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Unix: Which One to Choose?

I just found this story on Sm@rt Reseller which talks about which Unix (or Linux) they're suggesting to use for various uses (web, applications, etc..) - Its a very long article, and it talks also about the Windows 2000. Worth a read IMHO.

260 comments

  1. Re:Some troll-free predictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He was trolling in case you hadn't noticed. Don't be easily fooled by his "I am not a troll" subject line.

    His argument was somewhere along the lines of "I like this, and the whole world will adopt this because they will soon find this is the one true religion... er operating system.

  2. Re:Which one to choose by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ever hear of the phrase "divide and conquer"?

  3. Re:Some troll-free predictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Linux home user base increasing from .4% in '98 to 4% in '99"

    Anyone got a link to that? I'm more interested in increases in desktop use, but nevertheless it sounds interesting.

  4. Re:Still manages to sneak in M$ FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, he's absolutely right. MS Office is by far the most full-featured, professional package available. Remember - It's not FUD if it's the truth.

  5. Re:METHINKS IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER TROLL DAY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please moderate this guy down and ban his IP .. hell, ban his whole class C. It would be worth it. Thanks.

  6. Re:The Best One is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow - "Macrosh*t" - that must be "derogatory-yet-not-the-slightest-bit-clever" nickname for Microsoft # 4563

  7. Re:It Depends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It all depends on where you work (i.e., who's money you're spending).

    I've worked for places where money was not that much of an issue. Seeing a roomful of expensive HP workstations were just sitting on a shelf in case one of the production systems broke down -- this was a bond trading scenario and one could imagine that having a quickly available spare made a lot of sense.

    I've also worked for places where IT was always seen as a drain on the bottom line no matter how vigilant we were about keeping costs down. Heck, if all of our equipment, software, floor space, and electrical power had been free (as in beer) they would have complained about our salaries.

    It all depends on your local culture as to whether cost is really that important. Although I'd like to think it would always be important (``Hey, Boss! If I find a less expensive solution can I keep the difference? Half the difference?''). Sometimes there are long term issues that come into play.

  8. Re:Uh oh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Isn't censorship marvelous?"

    In your case, yes. I don't have all day to swim through sludge looking for quality material.

  9. My predictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Could you elaborate a little? such as why you think these things will come true.

    For example, you said the concept of 'selling software' will seen alien. There's quite a few, in fact, a lot of people who do this for a living right now, will these people move into other markets? become sysadminins (implying software will get either more widly used or more complicated because we would need more admins) or will hundreds of thousands of people just suddnely be out of a job?

    You also mention the united states, canada, mexico, uk, and german governments requiring all their software to be gpl. Why only these governments? why not swedan, or austraila, is their government structured fundamentaly different so as to make the gpl not a good idea for them?

    The os market is changing dramatically from what it was like only a few years ago (where it was more or less dominated entirely by one company, now it's just dominated mostly by one company). If microsoft were to go bankrupt it would be for two reasons I can see at the moment. one) they don't change; if microsoft wants to survive as a company, they must change. two) microsoft will invest a ton of money into something that doesn't suceed; so much money that they don't have enough left over to change their company, thus causeing them to fail. Also, if mircrosoft declares bankrupcy in 2005, then why will it take five more years for selling software to seem foriegn; it appears this concept of selling software being foreign is the very reason microsoft will fail. or do you just mean it'd take five years for the public to forget 'those old days'

    When many people look at the future, they feel that the dominant market share of operating systems will simply change from one company to another (microsoft to linux). ok, granted linux would be represented by several different companys and not just one, which reminds me of one of the justice departments ideas about splitting microsoft up so they'd have to compete against each other.

    If I was to make a prediction about the future, it would be that the os market would continue to fragment into more nad more variations on the 'ideal' operating system. This would occur until a few large dominent operating systems rose to the top in market share for various reasons (best business model, most agressive, smartest people in marketing)

    I don't think the market share is going to shift at all from one company to another, but rather it will be fragmented into lots of different companies promoting choice, competition and allowing people to choose which os is best for them for what they're doing. I doubt any of them will be the end-all os, even if they try to be.

