Operating System Choices
Operating System Choices Home
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The short answer: No, Yes. We have a lot more to say on this subject in our
article System & Network Software, and a good
article on the subject can be found at CPM's
Byte on-line
magazine.
Compelling reasons why people choose operating
systems other than Windows are:
|
| OS | Uses |
|---|---|
| DOS | For Point Of Sale and other specialty apps. |
| Windows 3.1 | For current users with no compelling need to "upgrade". |
| Windows 95/98/Me | Runs all the popular business and entertainment software. |
| Windows NT | Runs popular business software with better stability, security than 95/98. |
| Windows 2000 | Successor to NT for business use |
| Windows XP | Successor to Windows 2000. The path to .NET |
| Linux | High performance, low cost, Internet and general business. |
| OS/2 | General and financial business, specialty apps, wherever "it has to work". |
| Apple Mac | If you prefer living in a pre-planned, gated community with enforced architectural standards. |
| OS | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
| Novell NetWare | Stable, Fast fileserver, Secure Designed for large enterprises | Only fair as applications server Complex for small business |
| Windows NT | Easy to get running, popular | Slow, unstable, expensive Poor remote administration |
| Windows 2000 | More stable and secure than NT | Very complex to install, administer (with Active Directory) Expensive, incompatible with standards. |
| Linux | Stable, fast, inexpensive great Internet features | Expertise needed for initial setup |
| xBSD | Stable, fast, inexpensive best Internet features | Little known outside Internet circles |
| OS/2 Warp Server | Everything a server should be Very strong e-Business features | IBM's dismal marketing. |
| Calera/SCO Unix | Stable, fast, feature rich Many high-end enterprise features | Expensive (compared to Linux) Complex (compared to NT) |
| IBM AS/400 | 99.999% reliability, great support Scalable from mon-and-pop to Microsoft (Yes, Microsoft) | "You're running what?" |
Microsoft has done everything it could by both courting and threatening developers to starve other operating systems of software, but there actually is some, and some of it is pretty damned good. OS/2 packages like PMMail, ZOC, PMView and others are successfully invading the Windows market.
Here's a list, absolutely not comprehensive in any way, but typical of what people are running under different desktop operating systems.
| BUSINESS | Windows | Linux | OS/2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office Suite | Microsoft Office Lotus SmartSuite WordPerfect Office StarOffice | Applix Axene WordPerfect Office StarOffice | Lotus Smart Suite StarOffice |
| Easy Word Processor | ClearLook | ||
| Spreadsheet | (See Suites) | Xess Gnumetric WingZ XQuad | Mesa2 (And see Suites) |
| Contact Manager | Act! Gold Mine Maximizer | Omnifile Contact Connection | |
| PIM (Personal Information Mgr.) | Outlook | Relish Omnifile | |
| Groupware | Exchange/Outlook GroupWise Lotus Notes | Bynari | Lotus Notes |
| Accounting (Small Business) | QuickBooks Peachtree | In Charge! any DOS package | |
| Accounting (Mid Business) | Great Plains Real World | Appgen DataPro | (Client to Linux or Unix package) |
| Database (Medium) | Access CodeBase FoxPro | MySQL mSQL | Omnifile CodeBase Alaska XBase MySQL |
| Database (Enterprise) | Oracle SQL Server DB2 | Oracle Informix PostgreSQL DB2 | DB2 |
| File Encryption (On the fly) | gpg | CryptStream | |
| OCR | Caere OmniPage | TextFlow | |
| Voice Recognition | IBM ViaVoice Dragon L&H | IBM Viavoice | IBM VoiceType |
| Document Mgmt | PageKeeper Pro | ScanShop | STi ReView |
| Desktop Publish | Pagemaker Quark Ventura Publisher Framemaker | Xclamation Framemaker (beta) | Papyrus Maul Publisher |
| Personal Finance | Quicken Microsoft Money Moneydance | GnuCash Moneydance | Electronic Teller Moneydance |
| Project Mangement | Primivara Microsoft Project | Epiware | |
| Tax Preparation | Turbo Tax TaxCut | ||
| INTERNET & COM | Windows | Linux | OS/2 |
| Internet Dialer | Dialup Networking | wvdial diald | Injoy SlipPM |
| Web Browser | Internet Explorer Netscape Opera Lynx | Netscape Opera (beta) Lynx Links Mozilla | Netscape Opera (some day) Lynx Links |
| Mail Reader | MS Outlook Netscape Eudora PMMail | mutt pine Netscape | Netscape MR/2 ICE PMMail |
| Remote Control | PC Anywhere Co-Session Netop | telnet | telnetPM telnet Netop |
| Internet Sharing (Gateway) | Ishare | IP Masq | Injoy |
| Web Server | IIS (NT only) Apache (NT only) | Apache | Apache |
| Modem & Serial | Zoc | Minicom | Zoc |
| Desktop Fax | WinFax Pro | HylaFax | PMfax Pro |
| Fax Server | HylaFax | PMfax LAN | |
| GRAPHICS | Windows | Linux | OS/2 |
| Graphics Viewer Graphics Converter | PMView LView | Electric Eyes | PMView |
| Graphics Editing | PhotoShop Embelish Corel Graphics Corel PhotoPaint | Gimp | Gimp Embelish |
| Web Page Publishing | Front Page | Zope | HomePage Publisher Webwriter/2 Papyrus |
| UTILITIES | Windows | Linux | OS/2 |
| Directory Mangement | Windows Explorer Ztree Bold FC/W | Ztree Bold Filecommander/2 | |
| Disk Defragment | Defrag (95/98 incl) Disk Keeper (NT) | (rarely needed) | GamaTech (rarely needed) |
| Tape Backup | Backup Exec NovaBack | bru tar cpio | Back Again/2 NovaBack BackMaster |
©:Andrew Grygus - Automation Access
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