What is Windows
NT?
Windows NT (now Windows 2000)
is the operating system for server developed by Microsoft.
The interface of the software is similar to that of Windows
95/98. It’s gaining market share due to the ease of use.
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What are the advantages of Windows NT?
Windows NT is developed and sold by Microsoft.
The company continually provides supports and updates. Users who
are familiar with Windows will find themselves comfortably using
Windows NT. Most people using Windows NT hosting utilize Active
Server Pages (ASP) technology. This is the main reason why people
are turning to Windows NT hosting. Users can develop web site using
familiar interface of Microsoft tools such as Microsoft FrontPage,
Visual Interdev, and Microsoft Access. With ASP users can develop
a database-driven web site using Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL
as the database.
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What are the disadvantages of Windows NT?
Unlike Unix, Windows NT requires more
system resource. You need a powerful machine to run Windows NT.
The Windows NT does not have a good reputation in term of server stability.
The NT server needs reboot more frequent than Unix. If you are
using Windows NT(2000) hosting services, you may find yourself investing
a lot of money in the development tools. Most of them are Microsoft
products. The costs of applications that can run on your web site
are usually higher than that of Unix. For example, you can find a
lot of free scripts to run web board, chat room, web stats, email
(and more) for your Unix-based web site, but you won’t find many free
applications in NT world.
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What is the difference between NT and UNIX?
Microsoft Windows NT and Unix (of which there are many varieties,
or flavors, including Linux, AIX, Solaris and more) are computer
operating systems. Both Windows NT Server and quality Unix implementations
are enterprise application servers that can be used for a
variety of critical purposes, including, but not limited to, Web,
email, and database hosting. Windows NT was developed by Microsoft
and is, in many ways, the flagship of their software solutions.
UNIX's development roots begin about twenty years ago - jointly at
Berkeley University and AT&T Bell Labs. UNIX is often referred
to as an "open system", which means that its source code is publicly
available. This has both its advantages and disadvantages.
While it has allowed many thousands of developers from all over
the world working for different companies to contribute to its
development, it is also more complex and less coordinated.
Both of these operating systems make excellent platforms
for mission-critical Web hosting, and they function well.
There are some differences of the two systems:
- Windows NT supports most Microsoft products including
Microsoft FrontPage - a popular Web authoring tool.
- Windows NT supports Active Server Pages (ASP) - a popular
programming that allows you to build dynamically database-driven
web pages (connecting to Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL server).
- Remote interactive access, via telnet or SSH is only supported under UNIX.
Generally one is able to do more configuration/setup tasks
themselves rather than having to request services from web hosts.
- The majority of existing CGI programs (generally Perl scripts)
that are available on the Internet have been developed on Unix platforms
and hence tend to install and operate much more smoothly under Unix. Many
Perl Scripts are FREE!
The bottom line is that for many web sites the operating system
on which the Web server is housed is largely inconsequential.
The real question is, "Are you using a specific web site or
database technology that is more appropriately hosted on NT instead
of UNIX (or vice versa)?" If your web site does not require special
features offered by Unix or NT, you can choose either NT or Unix to
serve your web site. It doesn’t matter!
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