    1. Re:My predictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      For example, you said the concept of 'selling software' will seen alien. There's quite a few, in fact, a lot of people who do this for a living right now, will these people move into other markets? become sysadminins (implying software will get either more widly used or more complicated because we would need more admins) or will hundreds of thousands of people just suddnely be out of a job?

      What people tend to overlook is that the vast, vast majority, something like three quarters, of the people in the IT industry who write software don't sell it. They work in other industries supporting the core services of that other industry

      The guy who works for a bank, writing programs to solve the bank's problems. The guy who works for Ford, writing vehicle simulation software, and so on.

      The people who actually write software with the indent to resell it are the tip of the iceberg; the minority

      Their whole ecological niche exists because the people who are buying software - home users, and non-IT people - are used to doing it that way. They buy widgets, why not software?

      But thanks to Linux giving Free Software lots of press, the general public is finally getting exposed to the idea that writing software is a _service_, and that there is no "product" to sell. They are starting to expect their software to be free. Given 5 years and the speed at which IT changes, I fully expect this to be the dominant market attitude within the next little while.

      If you sell software for a living, your days are numbered.

      IBM realizes this. That's why IBM is working so hard to do things like get Linux on their manframes - they want completely out of the business of selling bits, and instead want to concentrate on selling hardware and selling support services - as in, if you're a bank with a problem, IBM will solve your problem, and what you pay for isn't "software" but the services of the people IBM provide to write the software that solves your problem.

      That's why AIX is doomed, incidently. IBM wants to ditch it as soon as they can, but they can't ditch it until Linux is an acceptable replacement (which it is not). Solution? Contribute to Linux development.

      The other Unices are starting to follow suit, and indeed will have to, eventually. Linux is becoming the unstoppable juggernaut Windows could have been if it wasn't so tightly controlled by Micrsoft.

      The OS of the future is Linux, make no doubts about that. It won't be a homogeneous Linux, but it will be Linux at its core.

      It wouldn't suprise me if Linux2020 didn't have a single line of code in common with what we have today, and if it looked and acted completely different, but it will be called Linux and it will have a direct genological history to the current codebase, the same way Linux 2.2.14 does to Linux 0.0.1.

  10. Re:Solaris 8 performance. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Solaris running on anything is not good for graphics. If you want hot graphics, you have to go SGI. You just can't beat hardware support for graphics.

    I think we are going to see some examples of that under Linux real soon now. Compelling reasons to remove the last of the Sun workstations and replace them with Linux based graphics screamers.

  11. Re:Scooby! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Got it again! Scooby dooby doo, I love you, Scooby dooby doo, I love you!

    Trolling for Scooby doooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

  12. Re:The Best One is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow - "Stupid Whore" - that must be "derogatory-yet-not-the-slightest-bit-clever" nickname for your mother.

  13. Re:Linux, Unix, BSD, for me? :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use FreeBSD, but this is just retarded hype.

  14. NO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Scooby got first post! yet again! You weren't even close.

    Trolling for Scooby doo!

  15. Re:SMP Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They sort of insinuate that the 2.2 Linux kernel can't do SMP

    Well, it can't. There is the option of enabling SMP support when you do a make xconfig, but enabling it doesn't actually do anything. There's even some experimental code in the source tree but if you look carefully, none of it is ever even called. What's really interesting is how people claim that their multi-CPU machine is "so much faster" when they enable SMP. Isn't that what psychiatrists call a "self-serving fantasy?" :) The machine might not actually be any faster, but in their mind they're expecting it to be much faster and that's what they seem to experience.

    Anyway, when Linux gets real SMP support instead of the stub that's in place now, I'll be the first in line to play around with it. It's nifty stuff. :) I'm currently administrating a farm of about 50 multi-proc NT boxes (yuck, what a waste.) Sure wish I could just wipe those drives clean and start from scratch. ;)

  16. Re:this makes me sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    that is total crap! most people i know DOWNLOAD linux.

    Do you want a medal for downloading Linux?

    Many people prefer to buy a package with a CD-ROM and manual. Guess that isn't leet enough for you.

  17. Re:The Best One is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the company you're looking for is Macroshit. Ya, thats it.

  18. Re:Some troll-free predictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Gotta love dem crack smokin sun-luvers trolling here

    Point 1: Linux is nowhere near AIX in it's enterprise friendliness Alrighty then, why is Linux uptake into the enterprise far outstriping AIX? Is it because of its enterprise hostility mebbe? How do you measure this enterprise friendliness anyway?
    Monterey... ok, are you noticing how silent that project is, with no real new additions, no new announced support, and all that crap? Oh, could it be stillborn? Likely at this stage.
    Solaris - it will take a long time until Linux will reach comparable scalability. Face it - x86 platform sucks
    Gotta love dem sun trolls. Solaris doesn't scale well. Ask E-Bay or a multitude of other Solaris customers. Ask them about stability, bug fixes/patches. Do you really want Sun to E-Bay you as well (remember how much they lost for their site being down, courtesy of Sun "support"). Linux does scale reasonably well for small servers today. If you need serious single image scalability you are no seriously looking at Solaris anyway. HP tried making a 256 P Exemplar (at CalTech), but only one company I know of makes a rocking 256 P stable single system image, and actually sells them enmasse. And that is the same company that seems to be helping Linux out in lower end scalability. That's SGI folks. Not Sun.

    You want to scale, you get an SGI. You want to play with yourself in a back room with Java, go buy a Sun. Just don't waste our time with the silly "it don't scale" crap.

    Point 2: BSDs. As all your previous claims, this one is hard to comment on - how one can argue such a pure and not justified by facts faith? Is GPL new religion?
    No. It does give you control over your future though, instead of giving Mr McNealy or Mr Ellison control over your future. Neither of them have done well for most of the rest of us. Users do care about the license, as it changes the TCO equation. GPL licenses make TCO easier to swallow as you shift costs onto administration and maintenance. Your hardware appears cheaper to buy and deploy. The costs going onto admin and maint means more variable costs, but those look better on the balance sheet anyway. Obviously you don't run a business (hell you look like you work for Sun) or this would be obvious.

  19. Re:Balance in an article! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    As a matter of fact, I find the layout of some Linux dists (read RedHat) to be significantly harder to configure than FreeBSD.

    One reason I stayed with NetBSD at home was my experience of Linux at work* as chaotic. (*Voluntary stuff for a wee ISP. What a crappy sentence!)

  20. Re:SMP Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Hey, ever hear of sarcasm guys?? Perhaps if there were a man page on it you wouldn't be whipping out gcc kernel compile times whenever a whimsical post like this comes along.

    Geez, thank God I got my BSCS at a liberal arts university ;)

  21. Re:Which Flame War do you want to get today? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >the classic "Emacs vs vi" flame burst (unfortunately losing steam these days) Yes, this classic has died down, since everyone finally realized the vi users were the only ones actually writing some new code, and not searching the net for the next mega-bloated version of emacs that supports god-knows-what to appear

  22. Re:FreeBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "What OS do you run.... FreeBSD of course"

    I use FreeBSD on the desktop and on a couple of server systems. However, the "of course" part of your quote is a problem.

    Choice is what makes *nix so good. I could draw qualities of any OS which may or may not be relevant depending on your use.

    Yeah, yeah, I knew you were just trying to tell everyone you like freeebsd and that it is a good and viable system in many cases (it is). I couldn't resist :).

  23. Re:Uh oh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Quality material? Slashdot is a playground for trolls and unemployed linux users. This is the wrong site for "quality material". BTW: Get a job loser.

  24. Re:Inconsistencies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aren't Java 2 and JDK 1.2 synonymous ?

  25. Re:Linux-like operating systems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    God, that was funny. Are you Dave Barry's brother or something?

  26. Re:The Best One is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't that the truth, my brotha. His mom is like a doorknob.... EVERYONE gets a turn. BWahahaha! I crack my self up.

  27. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and only costs an infinite amount more. And that doesn't include code. What a deal.

  28. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I like making love to your mothers left nostril. Do you have a problem with that? Maybe you can watch some day. She really gets off on it. Especially when I cum my hot white semen up her nose. I used to fuck all her orifices but they are all too loose now. Her earholes are next. Next I'll have to gouge out her eyeballs and cum my quart load of semen in them. I get hard just thinking about that.

