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Is There Life Beyond Windows? Pros, Cons and Costs of the Major Operating Systems

Written by: Linda Jacobson

Article Overview: This article looks at the pros, cons and costs of Windows, Mac OS, UNIX and Linux. It's a topic that generates a great deal of emotion, but there's no sense getting hung up on defending a favorite operating system. In the cold light of day, these are the bottom-line issues: Is a given OS the most productive solution for your business? Does it do everything you need it to do? Is it the most cost-effective option? And does it make sense to use more than one operating system on the network? This topic is the fourth in our 2009 white paper series: "Making every IT dollar count!" The full white papers are available on our website.

Is There Life Beyond Windows? Pros, Cons and Costs of the Major Operating Systems

Market share and trends

The major operating systems are Windows, Mac OS, UNIX and Linux.

Windows decisively dominates the workstation market, with almost 90% of market share. Windows XP is still the major workstation operating system, with 65% to Vista’s 24%. Mac OS increased its workstation market share to about 10% over the past 5 years and is gaining traction in the business world for the first time - from 1.1% in 2006 to 4.5% in 2008. The recent increase in Mac market share is likely attributable to the Mac now being able to run Windows seamlessly, and to user backlash after the introduction of Vista. It will be interesting to see if Windows 7 will reverse this trend.

Windows and UNIX each command about a third of the server market. Linux has a tiny presence on workstations but accounts for 16% of the server market. Mac Server has minimal server market penetration.

Pros, cons and costs

The major advantages of Windows are availability of business applications software, support and resources, and very high mainstream comfort levels. The high cost of matching Windows applications on other systems and the high cost of migration are the greatest barriers to change.

Despite somewhat higher hardware costs, total cost of ownership for the Mac is generally lower than that of Windows. Mac OS offers the advantages of less “user friction interface”, higher productivity, lower maintenance and support costs, and better security.

Windows licensing costs are far higher than the other operating systems. Mac servers include unlimited licences, and UNIX and Linux are free. Estimates were that there would be 500,000 new pieces of malware (viruses, trojans etc) for Windows by the end of 2008. Threats to Mac OS, UNIX and Linux are negligible.

Total cost of ownership findings for servers are mixed, with some studies finding higher TCO for UNIX and Linux, others for Windows – depending on who commissioned the study. Linux and UNIX offer low maintenance requirements, exceptional stability and very good security. Most Web servers run UNIX or Linux, while office servers are mostly Windows. Key business applications server software can often only run on Windows.

Mixed networks often make tremendous business sense, as they allow businesses to match systems to their needs instead of vice versa.

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Article Tags: better security, business applications software, business world, cost of ownership, free estimates, hardware costs, mac market, mac server, mac servers, market penetration, market share, minimal server, os unix, pros cons, rsquo, server market, strong market, unix and linux, windows applications, workstation market



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