Pos/420 Team Essay Example

bigger businesses.

This means there is no cost to the user to download and operate the software. Windows, in comparison cost the users one time licensing cost.

That cost is dependent on how many users the system will have. When Windows is purchased for a personnel computer the cost is rolled up in the purchase price and will work on only that one system and normally is preloaded prior to the sale of the computer. It would make sense to stray towards the free operating system, but the fact that it is open sourced together with the fact that Windows works better on servers in terms of networking, file print and most importantly security make Windows the operating system of choice.

When an upgrade is needed to a newer version of Windows the cost varies, basedon the source.

While searching for the cost Price Grabber, an online comparison shopping site was used. Price Grabber listed a Windows XP Home addition upgrade for $79. 99, compared to $96. 81 at an online site called RoyalDiscounts.

com. Comparing both cases, the cost to upgrade UNIX is free and the lowest cost to upgrade Windows is $79. 99 (PriceGrabber, 2009). Market Share Operating Systems are shifting in the marketshare world.

Microsoft has led the market in the majority of operating systems with the exception of wireless operating systems.

According to RCS Wireless News, written by Phil Caron (2008) the article reads that Windows Mobile is second to Blackberry in the installed base of users. Looking at the server arena Microsoft has noted an increase of only 7 % in the first quarter of 2009. RedHat ‘s overall increase

of 18% over the same quarter is a profitable gain, and Novell posting 24% of gains yearly (Vizard, 2009). Seeing a projected increase implementing Linux’s executives present that the cost is a major factor in a Novell sponsored survey (Vizard, 2009).

Analyzing these numbers indicate that Microsoft is definitely relinquishing ground to other operating systems. Another interesting point from the survey is that 49% of those surveyed are planning to make a change to Linux as their primary operating system within the next 5 years (Vizard, 2009). The current numbers indicate a shift in the constant growing numbers that will eventually replace some of the current Windows operating systems. Using the next 5 years as a goal, the market will measure the change in revenue.

If Linux is as reliable and performs as expected, then Microsoft will have a hard time maintaining the market in the leadership position. With the recent competition, Microsoft users are benefiting, as Microsoft has implemented improvement.

Vizard reported that the Open source Community needs to focus so they can keep up with the system management tools. Doing so should increase usability, which would assist in building Windows integration tools. This will allow the system to integrate as a peer. Market share shows that Linux may be gaining.

However, Linux has a long road ahead of them before becoming a major contender in the operating system world.

Linux is an Open Source community that will have to focus on improving operational functionality. Doing so will build a reputation that they are reliable and offer a cost effective alternative to Windows. The challenge will be that Microsoft has to improve its position

on all market segments, through price breaks, new functionality or added services. Microsoft has begun this by offering free upgrades of Windows 7 for owners who have purchased a personal computer with Windows Vista. UNIX Hardware Requirements

The two areas that we will focus on as it relates to UNIX hardware requirements are the areas of scalability and portability. In general, UNIX (especially when foregoing the X Windows environment and running just a traditional shell) is less resource-intensive than other major operating systems.

Almost all distributions of UNIX will run quite adequately on a very old system, such as one with an x386 processor, and even allow multiple users to share the same computer. UNIX was also designed with portability in mind – the ability to move from one computing platform to another, with minimal code changes.

This leant itself to adoption across many different computing platforms, entrenching UNIX in many educational and corporate environments. Scalability Windowing (GUI) systems draw more requirements for system RAM and video capabilities on any operating system. UNIX lets you choose from modern feature-rich interfaces as well as from simple ones that need much less system power.

Anyone with limited resources, such as educational institutions, organizations in developing countries, or corporate IT departments with limited budgets can use UNIX to do more with less.

Much of the Internet's development was done on UNIX systems and many Internet web sites and Internet Service Providers use UNIX because it's extremely flexible and inexpensive. One will immediately find that providing this less-resource intensive operating system with more powerful hardware will quickly bring dramatic advances in performance. Below are the published hardware requirements for

two distributions of UNIX (openSUSE 11. 1 and Fedora) and two versions of Windows (Windows XP and Windows Vista).