  29. Re:Inconsistencies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "FreeBSD has a project to port Java v2 to FreeBSD, and near as I can tell, they are nearly done"

    News to me. Any sources regarding the status of this? I would really like to know. He does have a point regarding java. Any application servers needing java 1.2 are a no no on freebsd right now. I had to switch from freebsd to debian for some of my work.

    Also, you've got to realize this is sm@rt reseller. They are stressing complete solutions with a sales swing because that is what corporate culture generally likes.

  30. Re:this makes me sick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you want me to download some hot bloody semen into your anus? No need to ask. i'll be happy to do it.

  31. Re:No SMP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NT workstation only supports 2 CPUs. Run NT Server. (Yup, it's market segementation - the OSes are the same.)

  32. Re:No SMP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can, but starting with NT4 a secret kernel process will just change it back on you after a certain amount of time.

  33. Re:some ignorant leads. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    G) Driver support sucks. Pick your hardware carefully.
    H) IDE is very slow - You probably want SCSI to run Solaris/x86.
    I) Most Linux-type stuff (XFree, KDE, Gnome, GNU tools, etc) runs fine on Solaris x86. You will need to go out and install everything yourself.
    J) The installer likes to crash. :P

    Solaris/x86 has been out for years. With Solaris 8, you can run it for free (media cost is about $30). It's popular mainly among people developing for the real Sun iron. Sun really doesn't push it very hard (probably because they lose money on it).

  34. Re:I choose... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They really soak up the hot grits. Thank you.

  35. Re:Some troll-free predictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think you need to read up on the feature list of AIX and RS/6000 hardware before opening your trap. Linux is a long way away.

  36. Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    dammit, everyone should be running linux. there is no excuse for running any other os. if you dont think so, your just a fsckin m$ troll luser. and i will personally pour hot grits down your pants. thank you.

  37. Re:Which Flame War do you want to get today? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's alive! It's alive!

    Kill it.

  38. Re:linux and unix--same thing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Linux was based on a monolithic kernel, even though microkernels have become popular. HURD will replace linux as the "official" GNU OS

  39. Re:I said something similar last year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pile steaming heaps of karma on josepha48. He said something like this last year. Yea, verily josepha48 should be exalted up unto the highest of +5 insightfulicity. All bow down before the great and good josepha48 who said something like this last year. thank you.

  40. Re:The Best One is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, given the fact many people were using Xenix while most ./ posters were still dreaming of DOS and working to get some money for a VC20 ... a bit haughty perhaps ?

  41. Re:You lying dung funnel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    You state the Linux is great on Uniprocessors, but will soon have SMP. *NOT* that it already has it. This is not a typo, or piss-poor proofreading - IT'S DIS-INFORMATION

    It nowhere says it doesn't have smp now, it just says that while its not a very serious option on smp boxes now, it will be when 2.4 is there. (as in officially released)
    2.3 may be available to the public for development and testing purposes. there is NO 2.4 version available to anyone (including the public ;-) that is suitable for any kind of production yet (tho some people do use it... but heh...)
    It is good that 2.3 can be looked at, built upon etc. by everyone who wants to, but, when comparing products you should not use the development version. Doing otherwise makes you look just as bad as those companies who claim to be able to do things because a not yet supported beta version can do it (ie, Microsoft)

  42. Re:Scooby! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ScoobNix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    download it free, I like not making money on my hard work.

    Karl "Skippy" Marx

  43. Re:LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    void main() {

  44. Re:Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Moderator posting as anonymous, which used to be a requirement in order to stay a moderator...

    Hopefully we zap those "PC"-style moderations in meta-moderation. I know every day when I MM, I usually see 4 posts which were moderated up correctly, 5 posts which were obvious trolls and moderated down correctly, and 1 post which was moderated "troll" or "flamebait" incorrectly. Usually its someone who was either making a joke that didn't get understood, someone who has a valid insight onto an issue but happened to mention Microsoft or didn't mention Linux, or someone who just caught the eye of the wrong moderator.

