Re: www.microsoft.com sure needs a lot of silicon

In article <5ksobd$hvb_at_panix.com>, Bryan Althaus <bryan_at_panix.com> wrote:
>Colin Smith (colin_at_mellifluous.europe.dg.com) wrote:
>:
>: I think Linux is going to hurt the big name unixes more and more in the near
>: future. They may not be able to compete and to be honest I think they deserve
>: everything they get.
>:
>The big name Unixes only care about selling hardware. The OS comes with
>the workstation. Only Sun sells their Solaris OS for INtel. But the bottom
>line is no company is going to save a few pennies going with Linux unless
>there is another benefit above cost.

Source. Getting source is the biggest reason. Supporting the hardware that I want to use. If I have a problem with a particular driver, I can probably find the email address of the coder and exchange ideas directly with him AND get the problem solved.

>Applications? Nope. Solaris Sparc kicks Linux' butt. More stable

What kind of applications are you talking about? 'Office-suites' types? Linux has Applixware, a bog-standard office package for UNIX sytems. Other Apps? check out the Linux Commercial-HOWTO, it lists /plenty/ of applications: http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Commercial-HOWTO.html

>environment? Solaris Sparc on Sparc is damn stable, and and UltraSparc

Modern Linux systems are pretty damn stable too.

>can do I/O a PC just can't touch. Better development environment?

And the Linux/PPRO can do fp that the UltraSparc just can't touch, just look at the specs being fed into all of these DES cracking contests going on net-wide. The PPROs are beating the pants of the UltraSparcs.

>Call me when an IDE like Java Workshop or Visual Workshop C++ show
>up on Linux. This is professional tools for professionals. And what
>does Linux have compared to say Solstice on Solaris?

It's not all point-and-clicky like Visual-foo from MS, but Emacs is a pretty damn robust development environment.

>In any case, I see alot of Solaris Sparc servers and workstations with
>PPRO/Pentium PC's running Solaris x86 and WABI. This way you still
>got your windows apps when you need them.

Wabi has been available for Linux for a while now.

>: I mean why bother with Sun or Dec if you can do the same job for a fraction
>: of the price on a PC running Red Hat or Caldera Linux? SCO is already
>: feeling the pinch.
 

>If I run Solaris x86 on the same hardware as Linux, how much more expensive
>is this? Since most companies already have Solaris Sparc in-house, using
>Solaris x86 would make much more sense than Linux.

You can't always run Solaris x86 on the same hardware as Linux x86. My roommate bought a shiny new Micron PPRO with some top-of-the-line cards in it. He spent hours on the the phone with Sun's Support trying to get the proper video drivers and updated net-card drivers to get Solaris x86-2.5 to work. Not to mention the megs and megs of 'Recommended patches' that he had to dl after he got the OS installed. Linux installed the first time, had X11 up within minutes of the first reboot.

Once I recompiled the kernel to include only the hardware that he had, he has needed virtually no real maintainence of the system.

I've run more OSes than I care to think about in production environments, they all have their problems, and they all have their positive sides, but I'll take an OS that i have full source for any day.

>Solaris x86 desktop with one years worth of FREE updates (which includes
>Solaris 2.6) is $275. This includes WABI and CDE (Motif).

RedHat Linux 4.1     $49.95  www.redhat.com
Wabi for Linux       199.00  www.caldera.com
CDE for Linux        274.95  www.xig.com
                     ------
                     523.90

Ahh, but you also get FULL SOURCE to your OS! What do you pay to get that with Solaris? =)

>http://www.etools.com/gold.html
 

>: Linux is cutting across all the markets. PC, low-med Unix. The big problems
>: will start when Oracle & the other major DB vendors start to release the
>: Linux versions of their flagship products.
>:
>Not gonna happen. Because Oracle, Informix, and Sybase are in this game
>for not only the money, but the contracts. How many Linux people will
>pay UNIX prices for an RDBMS? Oracle cost thousands of dollars.

We did. Check out Empress (www.empress.com).

>When your done buying your raid drives and Oracle and etc. the cost
>of the OS is meaningless. At that point why run Linux?

Cuz it performs.

-- 
Michael Parson
BL.ORG
DNRC