Linux Features and Performance

Table 1.4: Linux Features and Performance Comparison
Characteristic	Linux	Windows NT	Solaris
Range of compatible hardware	Very wide	Modest	Narrow
Minimal hardware	386 PC	486 PC	Pentium
Representative cost of hardware	$200	$1300	$1600
Average downtime	Very low	As low as 30 min./week	Very low
Performance	High	Comparable to Linux	Half of Linux to same as Linux
Multi-processing capabilities	Excellent	Modest	Excellent
IP Security (IPSec)	Yes	Planned	1999
IPv6	Available	Privately demonstrated	Beta
Overall user satisfaction, per Datapro	Highest	Lowest	Medium
Source code readily available	Yes	No	No
Installed base	Millions	Millions	Hundreds of thousands