    You have to remember that many of the /. moderators got those positions a year or more ago when Linux was not nearly as well accepted in business and the press. Many people have a knee-jerk anti-Microsoft/pro-Linux bias because for a while the rest of the world really did have a knee-jerk anti-Linux/anti-Open Source attitude. I don't apologize for bad moderation that occurs in this regard because I think people should rise above their past experiences, but obviously there are some people who haven't been able to yet.

  45. The article clearly.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    states that this post should be moderated down to a -1. I must say that I agree. Here is an extra motivation: CmdrTaco is a jackball.

  46. Re:first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not even close bitch. As you can see, Scooby got FP. Now shut up and don't move.

  47. Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was probably marked as flamebait because the author came off as arrogantly promoting something (contrary to popular opinion) without providing any facts to back himself up. (My dad can beat up your dad!) - In all honesty, that's what flamebait IS. (and no, he didn't give anything but rhetoric to back up his preference.)

    Now should it have been moderated as flamebait? Definitely not. It's not bad enough to get the Slashdot Linux Zealot brigade up in arms, so it won't generate flames.

    Should it have been moderated UP? Again, Definitely not. It's neither insightful nor interesting.

    If you look closely, most moderators don't moderate badly (this post is an exception.) If you belive otherwise, get moderator status yourself, and start fixing. (If you want to know how to get moderator status, the answer is simple: post good comments, not the crap you have been.)

  48. Re:Xenix--sco? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IIRC, SCO started out as a distributer of Xenix, and when Microsoft decided to stop developing the product, it was sold to SCO, where it evolved into SCO OpenServer.

  49. Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It may cause some headeaches, but it's also the reason *most* of us work on linux instead of *BSD - GPL guarantees that no one can steal your work. BSD says steal all you want, please!

  50. Re:Where (if anywhere) to get Xenix? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the ninja will find you one! can you resist us?

  51. Re:That article said that W2K by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you've been using windows for servers, why would you use a beta of win2k? why not a "stable" NT one?

    sure... windows might have a long uptime, especially if you just let it sit there and do nothing.

    obviously, you don't know shit and you're just another feature junkie.

  52. Re:Linux, Unix, BSD, for me? :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Flamebait????

    I think the moderators have started drinking early.

  53. Re:Now that article bothers me some... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    actually, sun ain't the only one dominating big networks, i've seen novell 4.11 being used at various multinationals.

  54. Re:How was THAT flamebait?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Want some?

  55. Beautiful. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just when i thought trolling was dying on slashdot, this article proved me wrong. What a beautiful turn out, all you trolls! Keep up the good work and continue the fine trolling!

  56. Re:Linux, Unix, BSD, for me? :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I certainly have. I am currently helping moderate you through the floor from the comfort of a bar stool. Thank God for GSM!

  57. LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Now say it ten times to REMEMBER:

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!


    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!

    Now I hope you remember this. Thank you and good night.

    1. Re:LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now say it ten times to REMEMBER:

      >> LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE!*10

      If Linux had M$'s PR team, UNIX would have been a Linux clone years ago.

      Isn't rewriting history fun?

    2. Re:LINUX IS A UNIX CLONE! by Yax-Pac · · Score: 1
      While this appears to be clever, I'm not sure it makes much sense...

      Apart from the fact that, for many years, UNIX(tm) was a trademark of AT&T, there is a general consensus among the "faithful" that the operating systems which were "UN*X-like" were more similar than they were different. In that sense (and with that shot of historical reality) LINUX is "just" another UN*X.

      But LINUX stands on the edge of going where no UN*X has gone (successfully) before: The Commodity (i.e. X86) Desktop. And for that, all of the UN*X faithful must be thankful.

      But as a system administrator, I have to tell you that managing LINUX systems is no different or more ideosyncratic than managing IRIX, Tru64, Solaris or HP-UX (well, HP-UX sucks more than most...). It's "just another UN*X" in my shop.

      My $.02.

  58. Ask the Ninja About UNIX! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Ninja should be asked which UNIX they use. Our opinons are more valid than anyone else 'cause we can kill anyone with a swish of our swords! Of course, we Ninja prefer Mac OS X for our UNIX needs. Can you resist us?

  59. Slashdot censorship... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's hear them complain about censorship some more shall we. Meanwhile they are doing this: http://slashdot.org/comments.plsid=00/03/17/122524 8&cid=20

    1. Re:Slashdot censorship... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My God, they're issusing 404 errors? Those FIENDS!

