Free Custom «Workstation Market Trend» Essay Paper

In the workstation market, Windows operating system occupies almost 90% of the market. This includes desktops and personal computers. As an unrivaled market leader, Microsoft will always come-up with better support of its products, improved software, qualified expertise and a sense of security. The following chart depicts the workstation market share among a number of the operating systems.

According to the pie chart above, Windows XP has the lion’s share of the workstation market with about 63% of the market. Windows Vista comes second with 23% of the market. Therefore, Windows operating systems have a monopolistic control of the workstation market with their 86% share. The UNIX and Linux have about 1% combined. Obviously that is not their area of strength. The Mac OS has about 9% of the workstation market, and the rest of the operating systems combine to harvest about only 4% (Lubomur, Shaw& Alan, 2003).

Communication between the client and the server largely depends on the type of operating system used. The most popularly used operating systems in the server management are the UNIX and Linux operating systems. When the two are combined, they occupy a wider share of the market compared to other leading operating systems like Windows and Mac OS. There are few persuasive reasons to recommend the use of these systems in this field, but they are cost-effective platforms for servers. The fact whether they are appropriate or not depends on the business applications’ needs. The following reasons support the use of UNIX and Linux servers. Lower support needs provisioning and support is largely reduced due to the dependable nature of the Linux server system. Though most server systems are highly reliable, UNIX and Linux severs have proved highly dependable with 99.99% uptime or an acutely negligible downtime. UNIX and Linux servers perform way much better than Windows. They have a higher workload and they are more stable hard-wares compared to windows environment.

 

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The following bar graph shows how the server market is shared between the operating systems.

However, the same reason cannot be used in the server area. It is better to employ the Linux server for the reasons provided above. Many companies spend enormous sums of money installing Windows operating system servers due to the notion their popularity. This usually ends being a grave mistake for a business which has a high market demand. The UNIX and Linux servers will work best in the server department (Hank, 1998).

When making migration considerations, the business will have to consider issues like the hardware cost and quality. The quality of the hardware will determine its performance and its lifetime, hence reflecting on the total cost of ownership. The software licensing costs are another consideration to be taken into account. For products like UNIX and Linux, the software comes for free, however, this does not in any way reflect on the quality of the product but its availability to the market. In server management, free software will come in handy. Support costs and easy usage also affect how one chooses the operating system. The reliability, performance, security, and productivity levels are also vital considerations. In the end, the total cost of ownership will determine the best operating system to be utilized in a certain business (Brian, 2000).

However, the same reasoning cannot be used in the server area. It is better to apply the Linux server for the reasons provided above.

In conclusion, operating systems play an enormous role in running business and in its success. To find one that works in every aspect of the business is a next to impossible task. Thus, for any business to succeed, it is advisable to combine the operating systems in a way that will totally satisfy the business needs. Since Windows are a dominant force in the workstation market due its compatibility with most of the software, it is better applied in that aspect of the business, but in combination with the Mac OS X it will grant faster performance and time management.