methods with the numbers in figure 1 the following scenario has been developed. A manager is interested in purchasing a NOS for his company. He would benefit by first evaluating the items on this list, rating each fa ctor from one to ten, the most desirable being ten. An example is given below.