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Examining Factors in Operating System Decisions

Many veteran intranet server installers swear by UNIX. It is available for just about all types of servers and in many flavors. UNIX has a long history with the Internet, as much of the Internet was first developed and run on UNIX servers. To this day, the majority of servers on the Internet are UNIX-based. UNIX generally includes TCP/IP as an integral part of the operating system. It also can provide significant performance on less powerful server equipment. Many UNIX systems can run on a small Intel-based 486 server, but UNIX also has the flexibility to run on almost every hardware platform.

A key to UNIX's success in the Internet world is that there are so many knowledgeable UNIX professionals. Some good places to find UNIX administrators (usually) are in Usenet newsgroups. For example, in Washington, D.C., there is a proliferation of them lurking on dc.jobs.

Although UNIX is still the leader in Web sites on the Internet, newer revisions of existing operating systems such as MacOS and Windows NT are quite robust for many sites and deserve a good look. Also, the base of knowledgeable staff available for these newer operating systems is continually growing.

The following sections help you narrow your decisions when it comes to choosing an operating system for your intranet.

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