    2. Re:Slashdot censorship... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try here. Why a -2 score? Why, why, why????

    3. Re:Slashdot censorship... by technos · · Score: 1

      Dude, it's the same old race that's been happening since the beginning of moderation.. If the 'management' had decided to slam on him, it would be -5 like all of their other slams! There have been quite a few +6's as well!

      --
      .sig: Now legally binding!
  60. My picks: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    my top pick would be gritux. it is just perfect for users who want to pour hot grits down their open source pants. thank you.

  61. Re:Come on... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, a -2 (interesting) rating? You're my new hero!

  62. Re:Balance in an article! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It isn't a question of "equal". It is a question of which os fulfills my needs the best according the *my* requirements.

  63. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, I run vi under the NT POSIX subsystem. (It's on the resource kit.)

  64. X86 UNIX? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares Intel and X86 chips blow goats anyway.

  65. Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Funny, I would say the opposite"

    One general purpose operating system can't be the best at everything. If you are willing to give up some of that efficiency in being better in sake of saving effort, then go ahead.

    However, the case may be different for others. As well, an organization is a body unto itself, so their idea of what the standard should be is going to look different than yours. Lastly, most unix systems are very similar so it is mostly irrelevant if you are only using two or three different types of UNIX.

    "but there's no technical reason to have multiple unixes"

    False. There are many technical reasons. The first is hardware support. The second is any number of factors including enterprise/corporation readiness, and of course your particular application. They aren't all equal and they all have idiosyncracies (e.g. filesystem differences, SMP, what databases/particular software is available/works best, personell preference and experience, security issues, support, et al).

    "the MORE unixes that exist, the more effort is being wasted"

    Not every project has the same goals. Stating that is naive and stupid.

    "Do we really need Sun, GNU, IBM, HP, and *BSD all maintaining "ls"? "

    Yes.

    "Any compelling technical reason not to?"

    -divergence of design ideaology
    -different requirements
    -licenses
    -different development cycles

    "BSD and Linux ... will never be able to collaborate"

    Not true. It's just mostly indirect. The good thing about open source is that you can look at code and implement it yourself for your own system and way of doing things.

    There are probably many linux or BSD guys interested in both as well. It's not like they are operating in a vacuum.

  66. Debian very popular among experienced users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Agreed. At a local LUG, I found that boxed dists tended to be used among the newbies, but Debian was by far the more popular among the more experienced people (which was about 50% of the LUG) which includes some sysadmins.

    Personally, I also started out with Redhat 3 years ago, but moved to Debian a few months later and have stayed with it ever since.

  67. Re:Apache percentages? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They say apache has 29% of all public web servers. Isn't it 59%? (According to netcraft)

    Perhaps that is because they used actual studies and statistics to come up with their number instead of just making one up like Netcraft does. Netcraft has an agenda, part of which is to overexaggerate the importance of Linux, Apache, and the rest of the sludge trowled out by the open source community. People in search of unbiased statistics will not get them from Netcraft. Sm@rt Reseller, on the other hand, does not have a stake in any product and can therefore be trusted.

  68. You forgot Creationism versus science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Note that I didn't say "versus evolution" because creationism is at odd with so many different branches of science that it would be wrong to single one out. Actually I quite like those "debates" because it gives us an insight into what the Dark Ages must have been like.

  69. Re:I said something similar last year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "there is an article of Microsoft using XML for interapplication operability ..."

    There are many companies defining that standard. The article just stated that Microsoft was spearheading the effort. The article misrepresented others involved because it lacked mention of them.

    Almost completely irrelevant to your posting, but hey.

  70. Solaris/Intel on its last legs??? NOT!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Solaris x86 has just gotten its second wind now that Sun is giving it away for free for commercial use. I love Linux and FreeBSD and Solaris x86. Solaris x86 on a Compaq Proliant smp box absolutely rocks the llama's ..., well you get the idea. The only bad part is that it comes rather barren and you have to invest some time to download and install all the favorite tools, gnu stuff and otherwise, but when you're done with it, it is one heck of a great *nix platform.

