Windows vs. Linux and UNIX

I will keep this brief since there are so many references on the internet about Windows vs. Linux and UNIX systems. The reliability and configurability of Linux is why I choose it over Windows.

For a short overview, Linux and UNIX have, over a period of many years, continually proven themselves more reliable than Windows systems. Linux is now often used in mission critical applications because of its proven reliability. A research paper comparing Windows NT and UNIX based systems, including Linux, was published a little more than one year ago by John Kirch, a Networking Consultant and Microsoft Certified Professional (Windows NT). That paper, for the most part, slams Windows as an unreliable and unsatisfactory system.

NASA is one user of Linux, and although NASA does use Windows computers, those are nothing more than office machines and are in no way connected with any mission critical systems.

The US Navy tried to run a battle ship on Windows NT recently. The results were disastrous. During the testing, every system failed and the ship became a sitting duck in the water for several hours.

Yahoo.com is a user of BSD, a close relative of Linux. Their systems show exceptional reliability, and yahoo receives more hits than any other site on the internet. In fact, in the top 100 most hit sites on the internet (see http://www.100hot.com), 20 are Linux systems, 23 are Windows (including Microsoft itself), 38 more are UNIX based systems, and the rest are of various systems (accurate on 13 December 2000).

The exact sites in the top 100 that use Linux are:

http://wwf.com (The World Wrestling Federation)

http://mp3.com

http://webshots.com (the site that makes the windows screensavers!)

http://chek.com

http://spedia.net

http://abutler.com

http://friendfinder.com

http://mail-archive.com

http://cometsystems.com

http://speedyclick.com

http://mamma.com

Those that use BSD are:

http://hotmail.com (yes, hotmail really used BSD until about July 2000. Microsoft tried twice before to migrate hotmail to a windows system and failed. This third time, they have succeeded, but now hotmail is getting a reputation for loosing mails! (just like Chello))

The source of this information is a combination of http://www.100hot.com and http://netcraft.com

Next, of the 50 sites on the net with the longest uptime (ie: without a reboot), not one single MS server was listed. 39 are BSD servers, three are Linux servers, one Solaris, the rest IRIX. (source: http://uptime.netcraft.com/today/top.avg.html)

Hosting networks by Average uptime in the last 90 days (http://uptime.netcraft.com/today/isp.avg.html) shows a total of 1176 Linux servers among the machines. Windows achieved only 254. (current as of 1:30am 14 Dec 2000, GMT)

IDC, a highly reputable and extensively used tech industry research firm, published its research and predictions of server market share for 2000. In their predictions for 1999, published at the end of 1998, they said Linux would pass Netware in 2001. In fact according to IDC's research at the end of 1999, Linux passed Netware in 1999 and underestimates the actual penetration of Linux because IDC's methodologies only account for units sold. It does not include freely downloaded copies (Linux is free to download!).

For anyone interested in knowing more about Linux, try visiting these sites:

http://www.linuxvoodoo.org/

http://www.internet.com/sections/linux.html

There are many more sites available. A search for Linux will bring up masses of sites to look at.