278. Gary Pickens
January 7, 1999
gary@welkin.org
Hello,
I am a software developer and ISP owner. I have been developing software for 20 years, and have developed for both for UNIX and NT. My vote would be as follows: Number 1: Linux for the majority of the small sites. It costs very little, is extremely stable. Also you won't be sending lots of money to Richmond, Washington. Small local companies could provide the software and services, which could help the local economy in India. For NT, if you want software for large number of users, you will be sending a fortune to the US.
Number 2: Solaris. It is even more stable then Linux, and scales better. However, it costs more. So my suggestion would be to install Solaris at your larger sites. As small sites outgrow Linux, it is fairly easy to migrate to Solaris. (This is not the case for NT applications. Training for NT does not migrate to larger machines.)
The very last choice I would make would be NT. It is not stable. One machine I work with has to be rebooted every other day. It costs a fortune for software if you have large numbers of users.
Also there is no migration path. If you outgrow your NT box what will you move to? With Linux/UNIX there are a number of large systems that you can migrate to when you want to move up.
You might also consider the free BSDs. They seem to be more secure then the above-mentioned OSs, which is a prime consideration on today's Internet. This could also be considered a reason to go with Linux. It would be fairly easy to move from Linux to Open BSD if the need arises. It would be almost impossible to go from NT to Open BSD.
Hope this helps.  

277. Sandeep
January 7, 1999
sbajwa@home.com
I have 4 PCs at home which are
1. Windows NT Version 4.0 (service pack 3) (Domain controller and gateway) on Pentium 133, 40 MB memory, about 15 GB in hard disks, 2 CD ROM (a server)
2. Linux Red Hat server on a 486 machine with 8 MB memory, and a 1 GB hard disk. (Web server, Unix and C programming, etc for learning purposes) (it has been running for more then 4 months without a reboot)
3. Windows 98 on MMX 166 Pentium machine.
4. Windows 98 on a 400 MHZ Pentium II Machine.
I work as a Systems Specialists responsible for Three Digital Unix 4.0 d servers running Oracle 7 Database and Oracle Financials. (one production, One Test, one data warehouse) One Digital Unix 3 server (production) Running oracle apps 942.
Six Windows NT machine which run our Network, email (lotus notes), and couple specialized servers for department. But majority of our work is done on Unix servers.
I have found that Windows NT is not reliable for any kind of critical production work (like running Oracle financials). Digital and Sun beats it any day!!
Windows NT is OK when web is concerned!! (They have made simple HTML language into junk like ASP, etc and are trying their best so that Internet does not have a one standard but bunch of different standards.)
I say!! Everybody run on Linux with Apache Webserver! Both are free and there is tons of help available all across the Internet as well as hardware requirements are much much much less then windows NT (or for that matter any Microsoft application).
Windows NT is like fully loaded Bullock Cart which can go only at a small pace where while Linux is like a bicycle which you can upgrade to a motorcycle for a free!!  

276. Ragoo
January 7, 1999
ragu@vsnl.com
Linux/Unix is the clear leader for the price-performance benefits. Linux will come on top for the sheer power and the wonder of seeing the source. Students are going to benefit the most in running Linux on their servers 'coz they are the future trendsetters and they are going to stick with what they have learned and tweaked during their college/academic days. Can India or rather the Govt. of India afford buggy software like Win NT to run on their critical servers when they can opt out for a more reliable variant of Unix called Linux ?
Linux for RELIABLE computing EVERYWHERE .....

275. Brad Felmey
January 7, 1999
bfe369@airmail.net
Linux. Unbeatable support and development, open source, and just the right price.

 274. Siva
January 7, 1999
quantumcavalier@hotmail.com
IF any ISP's are reading the forum, take note, notice that most of those supporting *NIX actually know what they are saying.. all the points and facts, hence alluding to a large *NIX base of users. Also RedHat now provides support, which by the way has been more helpful than any MS can offer. Also cost wise, I think the point should be that LINUX/BSD can run on cheap Intel machine's, try running your NT on a MMX or even Celeron Machine!!!.
Even a PII drags its feet on NT.
NT NT Go Away
ISP's wanna come out and play

273. A.Chavan
January 7, 1999
achavan@yahoo.com
An ISP's customers don't care what OS is running on the ISP's server. They want a service that works - under heavy load, at all times. They need reliability. For an Indian ISP the other critical factors in deciding a server OS are cost, flexibility, and scalability. LINUX is known to be reliable, scalable, flexible, and inexpensive. While other Unix OSes meet the first three they are certainly not inexpensive. Linux hardware requirements are lower too - not an insignificant saving for a business. With any of the proprietary Unix Oses and more so with Microsoft's NT, you are locked in - both for hardware and software. In the uncertain world on Internet business, that is the last thing I would want. Read the reports - not marketing propaganda. Don't think along the lines of a "Holy War". Make a business+technical decision. It's Linux.

 272. Apurva Pathak
January 7, 1999
Apurva_Pathak@hotmail.com
Linux is free or at least the cheapest out of the three! Take your pick!

271. Vikas Agnihotri
January 7, 1999
vikasa@writeme.com
A Unix-variant, no doubt about it. Most ISPs worldwide do NOT use NT.
Wonder why? :)

270. Ramesh
January 7, 1999
rkotike@hotmail.com
Windows NT

269. Richard
January 7, 1999
richj@advsoftech.com
For a server, a UNIX variant without a doubt, NT is just too fragile (and costly) for most ISPs here in the US most of The ISPs here use either Linux or *BSD for < $50 US you get a full server package complete with e-mail, ftp, web, a full suite of development tools and you can run comfortably on a Pentium(I have all of the above and a Desktop on a 133)

268. Ritambhara Goel
January 7, 1999
Ritambhara@hotmail.com
For Internet Unix is best time tested OS. Win NT is a baby it needs to grow up, stop throwing tantrums (crashing on every small glitch in any application running on it) to even compete with Unix as server OS. I have not tried Linux yet so can not say any thing about it.  

267. Rao
January 7, 1999
smart_tarzan@yahoo.com
Unix

266. Deepak Balakrishna
January 7, 1999
deepakb@home.com
Linux. Linux. Linux. There is no other option out there. Linux marks the end of buggy, proprietary code-bloat which marks both Windows and commercial Unix. An ISP starting out should not think twice about adopting Linux - the cost advantages, return on investment, stability, open-standards compliance and yes, even support, are incomparable. The Linux installed code base has shot up by over 250% in the last year! Surely, 17 million people using Linux cannot be wrong.

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