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Three Enterprise Operating Systems Compared

Posted by timothy on from the or-none-of-the-above dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Finally, a much awaited review of enterprise OSes. The guys from NW Test Alliance pitted Red Hat, UnitedLinux, and Windows against each other and rated them on several rubrics. Red Hat won by a slight margin on the basis of its high hardware compatibility and strong security integration."

5 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Not actually a comparison with Windows by Brento · · Score: 5, Informative

    Read the article. There's a graph with some stats on Windows vs the two Linux distros, but it's not a comparison between all three - only between the two Linux distros. The last page makes it pretty clear when they only rate the two Linux distros, and Red Hat wins that comparison.

    This is *not* a long-awaited comparison between Windows and Linux. It's not even a long-awaited comparison between Linux distros - the whole article spans a whopping three pages, and it's woefully incomplete.

    --
    What's your damage, Heather?
  2. non-enterprise notions of "transactions" by LinuxParanoid · · Score: 5, Informative

    One never knows whether a journalist/reviewer/linux-advocate really understands what an "enterprise"-ready OS is. For the purpose of this post, I'm not arguing whether Linux is or isn't one. But I had to laugh after seeing a chart showing "Successful transactions per second" and doublechecking their footnoted definition of transactions.

    OLTP? Database? TPC-C? No. A transaction was downloading 20 4k-byte files.

    --LP

  3. Re:Enterprise Linux AS Premium Edition by VCAGuy · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think they can justify it. I mean, when you're used to paying almost $3,800 for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with 25 CALs, $2,500 (and no CALs) sounds pretty good!

    --
    Q: "Why do sound techs say 'check 1, 2'?"
    A: "Cause if they could count any higher they'd be lighting techs."
  4. Linux/Windows Not Enterprise! by gypsyx · · Score: 4, Informative
    Um... Neither Windows nor Linux are enterprise operating systems. PC hardware is just that: hardware good enough to run on your personal computer. Yes, I've heard all about how Linux runs on just about every computer invented. But let's stop and think about that. Linux lacks so many features found in the commercial operating systems. Why someone would want to run Linux on a GS1280, Superdome, E10k, or S/390 is completely beyond me. If you can afford the big hardware, you can afford the OS licensing. Why would someone choose Linux over Solaris, AIX, HP/UX, or Tru64? Easy: Ignorance. Either that or they think that the developers don't deserve to get paid for making a superior product. The Linux toy cannot seriously be compared to a commercial, enterprise grade UNIX or non-UNIX operating system.

    Anyway, I'd like to see a comparison for the major players of the real enterprise OS market: z/OS, OpenVMS, Solaris, AIX, Tru64, and HP/UX.

  5. E-mail support by Andrewkov · · Score: 4, Informative
    We made several tech support queries to SuSE and Red Hat using a third party's credentials. We sent via e-mail four questions to both providers that ranged from neophyte to advanced, to both providers. Red Hat replied with the answers within an average of two hours, and SuSE within eight. All answers were correct, but the replies from the Red Hat staff added more information about the suggestions they proposed.

    This is an interesting test that I haven't seen done before. Interesting to note that Suse took much longer to reply to the emails, although the article doesn't mention if the Suse support people are located in Germany, and if the time zone difference could be the cause. Red Hat's more detailed responses sounds like a plus, though. Although I would like to have seen the actual questions and responses. Anyway, this sort of thing is important for a company like mine, where we use Linux, but can't (or won't) afford 24/7 support (I should mention that Linux isn't a primary platform here, we do have 24/7 vendor support for our mission critical systems). So getting a quick response on emails is a big selling feature.