Subject: Re: differing flavours of unix
From: Mike Tibor (tibor@lib.uaa.alaska.edu)
Date: Fri Mar 15 2002 - 12:31:37 AKST
On Fri, 15 Mar 2002, Lee wrote:
> Does somebody know of a nice short table that lists the differing
> major flavours of unix, with the advantages and disadvantages of each,
> and why one would particularly choose [solaris, tru-64, aix, SCO, ???]
> for given tasks?
I don't know of any such table, but for the most part the choice of which
operating system to go with should always depend on the primary task you
want to accomplish with it, and this is almost always the deciding factor.
If you just want a web server, then that's a task easily handled by any
unix variant, so you would then most likely make your choice based on
secondary things like cost of hardware and software, cost and availability
of expertise for a given platform, etc.
If your needs start to get a little more specialized, such as modelling
weather patterns or nuclear explosions, then you would probably choose
based on the raw number crunching power of the hardware. In this case, I
believe Alphas still have a leg up over other architectures in the serious
number crunching arena, although that probably won't last long.
On the other hand, if you need to run an application that will only run on
one particular operating system, then it's a no-brainer--you choose the OS
that your application will run on. Arthur's example of IRIX's popularity
in the CAD/graphics area is a good example of this. Historically, the
best CAD software I believe has pretty much always run mainly on IRIX.
Further, SGI systems have always had absolutely first-rate graphics
hardware.
Mike
-- Mike Tibor Univ. of Alaska Anchorage (907) 786-1001 voice Network Technician Consortium Library (907) 786-6050 fax tibor@lib.uaa.alaska.edu http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/~tibor/ http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/~tibor/pgpkey for PGP public key
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