Operating System Evaluation: Introduction

The Gasworks is a large petroleum pipeline company headquartered in downtown Calgary, Alberta, with approximately 3000 employees. While an autonomous organization, The Gasworks has several affiliated and related companies, including a chemical producer, an international consulting provider, and a North American gas marketer. As a pipeline collection system, the company’s facilities are geographically dispersed throughout the province. While featuring a very heterogeneous mix of platforms, common systems throughout the organization include Compaq desktop PC’s (primarily 80486 architectures), VAX, MVS, and MVS mainframes, as well as an assortment of UNIX platforms. Of primary interest in this project are the desktop platforms.

After years of utilizing Microsoft Windows 3.1 as the primary desktop operating system throughout the organization, and with the recent release of Microsoft Windows 95, The Gasworks decided it was time to look at upgrading to a more reliable and fault tolerant operating system. This report documents criteria for the recommendation of the new operating system, as well as the research on some of these criteria. The primary operating systems being evaluated include the current standard of Windows 3.1, Windows 95, MS DOS, and NextStep (UNIX). Also being investigated are Windows NT, OS/2 and other UNIX implementations, however they will be reported on at a later time.

Evaluation of the operating systems will focus primarily upon legacy system and data compatibility, with an additional high priority being placed upon user issues, such as training, ease of use, efficient job processing, and interface design. The goal is to maximize the use of the company’s existing infrastructure and knowledge base while concurrently improving performance to as high a degree as possible. However an eye ahead is also critical; an operating system which will survive in the market as well as provide for the company’s anticipated future requirements is also necessary. A lesser concern is that of the other affiliated companies; if strategically chosen, their operating system decisions could allow for substantial cost savings in licensing agreements, application software purchases, training, support, and data mobility costs.

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