RE: Solaris vs Windows 2000

-----Original Message-----
Now that that's out of the way, what I am trying to do is find objective material comparing the use of MS Windows 2000 Server on Intel HW to Solaris on Sun HW.

My personal bias against Windows is based mostly on three things.

1. Incompatibility with everything else. Microsoft makes its products as incompatible as it can get away with so that once you start going down the Microsoft path, you become more and more locked into that path.
2. It is a single-user operating system. Microsoft has done a pretty good job of making it look otherwise by tacking on some multi-user extensions; but it is, in fact, NOT a multi-user OS. Just try creating a general user so that user can install, upgrade, and maintain their application without having administrator privilege. It ain't gonna happen. And that brings up the main problem with this arrangement: Every user that must support an application on the box must have administrator privilege. This, of course, presents a completely insecure environment.
3. In its "normal" form, there is an amazing lack of the kind of support and scripting utilities the are normal on Unix. True, if one wants to spend the time, many of the utilities can be set up on NT; but that involves additional setup and maintenance time -- which your NT admins might not be inclined to do if the bureaucracy of your organization requires that they do it. If your scripting abilities are substantial, then you, no doubt, automate many things with scripts. If you have built these scripts with a non-standard environment, then you have built your house on shifting sand.
   (By the way, this is why I do not fully support Linux.)
   

I must agree that I do like the Dell Poweredge stuff. I was using it years ago, and the value is certainly compelling. It's too bad that Sun did the same thing with Solaris on Intel that IBM did to OS/2 (got very stuck up about it and over-priced the crap out of everything until it was too late). But the Sun hardware (and IBM too) ain't all that shabby either. And my past experience -- when I was a sys admin work -- with Sun customer support was very positive. IBM .... eh, so-so ... maybe.

Perhaps another thing to consider: If you have ever tried to upgrade the OS on a NT box supporting third-party applications, I suspect you discovered that it can be an excrutiatingly painful experience ... If you even succeeded at all.

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Author: Stephen Lee
  INET: slee_at_dollar.com

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