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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco IOS

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ACisco IOS, presently in its 15th edition, is a network operating system for service providers and enterprises alike.N/A

    Linux Mint

    Score7.2 out of 10
    N/ALinux Mint is a free and open source operating system and Linux distribution, presented as an alternative to Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS as a low cost, lightweight but adequate alternative.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco IOSLinux Mint
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco IOSLinux Mint
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco IOSLinux Mint
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    CentOS Linux
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    IBM AIX
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco NX-OS
    Score8 out of 10
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco IOSLinux Mint
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.3
    (4 ratings)
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    9.3
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco IOSLinux Mint
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I've worked with several network device vendors in my 10+ years of being in the industry and my favorite continues to be Cisco IOS. Overall, Cisco IOS tends to be the most stable, the most intuitive, has the best TAC support, and has the best knowledge base articles and white papers.
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    Open Source
    Linux Mint is a great, stable product when you need an OS and software to "just work". I use it for file servers, docker, scripting, air-gapped backups, email notifications and more. Simple, inexpensive and stable. That's how software should be, and that's what Mint delivers on. The main thing holding Mint and other Linux distros back is the corporate walls that have been built shutting everything out except Microsoft. If companies would start supporting Linux better with their hardware and software we could and would ditch Microsoft in a heartbeat. but, alas, Microsoft has a stranglehold on businesses.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • User friendly CLI.
    • Quick fixes for critical bugs.
    • Longer uptime.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • terminal
    • file management
    • OS and software updates
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • By this point, there are several "flavors" of the Cisco IOS such as XE, XR, and the standard Cisco IOS. While they are all fairly similar, there does exist syntax differences between them. It would be ideal if at some point in the future, Cisco is able to unify all of them into one standard operating system which would use the same syntax across all platforms.
    • While overall Cisco does a great job of QA'ing their IOS, no matter the release, there's always some minor bugs. I think it's important that Cisco continue to pour resources into their QA team to test their software.
    • While I'm very familiar with the graphical readouts of "show processes cpu history" I would love for Cisco to eventually find a more intuitive way to display this data. I can't begin to count how many times I've had to teach more entry level (and even mid level) engineers how this graph is interpreted.
    • I do wish that Cisco had something similar to Juniper's "commit check" or "commit confirmed". This helps validate the changes you're about to apply, and catch errors, so that you have a better idea of the impact of the change.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    • some more User Interfaces - like for services
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    IOS is pretty intuitive as you can use the question marks to check for all the options or parameters for a specific command. Also having the tab key to complete the words is nice as you don't need type the complete command. Using also abbreviated commands with 2 or 3 letters instead of the whole Word makes it a great OS.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco has a better presence on corporate business so it makes it easier to find engineers and technitians to support your network. Also a lot of Universities and schools use it as a reference and use it to teach and prepare students so it will be easier to recruit people with cisco preparation.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    Pure Debian OS, freshly installed, is missing some Quality Of Life tools that need to be installed to make it usable. Ubuntu has not a great user interface for work purpose, seems more like a toy than an OS. Both Mint and Ubuntu are derived from Debian, so same great package manager, but for work purpose I think Mint is a great OS.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Great uptimes on proven availability/reliability.
    • Longevity of these switches ensures great ROI.
    • Easy to learn for new users.
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    Open Source
    • It has saved tens of thousands of dollars just for being our air-gapped backup solution. other software would have been very expensive, and harder to manage
    • Providing simple, easy to use applications (docker, for example) that can quickly, easily, and inexpensively deployed saves many, many hours and dollars
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots