Let's pretend your business is in a section of your state where the big Internet service providers currently do not - and may never - have a local point of presence. So you decide to start a small, local ISP. Your budget is nonexistent, therefore your goal is to do it on the cheap.
During the planning process, you face the question of which operating system to use: Windows NT or a flavor of Unix?
Assuming you're neither a Unix guru nor an NT wizard and you've never set up a Unix or NT server, this can be a confusing question. I decided to test how long and how much money it would take to set up a server that could handle Domain Name System (DNS), Web services and e-mail - the three must-haves for customers.
I set up a Windows NT 4.0 server. On another box I ran three different Unix flavors - Red Hat Linux 4.0, Slackware Linux and Berkeley Software Design, Inc. (BSDI) Unix 3.0. Because I had never done this before, it took me the better part of three days to set up each operating system. Normally, it should take anywhere from four to eight hours.
NT and Unix servers take about the same amount of time to get up and running. Now let's look at the bottom line: What do these machines cost?
An NT server with five clients costs $809. The e-mail server I chose, Seattle Labs' SLMailNT, costs $425.
Red Hat and Slackware are Linux products that can be downloaded free off the Internet. They're also available on CD-ROM for a nominal charge.
BSDI Unix costs $995 and includes a 16-user license, good for 160 simultaneous Web connections. Remember, this is my business, so I'm interested in not only the cost of the software, but support as well.
Direct Microsoft NT support costs $195 and up per incident, which I guess I should be willing to pay.
All BSDI customers receive free upgrades and full telephone support for 60 days after BSDI ships their product. Telephone installation support continues, as needed, after the initial 60 days.
Red Hat and Slackware are, for the most part, freeware, so almost all support is through newsgroups and mailing lists - not the greatest for mission-critical systems. Red Hat does offer 30 days of free installation technical support by fax or e-mail when you purchase a valid copy. Slackware support is harder to find, but there is tons of user-to-user help available from sources such as Usenet, mailing lists and the World Wide Web.
Now what are my hardware costs? Let's assume I already own the required 4G-byte drive, SVGA monitor, keyboard, mouse and tower case, with a 12X CD-ROM and 3.5-inch floppy.
For the NT system, I need at least a Pentium - ideally, a Pentium Pro. Memory requirements are a minimum of 128M bytes. This configuration will set me back an additional $1,000.
For the Unix system, I can use a 486 DX2-66 chip and motherboard with only 16M bytes of RAM. This configuration costs about $268. At that price, I can purchase four of these 486 motherboard systems for slightly more than the cost of one NT setup.
So after all this work installing, configuring and playing with each operating system, which is it, NT or Unix? Hands down, I'd go for a flavor of Unix. It's cheaper to purchase and support, the hardware costs are lower and if you're not in need of database hooks, it really is ideal.
To be more specific, for the ISP described, I'd go with a broadly supported Unix flavor that has technical support and a research and development department, such as BSDI Unix.
If you're looking at putting up a Web site for that intra-inter-extranet, even without a limited budget, consider using Unix for at least the pilot project. With few exceptions, everything is transferable from Unix to an NT server.
Spivak is president and owner of SBA * Consulting, an IT consulting firm, and SBA.NET.WEB, an Internet consulting company. He can be reached via the Internet at wspivak@ sbanetweb.com.