Finally, applications can largely drive your choice of servers. If you need server-side applications that run only on Windows, your operating system choice (at least for those particular servers) is made for you.
If what you need on the server is heavy-duty Oracle database services, it's likely that you'll be running Unix for reasons of performance and stability. If you need to offer basic print, file sharing, and network services, any of the types of servers we've covered here will do it for you, at differing levels of cost, complexity, performance, expandability, and stability. Take a look at our included decision tree, which may help you down the road to server nirvana.
Even More Options
While this article covers common server operating systems you might encounter when contemplating a new server purchase, there are a number of other choices for educational environments. They include varieties of Unix, both vendorspecific (IBM AIX, Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, etc.), and non-vendor-specific, such as FreeBSD. Novell NetWare is another choice for running on Intel hardware, and Apple's previous operating systems, particularly OS 9, are still found in many schools. In addition, there are less common options: IBM OS/2, IRIX, and even minicomputers and mainframes, such as AS/400 and OS/390 machines.
Richard Hoffman former Web technologies coordinator for Fairfax County Public Schools Division of Information Technology, is an educational consultant based in New Hampshire.
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