Linux VS NT

[Winwun]

Assalam O Alaikom,

Please dont rool up your sleves just yet! I know the topic is jucy for most of the Linux fans but its different here. I just want to know which one would you prefer, basing your opinion on facts and not just ordinary facts but on facts relating to Operating system designing like Process handling, threads SMPs, Networking and Graphics.

I have an Operating System assignment. I have to compare the two operating systems in terms of process handling, Networking and Graphics. But I have to rationalise my opinion, For instance, in OPERATING SYSTEMS fourth edition William Stallings points out that

"NT4.0 has the same internal architecture as NT3.x. However, the most notable architectural change is that several graphics components that ran in user mode as part of Win32 subsystems in 3.x have been moved into the Windows NT Executive, which runs in kernel mode. The benefits of this change is that it speeds up the operation of these graphics functions. The draw back is that these graphics functions could now have access to the low-level system services, which could impact the reliability of the Operating System".

So, any information provided by you would help me understand the difference. I've already done some ground work by collecting data from two books. Now, I'm turning to the Internet for information. So far I've found sites that debate over "NT VS Linux" without rationlizing opinion with facts and some just keep going on and on about the evils of microsoft and how much they love linux. Some do provide good information.

So, whats your opinion?

Furqan

[if]

Aslam-o-Aliakum,

Here are some benchmark i seen... plz've a look

http://www.mindcraft.com/openbenchmark.html

[nafri]

Assalam O Alaikom,

I have an Operating System assignment. I have to compare the two operating systems in terms of process handling, Networking and Graphics. But I have to rationalise my opinion <...>

Now, I'm turning to the Internet for information. So far I've found sites that debate over "NT VS Linux" without rationlizing opinion with facts and some just keep going on and on about the evils of microsoft and how much they love linux. Some do provide good information.

searching on the net using "linux vs NT" as search item will lead you nowhere -- as far as your assignment is concerned. a case in point is the link provided by "if" which is about a 1999 controversy about how to benchmark linux and NT machines (and the results thereof).

i believe that you can benefit a lot from "operating system concepts" by silberschatz and galvin (5/ed; addison-wesley) which has case studies of linux and windows NT. i have no idea where you are based, but i can tell you that a so-called "pakistani" edition of this book is available at the urdu bazar, karachi. this book is *highly recommended*.

an interesting debate is between the microkernel and monolithic designs. (linux is non-microkernel and monolithic, and windows NT is considered to be microkernel.) while the debate is older, it got highlighted during Andrew Tanenbaum/Linus Trovalds "Linux is obsolete" discussion on comp.os.minix in 1992 (see "The Tanenbaum-Torvalds Debate"
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensour ... /appa.html ). please note that you will find only one mention of windows NT, and the debate is about linux and minix (which is a precursor of linux). nevertheless, it will give you several pointers on OS design.

the following links should also be useful:

Chris Gould's Linux Kernel Architecture and Other OS Links
http://cs.uml.edu/~cgould/

All About Operating Systems
http://www.icselectionguide.com/


all the best,

irfan

[Winwun]

Thanks nafri. I used the first link, it was greate help on Memory Management and Process Management. Info like this is rare.

Thanks

[mwalam]

Aoa
Linux is Better then NT. Because if you got a Red Hat Machine as a server. and clients are on NT. you can run Red Hat Virtually on any windows based machines but you cannot do vice versa. So then which is better my friend.
the program is called VMWare. you can download it free from the net
http://www.vmware.com/download

[nafri]

you can run Red Hat Virtually on any windows based machines but you cannot do vice versa. So then which is better my friend. the program is called VMWare. you can download it free from the net
http://www.vmware.com/download

waqas, did you actually check the vmware website before posting your reply? there are two important facts mentioned on the very webpage for which you provided the URL (with more details on other pages of the website):

- vmware is *not* a free software, rather it is a commercial software. you may download a 30-day *evaluation* copy. after 30 days, the license for the *evaluation* copy expires.

- vmware also runs on windows NT, 2000 and XP. and it is possible to have redhat as a guest operating system on a windows NT machine with the help of vmware.

irfan

[Winwun]

Linux is Better then NT. Because if you got a Red Hat Machine as a server. and clients are on NT. you can run Red Hat Virtually on any windows based machines but you cannot do vice versa. So then which is better my friend.

Its true mwalam, that you can run linux virtually on any other system. But to do this you dont really need softwares like vmware, This monday i've done an assignment on BAMN that involved using BToolkit. This is a software that (is only availabale for linux) is used for modeling software (not like UML). We have had a software that connects to a Linux machine and lets you run a session virtually on your machine. In our case we used windows NT4.0, so we only get the user interface while the whole session (including any programs you run) runs on the linux machine.

This is one of the major advantages of Linux, because it shows that linux is a truely multiuser environment. windows never had this capability but until recently I've heared that they have also developed a server that will let you do exactly that, but not all versions of windows let you do that. Since linux has been open source there were softwares available to let you connect to linux machines virtually.

By the way... I dont think that vmware lets you virtually connect to the linux machine. It lets you run different operating systems on your existing operating system as a client. VMWare creates a virtual environment of a network on a single PC, you install vmware and then a bunch of other operating system through vmware and it creates a virtual environment of multiple PC having different IPs, hardware is also simulated for each PC. This is not like running an OS virtually on your machine because you are installing other operating systems on your machine. Only the network and hardware is simulated.

some interesting about virtual PC softwares is that microsoft recently bought the rights to one of them. Go to www.connectix.com . Microsoft bought the virtual PC software business from connectix.