Linux leaders challenge benchmarks favoring NT

Linux proponents are crying foul over recent tests, performed by Mindcraft and PC Week Labs, which showed Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with a distinct performance advantage over the latest version of Linux.

"The tests provide useful data but there is still room for improvement," says Sam Ockman, a leading Linux expert and president of Penguin Computing. "Imagine, for instance, that there was a test that proved that a Ford could corner better than a Chevy at 120 m.p.h. The result of such a study, while technically accurate, would not be relevant to many customers. That is just the sort of study that we have seen this week."

Ockman says both operating systems are fast enough for typical corporate users, "but Linux is far superior to Windows NT in four very important categories that were not considered in the tests: reliability, stability, security and expandability."

The Mindcraft and PC Week tests compared the Windows NT Server 4.0 versus Linux with regard to e-commerce performance, static web server performance and file server performance. Neither test, however, closely analyzed the price/performance ratio of the two operating systems, a comparison Linux advocates like to emphasize. Because it is free, the Linux operating system has no licensing fees, a fact that endears it to a growing community of corporate users.

Penguin's web site is located at www.penguincomputing.com .