How Stable is Your System

How Stable is Your System?

Modern consumers tend to put tremendous value in the stability of the computers and devices. And since a sudden system malfunction or hard drive crash could put their important data at risk, it's easy to understand why. But what is the most stable setup in the 21st century? Is it the current version of Microsoft Windows or Apple MacOS? What about Linux? Finally, how stable are modern RAID installations?

Microsoft Windows 10

Although it's dubbed the latest and greatest by the developers at Microsoft, Windows 10 hasn't received the best reception amongst consumers. In fact, the very features that are touted by the development team – including the integration of new apps to compensate for core software functionality – are responsible for its instability.

In order to make Windows 10 compatible with as many different desktops, laptops, and tablets as possible, the development team with Microsoft relegated many core features of Windows – including Mail, for example – to external apps that don't always agree with the other software and hardware elements in a user's system.

Many consumers believe that Windows is the most unstable version of Windows released thus far – and they might be right. With Windows 10 users reporting random system resets and crashes, frequent blue screens, and more, it seems there's no end to the woes of Windows 10.

Apple macOS / Linux

In contrast to Microsoft's latest release of Windows, most Mac users are happy with the latest iterations of macOS – including Mojave and, most recently, Catalina. However, it's important to note that these systems are far more susceptible to external threats – like viruses and hackers – than past versions. Experts believe this is likely due to the growing sophistication of these hacks and not a result of an unstable or insecure operating system.

Linux users mirror Mac users in many ways. In fact, their operating system of choice might be even more stable and secure than macOS Catalina. Obviously this depends on the exact version and distro of Linux you're using, but all of the latest releases are considered to be highly secure, stable, and efficient.

Traditional RAID / Virtual RAID

The presence of RAID architecture also has an impact on stability. With hardware-based RAID, the amount of added stability depends on the RAID level of your system. RAID 0, for example, could still result in sudden and unexpected data loss. Some IT professionals don't even consider RAID 0 to be a true RAID array.

Virtual RAID, sometimes referred to as software RAID, is a pseudo RAID platform that attempts to mimic the functionality of true, hardware-oriented RAID setups. It's used exclusively in large-scale, enterprise setups, including mainframes and SAN systems, which are commonly found in enterprise-level computing.

Since it does such a great job of mimicking true RAID setups, your system's virtual RAID stability depends on the level of RAID you're using. Whereas RAID 0 still leaves a system prone to sudden data loss, RAID 1 offers disk mirroring that helps preserve and protect your data in the case of an emergency – regardless if it's software- or hardware-based.