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Re: [PLUG] Microsoft's statement about Solaris-based Hotmail (old)
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ok I can't believe I'm involving myself in this discussion but I feel the
urge, now donning my flame retardant suit :)
> Yup, that job. What about an enterprise level databases? Okay, granted
> we can jump over to a full-blown Unix. But, can we run it on an Intel
> box? Is it easy to setup and easy to administer?
enterprise level databases? I love the way people throw around that word
around. By "enterprise level" I suppose that you mean some large
corporations financials? If that's the case can't you be almost 99%
sure they're using Oracle on some huge honkin' super redundant Unix
box(es)?
Now to be more general, I think many people here have a problem with
Windows NT, and any Microsoft OS because they feel that it's been designed
for the lowest common denominator. And while ease of use and
administration, typically defined these days by slick GUIs, are nice
sometimes scalability and reliability are equally or more important. And
if you take a properly trained Solaris administrator I doubt he will think
NT administration is any easier, rather he would rather die a thousand
deaths before having to babysit an MS box.
Now up until now I have been comparing NT to Unix. Which maybe isn't
fair, but the MS marketing dept does it, so why shouldn't I. And just to
lie to rest some opinions, the latest market research shows that Unix
market share is larger than NT's and growing faster, especially in
"enterprise computing." I apologize right now that I don't have a link
readily available. Now this may come to a surprise to many, but that is
because of Microsoft's FUD. Plain and simple, MS wants you to believe
that NT is doing better so you'll jump on their bandwagon. Meanwhile the
Unix vendors are busy fighting among themselves (this is known as
competition) and do not have a united marketing front.
Ok, anyway, who cares, what does this have to do with Linux? After all
these companies who rely on Unix aren't necessarily running out to replace
their systems with Linux on Intel hardware. And hey maybe NT does certain
things better than Linux, I don't know, I haven't done extensive testing
myself. But this is a Linux mailing list and we care about Linux, not
unix, versus NT/Win2k/whatever. Well I think the reason people get so hot
and bothered is because there is a strong belief that currently Linux is
more stable and more robust than ANY MS product. There is also a belief
that this gap will only widen.
I'm not sure if we currently have MS beat hands down, but I do believe
that in the future MS is already dead and we have won. I say this because
I believe in the power of open source software. Now I wasn't always this
confident, but a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hearing ESR speak at
Penn. Now if you ever get the chance to hear him speak it is well worth
it. His ideas make both technological and business sense. In any case if
I didn't believe before, I do now. The simple truth is this, Linux is
based on Unix, which is already beating MS hands down, and Linux is also
open source. What this means is that while MS grows heavier and more
cumbersome under it's own weight Linux has the power to far surpass what
it is today. You only need to look at Linux's tremendous growth in just
the past few years to see the signs of success. Meanwhile contrast Win2k
which has god knows how many lines of code being looked over by an
extremely finite amount of programmers doing it only for the money, with
no peer review, and therefore no accountablity. No wonder there are
65,000 issues registered in their bug tracker.
Whew... well I've gone on far longer than I should have, and I aplogize if
I sound like some fanatic. But I assure I stand behind my opinions and
their validity. And I urge anyone thinks I'm off in left field to go read
ESR's papers, he explains everything far more eloquently than I ever
could.
-Steve
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