Summary
Windows is a series of lowest common denominatoroperating systems intended for businesses that consider only initial purchaseprice and ignore total cost of ownership, reliability, downtime, security,productivity, or other factors.
“Technically,Windows NT Server 4.0 is no match for any UNIX operating system, not even thenon-commercial BSDs [FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD] or Linux.” —Microsoft Windows NTServer 4.0 versus UNIX
WilliamNeukom, Microsoft’s senior vice president for law and corporate affairs, toldU.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson on December 15, 1997,“Windows 95 puts users back with the Flintstones in terms of operating systemfunction.”
Microsofthas been running a series of television commercials claiming that Windows 2000is reliable and that it can be left unattended for days at a time without humanintervention. Windows 2000 is in fact still less reliable and stable than theleast reliable version of UNIX (even the free ones), and will require a fulltime maintenance and administration staff, as well as at least a part timestaff or independent consultants for recurring repair work.
Microsofthas been running a series of television commercials claiming that Windows 2000is secure and immune from hacker and virus attacks. Windows 2000 is in factstill less secure than the least secure version of UNIX (even the free ones),and the Windows family of operating systems (including Windows 2000) is subjectto the greatest number of viruses of any operating system family (more than10,000 as many viruses as the UNIX family of operating systems).
Microsofthas been running a series of television commercials claiming that Windows 2000can easily connect to other systems and that it is easy to merge operations onseparate Windows 2000 systems. Windows 2000 is in fact unable to connect to anyother operating system unless the other operating system provides theconnectivity (UNIX, NetWare, and the Macintosh provide the ability to connectto Windows). Merging multiple Windows 2000 systems (even just two Windows 2000systems) is a difficult and time consuming process subject to errors and lossof data. Some businesses have been unable to get a new Windows 2000 system tocorrectly run their business, even after more than a year of direct Microsoftsupport.