Microsoft has fought hard to retain its monopoly on desktop software. But there have been inroads made into the desktop software market by some smaller companies and open source systems like OpenOffice. But when it comes to operating systems, Microsoft’s flagship product, Windows, hasn’t done as well. Quite frankly, it’s better for big businesses with large budgets to spend on IT department managers than for small businesses. That’s because Windows NT requires a lot of maintenance around the clock to remain stable.
It’s not that it’s a bad product. It’s just that it isn’t the best server operating system. For small servers and smaller server environments, it is best to use an operating system that is stable and can handle the most basic requirements with ease. Unix is superior in that regard. Linux too.
Microsoft has always done well in corporate environments where highly paid IT managers can justify there existence by specializing in Windows-based environments. They can attend thousand-dollar courses at the company’s expense to learn how to manage a large enterprise using a specialty product. Small company’s can’t afford that expense. So why not just use something that doesn’t require all of that fancy schmancy training?
When it comes to small server environments, I wouldn’t recommend Windows NT.