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Re: Advantages of Oracle on Windows over Unix

From: Niall Litchfield <niall.litchfield_at_dial.pipex.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2007 14:09:14 +0000
Message-ID: <45B3740A.7010006@dial.pipex.com>


gazzag wrote:
> Inspired by this thread here,
> http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.databases.oracle.server/browse_frm/thread/b2d4a2766d1d5580/6c1b5c532b044c34?hl=en#6c1b5c532b044c34,
> and for a bit of fun, would anyone care to extol the virtues of Oracle
> on Windows over it running on a *nix platform? >;)
>
> -g
>

I thought I might crawl out of the woodwork for this one :)

I'm not sure that a straight comparison between Windows and proprietory Unix is especially relevant, unless perhaps we are talking 64bit Windows and some of the very new hardware, they tend to be aimed at different markets. Probably the only thing I'd say there is that it looks like vendor Unix is on it's way out - no-one is likely to be saying that about windows right now.

A comparison between Linux and Windows is not, however, unreasonable since it 'tends' to be run on the same sort of hardware and by the same sort of organisations. I do think that Windows has some considerable advantages for many organisations in this space.

First, you are more likely to be able to find, recruit and retain experienced sysadmins on the windows platform than the Linux one. This is changing,

Second, many organisations already run a windows based infrastructure, with centrally managed security/updates and so on. If you are in such an environment then the integration and maintenance costs will likely be lower for Windows over Linux.

Third, most windows shops seem to be developing on the .Net platform and toolset and most Linux shops seem to be developing either in J2EE or enhanced scripting languages such as php. At the moment the .net toolset and environment is significantly friendlier to database driven apps than either J2EE or PHP (unless you are perhaps running mysql).

Fourth, comparative performance. Essentially there is nothing whatsoever to choose between windows and linux. It does appear true that when you are at or near the limits of the hardware you may get a little bit more scalability from linux, but that is about it. Members of the UKOUG can see my test results on the UKOUG conference site, and I hope to be publishing a paper in a well-known database journal shortly for a wider audience. Performance Tuning corporation did similar tests as I did on a 64bit platform and came to similar conclusions (http://www.perftuning.com/pdf/Comparison_Oracle_Windows_Linux.pdf)

That all said, over and over again, its the skills, competence and aptitude of the people running the infrastructure that makes the difference so I'd go for the environment that your organisation knows best.

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
http://www.orawin.info/services
Received on Sun Jan 21 2007 - 08:09:14 CST

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