Server platform comparison

[Roderick A Gammon]

Aloha-

The Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) at UH wants to enhance its current
website.  As one might guess, I wish to promote linux- something like a box
in a closet with HTTP accessed data i/o.  But I wish to promote it fairly,
since what matters is getting it done right and with the staff's free
consent.

Choices at this point are among:
* Linux- Probably RedHat distro w/Apache, Postgresql, and PHP
* Mac OS X Server
* Windows Server

Needs are:
* Database driven (e.g. member resumes)
* Multi-lingual
* Inexpensive to acquire
* Reliable
* Easy to enhance

IMO- the first four are fish in a barrel.  Inexpensive acquisition and
reliability for linux is legendary.  Database packages are stable, and
postgresql supports Unicode from the start.

The problem is "easy to enhance".  Labor at UH rotates constantly- folks
graduate, get internships elsewhere...  So if CCS' "linux guy" leaves, how
hard will it be to find one? A successful CCS site will also breed new
projects. Virtual musuems for the Asian art collective, sites for
international conferences that come to town, and so on. Some things, like
updating resumes, will likely be delegated to admin staff that are not
comfortable with command line SQL.

Windows on the other hand, is at least reputed to have a bunch of people
knowledgeable in it.  Although I think this may be red herring- I picture
lots of student hires fooling well-meaning academics into thinking that they
are experts, because they used windows 98 at home.

Finally, this OS X Server is a bit of a wildcard.  CCS is very comfortable
using Macs and so by brand name OS X Server is a logical choice,
particularly in terms of graphic tools.  But I am not really up on this.  Is
it any good?

Long and short of it, if anyone can help, are the following questions:
* Where online are good tables comparing the three platforms for this stuff?
* Same, for documents outlining total cost of ownership, including
maintenance costs?
* How to estimate the availability, within the UH community, for "linux
guys" so that CCS can be convinced that they won't be stuck in 2 years?
*This* one is the biggest problem.
* What hardware requirements would one expect?  Single processor?
Double-processor?  How much RAM?  Assume linux here.  Remember, this is for
a large national university dept. with a lot of international contacts.

If CCS does go linux, I'll be sure to share the story here.

Thanks in advance,
Rod G
____________________________________________

President, AEG, Inc.     | PhD. Candidate
Tools for multi-lingual  | Chinese Computational Linguistics
information processing.  | University of HI @ Manoa
http://www.aeg-inc.net   | http://www.aeg-inc.net/cuttingEdge