Linux is superior to Windows NT in most of the areas in which it was judged by an independent research group. Milton Keynes, UK-based Bloor Research tested both operating systems against real applications and found that NT emerged superior as a data mart and an application server.
The researchers put Linux ahead as a print server, file server, mixed workload server and web server. When it came to mail server, database server and groupware server, they found there was little to choose between the two products and so other factors should determine what was selected. Bloor concluded that neither NT nor Linux were appropriate as an enterprise level server.
Linux and NT were also compared by nine criteria and Bloor found that Linux was superior in seven areas. In three categories: OS availability, user satisfaction and value for money, it judged Linux as significantly better. When it came to operational features and support and scalability, the differences were less marked. But in the area of applications availability, Bloor found NT to be superior to a very marked degree.
Bloor expects Linux to improve as a platform for data mart and application server usage as the richness of its software environment improves. However Windows NT will also continue to mature significantly with the release of Windows 2000. Bloor concludes that neither product will be appropriate as an enterprise level server in the next few years.
