Follow-up #1
-> Follow-up #2 ->
Q
Why don't you just write "I dislike NT!" and spare most statements in your article 'NT vs. Unix' ? True is:
- Yes, NT scales badly
- Security within NT is hard to master (as is with UNIX, for example: sendmail!)
- Webserver IIS4 (NT) is excellent (exept for FTP-Service), and there are great COM and ASP Sites written (bad ones, of course, too!).
For profound info about ASP, I recommend http://www.15seconds.com.
By the way, Microsoft (As well as, for example, Reuters), use IIS...
- Yes, NT has lot's of wizards, but when trouble, only a geek will fing the source, no dummies should be allowed to any NT-Server!
- I've installed and configured many NT4 Servers, and they run (100% uptime, no reboots!), but I know what I'm doing...
Please let the discussion UNIX vs. NT not be biased on feelings, but facts...
A
On the contrary.
I love NT.
In fact, when I get around to installing the LAN in my house, I intend to use NT/Microsoft as the core of the architecture.
I'd never, even for a second, consider UNIX, even the LINUX flavour, for my home.
Why?
UNIX is freakin hard.
The result of UNIX being so hard is that the technology quickly becomes the focus of one's day.
When working in a UNIX environment, too large a percentage of one's day is spent on the command line rather than on the work.
In my opinion, technology should be invisible, allowing my job, my desires, my intentions, to be the focus.
Technology is just a tool to serve an end.
The end is the important thing, not the tool.
When using UNIX, I'm always faced with the problem that I don't want to be a network/systems administrator but I do want a network/system.
In the end, more often then not, I would rather just not bother.
My time is more valuable than that.
But why is UNIX so hard?
UNIX is so hard because it is so open.
UNIX allows you, in fact forces you, to get deep into the guts of the computer and start mucking about.
And UNIX provides options.
In fact, it provides so many options that you can soon be wobbling around in a dizzy state.
As such, UNIX is heaven for the type of person that likes to take car engines apart and put them back together again.
UNIX gives you the ability and the right to become a master craftsman.
It also allows you to be independent, solve your own problems, create your own solutions.
The openness of UNIX will also always make it more scalable, more secure, and more powerful than any closed architecture, such as NT.
I honestly believe that NT will never top UNIX in quality while it remains a closed architecture.
This is all very fine and dandy of course, but I'm not that kind of person.
I'm the kind of person that would rather buy another car then learn how to change the transmission.
Do you see the UNIX paradox?
The greatest problem with UNIX is also its greatest strength.
So personally, I'll go the NT route for the plain and simple reason that I hate doing sysadmin work.
I would rather get on with my "real" work and for that to happen, I'd better be in Windows land.
NT is the solution for me.
Windows understands objects.
It understands interfaces and drivers.
It simply groks black boxes and all the other wonderful engineering design patterns that make Windows so darned easy to use.
DNA is cool.
Windows also understands me.
Windows knows how to make me more productive.
Windows can do all of these wonderful things because it hides the nuts and bolts away from me so I needn't bother with them... so that I can get on with my work.
But at the same time, when an error does finally occur, I am pretty much stuck.
Since I've made no special contacts with inside sources in Redmond, most of the internals are proprietary, unavailable, and hidden behind all those wonderful interfaces.
Even if you are a tinkerer, when Windows gets corrupted, you pretty much have to buy a new computer.
You (95% of users) just can't fix it yourself.
So as you see, Windows is just as paradoxical as UNIX.
The greatest strength of Windows, its abstraction, is also its greatest weakness.
So given the fact that both operating systems are fraught in paradox, why do I choose Windows for myself, and why shouldn't everyone?
In the case of my personal LAN, it just makes sense to use Windows.
However, my business requirements are not shared by all businesses.
For instance, where I work, Barclays Capital, we have certain security requirements that simply make NT versus UNIX a non issue.
The security by obscurity model just does not work.
Further, Barclays can darn well cough up the money to pay for a crack UNIX network administration team.
So, the UNIX decision makes more sense there.
I'm not saying that I don't like Microsoft.
I actually give Microsoft two unconditional thumbs up.
They have always done well for me given my requirements.
What I am saying is that one must be careful about which technology to use.
And that one must pay close attention to one's requirements.
UNIX will be the right answer at times and Windows will be the right answer at other times.
PS: Regarding ASP, of course, good code can be written in any development architecture.
The point is that some architectures HELP you write good code and others do not.
I believe ASP is an architecture which permits... no... I mean it more strongly... fosters, bad code.
-> Follow-up #2 ->
Selena Sol contributes to the JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java. Selena curently works for Barclays Capital in London, one of the leading global investment banks in Europe and has worked as a software developer for the National Center for Human Genome research, Microline Software, Neuron Data, and Electric Eye in Singapore. Selena is perhaps best-known for creating the Public Domain Web Script Archive (Extropia) and writing several books on Web Programming (Perl, CGI, Java).
Email: selena@extropia.com
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