When deciding on an operating system to use there are many things that should be looked at, such as the hardware, software that is available for the operating system, the total cost involved, which includes hardware and software, what type of user interface is available, and what it is doing in the market. The market could influence what type of support is out there for the operating system.
             Hardware requirements for an operating system (actually almost any software) are a funny thing. Everyone wants them to mean something different. The software manufacturers are focused on selling their software and have a stake in getting as much of the purchaser's money as possible. The hardware vendors have a stake (like the software vendor) in maximizing their own share of purchase dollars. The system buyer wants to make the minimum investment necessary to support their requirements. A well-informed buyer realizes that hardware costs are always dropping and they do not want to "overbuy" on hardware.
             Given all of this, hardware requirements are often a mixed bag as far as a specific roadmap for what you must purchase. A smart hardware purchase is mapped to specific requirements and benchmarked against similar implementations. One further complication that will affects the comparison is, an enterprise UNIX server will be found in a larger data center hosting enterprise class applications such as an ERP or database. Windows 2000 servers may be found in the same companies; however, they will be providing an administrative function (e.g., hosting a shared drive or providing network authentication services).
             Windows 2000 is relatively simple. It is designed to work with virtually any Pentium class processor. It requires 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended) and supports up to 4GB. Later versions of the system will likely support more ram and they migrate to 64bits. At least 1 gigabyte of hard disk space is required for a ...