Can someone please tell me why is NT hosting more expensive than UNIX hosting? Thanks and best wishes, kayes.

License!

Windows is not free, Linux is free
Sql Server is not free, Mysql is free
Windows requiere more "technical support", linux is more stable (dont flame me)


And im sure there are more reasons

I think Dominet pretty much covers the whole thing. Microsoft is geared for commercial, while linux is open source, made by people or community who love doing it. :)

Eventhough RedHat is linux that is commercialized, it still cheaper because many of the components are free.

What are the main advantages of NT over UNIX? Or is it the other way round? Why do people host their sites on NT servers when they can opt for the cheaper UNIX? Thanks for answering those newbie questions. Best wishes, kayes

Some people just want NT just because of the way Microsoft markets themselves and Microsoft products are preferred sometimes. Microsoft products are very trusted in the corporate community and large companies don't mind paying big bucks. Just like allot of consumers will buy Intel over AMD since Intel markets itself like crazy. I think most corporations use Intel based boxes.

When's was the last time you seen a TV ad for Freebsd?

Greetings:

The majority of sites out there are on some flavor of Unix. See http://www.netcraft.com/survey/ and http://www.securityspace.com/s_survey/data/200204/index.html (I'm not sure which one is more accurate).

As it was already pointed out the licensing costs for Windows exist, and are very expensive.

In order to offer Microsoft SQL Server, for example, it is recommended you have it on its own box (that's a cost in itself when you can run mySQL, PostgreSQL, and similiar databases on the same server as the web server). Furthermore, you need the processor version in order to have relatively unlimited access.

Now, do your own home work and price out a single or dual processor version of Microsoft SQL Server.

Think you will use Microsoft Access instead? Think again. The ODBC driver has a per machine limit, and each database usually maxes out when there are 40 or more concurrent connections.

Other issues involve:

* Security - Microsoft has released 21 security patches to date this year along with re-releasing a number of patches where they did not get the patch right the first time.

Keeping a Sun or Linux server up to date security wise is relatively easy. Microsoft requires reboots every time.

For the Windows guru's, yes you can chain patches so there is only one reboot; however, that takes work whereas the only time you have to reboot a Unix-based server for a patch is when you are making changes to the kernel.

Bill Gates stated publicly that Windows XP was going to be the most secure system on the market; yet within weeks (was it days?) of its release it was found that if XP connected to the Net out of the box, anyone with any hacking skills could take over the box.

* Reliability - Windows still has continued reliability problems. Permissions get changed when they shouldn't, and there is not always a clear trail.

The Apache web server keeps its error log and access logs in the same location. On IIS, the access longs are in one area, and the error log is in the Events log / viewer.

It is a GUI alright, but everything is not where you would expect it if you have experience on other operating systems.

* Performance - Our parent company is a hosting company that offers both Windows and Unix hosting. We have enough system administrators on staff to keep the Windows relaiblity and security issues down pat.

However, anytime we have a Windows customer move to Unix or a Unix customer move to Windows they comment on how Unix is that much faster; yet the hardware is the same.

There is a long list; but here are some intitial thoughts.

Thank you.

Originally posted by dominet
License!

Windows is not free, Linux is free
Sql Server is not free, Mysql is free
Windows requiere more "technical support", linux is more stable (dont flame me)


And im sure there are more reasons

I second that.... :)

I will also 3rd that! ;)

Wow...those f00ls at big businesses running windows servers (and payin xtra 4 it) r F00LS!!!!! If I ever make it big...Im gonna buy tons of advertising for linux...

Dunno why =D

windows= p00py =D

... because people like me who do corparte network support for a long time are (suddenly) faced with web capability demands. Ok, I for my part have/had the guts to commense a change in my knowledge cause I quickly realized that Windows, which I used since Win NT 3.1 in 1993 though, totally stinks as to web demands.

NT: Do you like to pay for bugy software and damn slow OS?
Unix: pay nothing, works best.. <-- I like this better than nt
RedHat: they take money for providing support. for example - you have redhat on your server and you need something to do with it - who knows how to make it best? of course developers know better because they made redhat!

It is simple..

Because Microsoft understands and exploits capitalisim in order to stay in the market.

Your licence probibly goes more to the next M$ advert to brainwash your kids than server development.

Linux does not have to advertise, its sold on its own merit, or given away by lots of nice folks, like they do of course! ;)