The Best Enterprise Operating System – Flexibility

This is my second post in a series discussing desktop operating choices for Enterprise use.  Follow this link to the last one in the series.

Last week we discussed how, today there are only three viable choices in desktop operating systems: Microsoft Windows, The Apple OS, and Linux.  As a reminder this series of articles will explore the reasons that I can think of and that you, my readers suggest to help you decide which is best.  It is not my goal to evangelize one operating system or company over another, but instead to understand for myself the justifications for the choices that these large organizations have made.  I will strive to be fair and balanced in my analysis.

Remember, for simplicity in comparisons, I am considering Microsoft Windows XP (with Service pack 3), Apple OS 10.5, and Ubuntu Linux 8.04 as the baselines.  My reasons for this are contained in the introductory post.  Also, in the interests of full disclosure, I use Windows at work.  For my personal computing, I prefer the Apple OS.  When the Apple OS is not available, such as in a netbook, I use Linux as well as Windows. Basically, I am proficient and familiar with all three.

First we will consider flexibility.  I define this as the ability to make the desktop environment do whatever it is that your organization needs.  I think that the gold standard would be an operating system that allowed you to run any piece of software that you desired regardless of age, language, or version. 

Windows XP.  There is no doubt that Windows runs more commercially available software than any other operating system.  It is backwards compatible with some software that predates Windows at all.  It has also remained the number one version of Windows for over five years meaning that most software released today and even next year (after Windows System 7 ships) will remain compatible with it.  While, no operating system can run every piece of software, you are certainly very likely to easily find a compatible piece of software that meets your specifications if you are using Windows. In the event that you cannot find the software that you need, the huge market share for windows means that there is a plethora of trained Windows programmers ready to create any application that you need.  Their large numbers means that their services will be the most affordable based upon competition.

Apple OS.  The Apple OS may be beautiful, elegant, fast, and Unix based, but it certainly is the least flexible of the three choices.  There is a ton of wonderful software for the Mac and while you can almost due anything that you want, there will always be some things that just cannot be done.  There will also always be some hardware that is not compatible with it.  It should also be considered that today’s Macs can easily run most Windows software through virtualization alternatives.  Based upon market share, you should expect to have to search and pay a premium for custom solutions.  A good example of the challenge with Macs, is that you can usually get 90% of the Windows equivalent, but not get to 100% no matter what.  A good example of this is macro support within the Microsoft Office Suite.  While MS Office is nearly a business “standard” and Office 2008 is available for Macs, it does not support macros at all.

Linux. Out of the box, Linux is capable of doing anything that a skilled operator or programmer can conceive of.  Unfortunately, while there are hundreds of thousands of open and closed source applications that run on Linux, there are few commercial programs.  If your needs are completely internal to your organization, I believe that you could locate applications to meet any need.  If you must work with any commercial packages, you must check carefully.  A good example of this situation is Adobe Photoshop.  There are plenty of alternative, nearly equivalent solutions for Linux, but if you must use Photoshop, then you cannot use Linux.

I conclude that in the category of Flexibility considered alone, MS Windows XP is by far the most adaptable, customizable, and expandable operating system for an Enterprise Desktop Operating System.  I would place Linux second and Apple OS third.

Please continue to come back over the next few weeks as I consider the remaining specific points outlined in the first post that influence this decision. I plan to cover one at a time during the coming month. The next one up is Software Availability.

How important is flexibility to your operating system choice?  On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being most critical) how does it rate?  Did I adequately define this attribute? Please share your thoughts by leaving comments below. Happy Thinking…

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 29, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin.

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