Windows NT

Windows NT represents Microsoft's effort to penetrate the networking market. The operating system offers several advantages over WIndows 98, including greater stability, better security features, better networking ability, and multi-processor support. However, it is more expensive than Windows 98, and more difficult to configure. The target market for this operating system is businesses with full-time network administrators. Windows NT has displaced lower end UNIX machines, largely due to price, and because of the high level of software availability. Recently, however, NT has come under competition from Linux and BeOS, operating systems that cost less than NT, run on the same hardware, take better advantage of the hardware resources they have, are more stable, and are more easily administered.

Background

In the past, the workstation market had been dominated by UNIX. Different companies, such as Digital Research and Hewlett Packard, developed their own, proprietary versions of UNIX, a fact that later made the UNIX market vulnerable. Because the hardware that ran UNIX was produced in comparatively low volumes, UNIX workstations tended to be much more expensive than personal computers. In cases where multiple flavors of UNIX were being used, network administration became more difficult. Further, software developers had to write different versions of their programs for each flavor of UNIX.

Microsoft recognized an opportunity. It developed Windows NT, an operating system designed for networked computer workstations. While unable to compete directly with UNIX in terms of reliability, Windows NT provided cost-conscious companies a way of running workstations on low-cost Intel compatible hardware. As NT grew more reliable and stable, it began eating into the UNIX market from the bottom up.

This process was self-accelerating. As NT captured market share, it became more tempting for software companies to write NT-based versions of their software. As the amount of software available increased, it became more lucrative for companies to move their workstations from UNIX to NT. Because the UNIX market remained divided, no one UNIX flavor was widespread enough to achieve the same types of volume advantages that Microsoft had used so successfully in the personal computer market.