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Unix Versus NT: Strengths And Weaknesses
Unix Strengths:  
Scalability Proven to scale in very large environments Used on various hardware platforms, from workstations to supercomputers
Mature platform Forms of Unix have been in place for more than 20 years Offer s a variety of software, development toolkits and utilities Plenty of free software available--particularly Internet services Available on nearly every hardware platform (from PCs and RISC systems to mainframes)
Management Managed at a very low level through a character-based interface, making it easy to access all administrative functions remotely X Windows is network-enabled, letting any GUI utilities be accessed remotely Can be implemented in turnkey systems using simple GUI interfaces
Large-scale directory services Lacks a standard directory service, but products like NIS, NIS+ and DCE directory services integrate closely with the OS and offer Unix-specific schemas by default
Unix Weaknesses:  
Not standardized More Unix vendors and incompatible versions of Unix than can be named in one article Applications written to one environment must be ported to another Most portable Unix apps are not multithreaded
Cost--capital Scalable, high-performance RISC solutions are very expensive compared to PC hardware
Cost--management C omplex OS requires experienced administrators Most versions have simplified installation processes and each vendor offers different management utilities
NT Strengths:  
Low cost Primary mar ket for NT is the PC platform
Standardization Controlled by a single vendor (Microsoft)--all versions of NT share the same APIs and system calls; most NT applications are multithreaded
Multiplatform support Available on multiple platforms (x86 and Alpha); standardized APIs mean that porting to another NT version means a simple recompilation
Strong ISV support Software vendors strongly support NT, resulting in a large software library
Cost--administration Driven by relatively easy-to-use GUI utilities Standardized GUI
Client/Server Offers both a NOS and application server solution out of the box
NT Weaknesses:  
Scalability Tied to PC platform Available for Digital Alpha, but most applications focus on the dominant PC market Scalability is largely driven by the Intel architecture
Scripting Lack of solid scripting utilities and character-based apps
Remote management Managing an NT server remotely requires specialized GUI utilities Severely restricted functionality, if limited to a character-based interface
Directory services Limited to NT domains, which don't tie into non-NT networking
Windows NT Versus Unix: The Chase Is On
by Dan Backman



For a comparison ofWindows NT and Unix
Dial "D" For Directory Service


RFP: Nine Solutions for an ATM Upgrade
by Joel Conover


Updated May 12, 1997



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August 2011

Network Computing: August 2011

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