Re: Avoid Windows NT for database server - says the White paper!!

In article <22747-366AB220-7_at_newsd-131.iap.bryant.webtv.net>,   TPall_at_webtv.net (Tom Pall) wrote:
> I will grant you this. However there are other reasons to go to NT.
> One being NT trained system administrators at a site. Another being the
> reusability of the NT box used now as an Oracle RDBMS server, used later
> as another type of server.
>
> I guess I am not following the Linux discussions closely enough. Does
> Oracle for Linux run on SMP boxes?
>
> NT is everywhere and it is not going away soon. I see a surprising
> number of postings to this newsgroup where the platform is NT.
>
> The developer license CDs Oracle sends its Technet subscribers are,
> coincidently, for NT.
>
>

There is surprising level of adrenaline involved in the NT vs. Unix debate. Computer magazines are using the term "OS wars", but I don't think there is any real war here. NT is a consumer oriented, desktop OS while Unix is a developer oriented product used primarily by IS professionals. I love NT because of MS-Word, Excell and other stuff but a database server is not an area for which NT would be an appropriate solution. If you compare OSes on the bases of performance and stability, Unix is a clear winner. If you compare ease of use and the knowledge needed to set the machine up, then, NT is a clear winner. Database server needs primarily speed and reliability and the amount of knowledge needed to successfully run a multi-user database exceeds the knowledge needed to setup an NT machine by two orders of magnitude, so the "ease of use" point is completely irrelevant. Let me make an analogy here: Chevy Cavalier is good for traveling around, but is hardly a choice if you need to transport 40 tons of logs. It is much more complicated to park an 18 wheeler to drive it and to manouvre with it, but when you need it, you need it. Chevy Cavalier will not replace 18 wheel Mack anytime soon, despite the numbers which show that Chevy is selling many more vehicles then Mack. Will Microsoft be prevented from leveraging it's desktop monopoly and extending it to the server area remains to be seen. If Microsoft wants to succeed in such a quest, they'll have to ship a product which as good or better then Unix in terms of performance and stability and if they do, I won't mind making a switch once again in my career. As for OS wars, there is no war here, Microsoft has already won on the desktop, long time ago.

--
Mladen Gogala

-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own Received on Sun Dec 06 1998 - 13:53:47 CST