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Is Unix in Accountants' Future?

1993; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Volume: 176; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

0021-8448

Harley M. Courtney, James E. Hunton,

Cloud Computing and Resource Management

Its natural network connectivity and crash resistance make it an operating system to consider. Most personal computers (PCs) run on the traditional disk operating system (MS-DOS), a decades-old program designed to handle only one computer and one application at a time. (For definitions of the technical terms used in this article, see the color-coded comments in the margins.) Thus, when users want to network their computers to share data and application programs, special networking software has to be loaded on top of DOS. While the networking software solves many of DOS's limitations, configuring a DOS-based network can be like building a skyscraper on a foundation designed for a summer cottage. Enter Unix, a highly flexible operating system that can replace both DOS and network software, handling any mix of mainframes and stand-alone PCs or computers and terminals on a network. This article explores the advantages of Unix and helps accountants determine whether they should consider switching to this operating system. It should be said up front that Unix probably is not the best candidate for a small accounting firm. A network with fewer than about 20 computers works reasonably well with DOS. And while Unix could do the job somewhat more effectively, its installation cost is much higher and therefore it is not as cost-effective. But for larger networks, especially those with many different kinds of computer and terminal configurations, Unix could be a boon--running the system faster and more reliably; in addition, such systems cost less than those based on DOS. THE UNIX GENESIS Unix was developed in the 1960s by a group of Bell Laboratories' software engineers dissatisfied with the limitations of mainframe operating systems. Their initial goal was to design a powerful operating system for themselves--not for the commercial marketplace. They wanted a system that, unlike existing proprietary operating systems, would not be tied to the hardware characteristics of any particular brand of computer. Early versions of the PC could not handle large, powerful operating systems such as Unix. The older version of DOS, which was compact and fast but had limited functionality, was a good fit for the embryonic PCs. After the introduction of more powerful PCs, a compact version of Unix, called Xenix, was marketed to support multiple users on PCs. Xenix performed quite adequately but generally was shunned because it was difficult to use. After all, it was designed by and for engineers and scientists; user-friendliness was not a design consideration. In the years since, however, Unix was reengineered and made more user-friendly. With the recent sale of Unix System Laboratory by AT&T to Novell, Inc., the network software specialist, and marketing efforts by dozens of Unix software developers, the system is poised to become a standard in many computing areas. It's already been adopted by most mainframe and some PC vendors. Moreover, the federal government's decision to make Unix its standard operating system has given it considerable impetus and credibility. Should accountants consider switching to Unix? When weighing that decision, they should consider two principal factors: 1. The number of users that will be on the network at any one time. A network of Unix computers can handle more users than a network of DOS computers. 2. The type of software used. Unix shared processors can handle record-oriented software (accounting applications) more effectively than DOS networks can. Each type of application software makes a different demand on an operating system. For example, accounting software usually requires less computing power than productivity software, such as word processing, spreadsheets and graphics. Therefore, if the mix of applications includes heavy use of accounting programs, Unix again may be the system of choice. …