Thank to Scott Blaney in the EGUSD Technology Services for contributing his opinion for this assignment. As usual,Tech. Services is part of the overall educational process for our students. I am not giving you his ratings here because I want you to interpret his opinion, add it to your research, and then you make the ratings based on your summaries. Summaries for ALL boxes are NOT included here. You will have to investigate missing information on your own. I will share his rankings with you when you submit the assignment. Have fun!

Mr. Blaney: What follows is the reasoning behind the ratings I’ve provided to your instructor.

Ease of Operation

I rated Win2K3 as a “1” for your Ease of Operation category. I’ve worked with both Windows and Unix for quite awhile and have to give the edge to Windows in this category. This was a close call, in fact all these ratings are very close calls. Both Win2K3 and Linux are strong OS’s and compete well against each other. On any given day you can find someone to argue the merits of either OS in each category and it really comes down to figuring out which is right for each organization or situation. Business requirements should drive these choices. I rated Linux over Unix in this category because it seems to be a bit more standardized than Unix. For example, with Unix you need to know which version your are working with such as HPUX, Solaris, BSD, etc. and each of these has its own peculiarities. Linux on the other hand, is less proprietary and much more “standardized” and there are a ton of free tools and other open source materials available to help manage it.

Novell is now a part of the Linux community – they purchased SUSE and combined it with Netware to produce the new “Novell Open Enterprise Server”. The old “Netware” from years past no longer seems to exist. Purchasing SUSE was very smart on Novell’s part – I just hope for them it is not “too little too late”. I read quite a bit on their website last night and if this product is as good as it looks, it will provide a badly needed, strong alternative to Microsoft. The product looks very promising but it does not yet have a track record so I rated it with a “?”.

Apple’s OS X as you know is Unix based. These servers seem to have penetrated education (K-20) pretty well but only now seem to be catching on with business. This is due mostly to the fact that Apple was and still is, slow to catch on to the needs of the “enterprise” when it comes to tools & support. Nevertheless, it is a good platform but I suspect it will continue to have a hard time penetrating the corporate world now that Novell has their product on the street because Novell already has a good reputation in corporate America which will help them and hurt other Unix/Linux providers such as Apple.

Cost Server/Client

Here I gave Linux the #1 rating for two reasons: Linux can be free or very low cost and Microsoft’s licensing scheme is a nightmare – both expensive and difficult to work with. Unix came in third because some implementations (Solaris comes to mind) can be VERY expensive. I have no idea what the new Novell platform will cost but suspect it will be cheaper than Windows – at least up front.

Robust/Reliable

In this category, UNIX clearly wins in my mind. It has been around forever and has a proven track record. Take Sun Microsystems for example. Cheap? No. Bulletproof, yes. I gave both Linux and Windows a rating of 2. Linux has the advantage of its Unix heritage and while Windows Server 2003 has not been around long, it is proving to be quite good.

Compatibility w/Third Party’s

I gave Windows Server 2003 the number 1 in this category. There are a ton of applications available for it and this combined with the might of Microsoft’s marketing machine gives this platform the advantage. Linux gets number 2 here, there are many applications for it as well, but Linux just does not have a reputation yet either for ease of use or supportability. It is generally thought that with a Linux implementation, you are “on your own” but with Windows, one can get support from Microsoft.

Secure

One would think Unix wins the #1 rating automatically here but not for the reasons you might think. Unix has been around the longest and probably is the most secure – after all it has been hacked longer than just about any other OS. Its strengths and weaknesses are well understood and it can be extremely secure when implemented properly. Linux, based on Unix is probably just as secure IF it is implemented properly. Windows has the distinct disadvantage of having it hacked on harder than just about any other OS. Granted, it was weaker than Unix to begin with but it is also a bigger target. Everyone hates Bill Gates and exposing vulnerabilities in Windows is like throwing a pie in Bill’s face. Windows was also a bigger target because of its quick penetration into the corporate world, in people’s homes and on the desktop that made this OS such an inviting target for hackers and other malcontents. We’ve discovered here that Apple’s OS X can be just a vulnerable as Windows but it seems this OS is just not as an attractive a target as Windows. After all, write a virus for Windows and it can make its way around the world in less than a day and score some major publicity whereas a virus or security flaw found with Unix, OS X or other OS barley gets a yawn.

On the bright side, Microsoft and others are working very hard to secure this OS. It now comes down to having trained, competent people on hand to maintain your systems and I’m convinced Windows can be as secure as Unix/Linux if implemented properly!

Installation & Setup

I have to give the edge here to Windows but rated both it and Linux with a 1. This issue ends up as a tie in my mind because to set up either properly, you need qualified, trained people that know what they are doing. Windows setup & installation is almost too easy – if you just follow the prompts you’ll end up with a system that is not secure or reliable enough to support your clients. Linux has a reputation for being difficult which usually means up front awareness that one needs qualified, experienced support personnel. If you have qualified people, they are both about equally easy to install & setup. Regular UNIX is typically more difficult and you better have a full blown GEEK on hand to do the care & feeding of this OS or forget about having a reliable system.

It would be nice if students were able to discover the existing argument that currently rages over this issue between Windows & Linux – which is the “better” server OS?. This argument reminds me of the Mac vs. PC desktop wars of the 80’s and 90’s! Both OS’s have matured to the point where the only real answer is “it depends”. Linux will be the best choice for some and Windows for others. Here is a link to a pretty good article on the subject from IT Director over in the UK: I think exploring this issue and perhaps even having a debate about it in class would give students valuable insight into just how complex these issues can get in the real world. In my mind you must have experienced people on hand to take care of any system but it should be the organization’sbusiness requirements that drive the choice of platform.

Hope this helps!