Ubuntu VS Windows

Dear Mr. Garner,

It is to my greatest pleasure to aid in your request to find out whether Ubuntu or Windows is the greater operating system.  I have cautiously researched and analyzed the benefits and threats for both Operating Systems.

Our company has administered around 200+ hedge funds in the past with over $16 billion in assets. Let’s not forget that the recent acquisition from XYZ Bank have expanded to $40 billion in assets to be administered by our fund. The acquisition from XYZ Bank has changed the way of taking MIS/IT decisions due to US Bank centralized decision policy. Our IT decision now counts for 65,000 employees in our company from our previous 175 employees. US bank IT infrastructure have currently invested $1.5 million on our 175 employees. The following table is our current breakdown of the investment. 

Our company has invested $ 775,000 in a home-software called the “workstation”. In addition, we have added a new software “Shadow Financial System”. This investment on technology and software upgrades are compatible with Windows O.S. “Shadow” notably improve our cash management, position management (all of our securities), stock record and general ledger. Our Net. Developers have designed our home-software the “workstation” to be compatible to Windows. The “workstation” allows our Hedge Funds (clients) to login on the web and download easily any report they want such as change in profit and loss reports (Month to date, Year to date), Income statements, balance sheets, Historical PnL Reports, etc. Although our clients will be able to log in from any server I am concerned in our middle office department for uploading all the reports. If they were to use Ubuntu as their main operating system, how risky would it be for the company to mishandle or input the wrong information in our system due to incompatibility issues? Our company’s goal is to administer by the end of 2014 around $40 billion in security assets. Most of our foreign investors require us to use efficient and high quality software to manage their reports. Ubuntu offers libreOffice which is a similar version of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office in comparison to libreOffice has the market reputation for business use. Our domestic and foreign investors expect us to deliver and receive all of the documentations and reports in certain formats. I decided to use Ubuntu libreOffice and ran a derivatives analysis report in excel. When I opened the file in Ubuntu, it did give me the conversion option to see it and edit it on LibreOffice. However, a message alerted me and I asked myself several questions.  What if our investors are not able to save our files due to formatting issues? How important is it for our company to save time and peace of mind to our clients? Do we want to frustrate our clients by using another office software? (All of our clients use Microsoft office). 

                Ubuntu is really attractive is similar to Apple’s operating system. It has a lot off applications that can be accessible and downloaded. However, the usage of a free Operating System will negatively impact our image. We manage billions of dollars and our clients expect more than a free version to run recs/reports.

                The ITTwist.com site has rated Windows 4/5 compared to Ubuntu 3.5/5. I found this comparison chart from the same website that allow us to see the comparison between both operating systems.

Points Of Comparison	Windows 8	Ubuntu 12.04
Platform	Microsoft	Linux
Safety	Less	More
Internet Speeds	More	Less
Graphics	It Has Metro Desktop Environment, Which Seems More Stable Than Aero In Windows 7	More Efficiently Desktop Environments For Eg; Cinnamon Desktop, Default Unity Theme, LUBUNTU(Older System)
Cost	$200	Free
Compatibility	It has a bundles of Applications & Integrated Environment Which Seems More Catchy & Elegant	It Has No Ability to Run Windows Applications But You Can Run It By Installing WINE
Speed	Very Much Faster Speed As compare to previous versions	Faster & Much Improved OS
GUI	Great Graphical User Interface In METRO UI But have a lots Of BUGS	Great GUI Wih Unity , You can Experience the Ultimate Graphics by Installing MAC Like Dock Named CAIRO DOCK
Boot time	8s	9s
Shutting down Time	16s	8s

Source: “http://www.ittwist.com/2012/12/windows-8-vs-ubuntu-1210-complete-review.html"

The compatibility section certainly points out the risk of not being able to work efficiently with Ubuntu operating system. As a result. our company will not only lose $1.5 million in our prior investment but will negatively impact our image and reputation to our investors.

Although Ubuntu offers great features, Ubuntu does not fit into our business perspective. Why? Ubuntu can cause a lot of issues for compatibility. Ubuntu can certainly be used for other types of business such as limousine/ taxi, cosmetic, bakery and other businesses. LibreOffice will allow these small-businesses to create data bases and save certain files without buying addition a fancy software such as MS office. Small businesses will be able to complete all of their basic needs with this software. Basic needs would be such as, keeping inventory logs, creating charts, and small presentations for staff members. Small business usually don’t start with a lot of capital. This free Operating system will allowing them to save money while using great software features that enhances their businesses’ needs.

For all these reasons, I believe upgrading to Windows latest software will allow us to adding more value to our clients while easily flowing through our new software acquisitions. We will focus more on improving our technology and making technology easier for our clients rather than adventuring with a new operating system that could create a negative impact for our business.