  71. Uh oh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dark clouds roll in...
    A clap of thunder...
    A flash of lightning...
    A newborn child takes it first breath and cries...

    A NEW TROLL ACCOUNT IS BORN!

    ...and the moderators cringe....

    1. Re:Uh oh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Remember my Scooby doo account? I had to stop using it because i was automatically moderated down to -2 when i posted so no one could see me. Isn't censorship marvelous?

      Trolling for Scooby doo!

      Keep trolling alive!

  72. Re:Wasting efforts WAS Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *cackle*

  73. homogeneous is good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    The fuzzy headed "feel good" idea that a mish mash hodge podge of incompatible operating systems is good business is born of those who know nothing of business. By standardizing on one OS, an organization is far better off. Administration, substitution, and maintenance is far simpler.

    The secret of the industrial age was born of standardized interchangeable parts. And that fact still holds true. Unfortunately, in a world shaped by advertizing, a world where fools spend 4 bucks for a cup of half-caf Madagascar cinnemon lemon cream Starbucks latte, the truth becomes blurred by emotion.

    To beat the competition--standardize, standardize, standardize.

    1. Re:homogeneous is good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Oh, so I should be running the same os on my firewall, my database server, my mainframe, my web server, my application server and my desktop?

      The standardized protocols in which they speak are the glue that keeps the network together. Choosing one OS just because it's convenient to do so in the name of efficient administration is a lot of weight when you weigh against other factors.

      I would agree that a standardize operating system is a good thing when you are talking about one "system" (e.g. accounts payable or billing system or web server array). The more heterogenous you get (this is not only operating systems, but programming languages etc as well) the more complex it is to develop and troubleshoot.

      However, if I have different teams working on different projects (such as oracle and solaris for my financials, and freebsd for my web servers [see yahoo]), there is little overhead introduced by being heterogeneous. Even still, depending on the employee's (training, knowledge, experience), all UNIX or windows or whatever systems may be familiar to them. Of course, if your IS department is 3 drop out college students, you are going to have problems with inability to adapt.

      In the long run it is going to cost less to install the right system because performance and functionality problems are going to cost much more than personell problems (which is an absolute statement that is obviously subjective to circumstance). Seriously though; you've got to look at all the factors.

  74. Re:How was THAT flamebait?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is not a troll, it is true. Moderators are not acting like they deserve to moderate.

  75. Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > BSD/GPL interoperability problems

    There are no real "BSD/GPL" interoperability problems, there are GPL/any-other-licence interoperability problems.

    It's the "there shall be no other licence" attitude in the GPL (aka clause 2) that makes many OSS developers so much headaches.

  76. Re:Apache percentages? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The article says that your trusted Sm@rt Reseller got their unbiased statistics from Netcraft.

    Whoops. :)

    Well, sometimes one slips through the cracks.

  77. Re:Still manages to sneak in M$ FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well why dont you download it and do a feature comparison for yourself before you open your dumbass mouthg and spout off about people. * Linux is a good OS * Too bad its users suck.

  78. OpenBSD... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    should have been mentioned as it offers what no other Unix does: proactive security.

    I am grateful to the OpenBSD dev team for an OS that:
    - doesn't try to be everything to everyone
    - isn't hyped to the extreme (count the IPO's...)
    - doesn't need security patches every five days

    Hell, I like the damn thing so much that I run it on my desktop now as well as my web servers.

  79. ....had a mouthful of COCK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's probably it.

  80. METHINKS IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER TROLL DAY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was written in the forbidden book:

    The trolls shall rise again
    And defeat the evil moderators
    The day will soon come
    When slashdot will be free

  81. Re:Web Servers: Free BSD or Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's mostly conjecture. I would assume "Advanced Web Serving" be dynamic pages or whatever. Linux isn't any better off in this category. When given a general category such as that, you're not going to get a straight answer detailing what went into the choice so you can ascribe it to your problem.

    Sm@rt Reseller is also particularly focused on end user products. I could put together an e-commerce solution better than whatever caldera has up and running with standard linux or freebsd, but nevertheless that is what they pick.

    Still though, I would argue that there is really not much difference in regards to price/performance ratios. This is especially true when you are running the exact same software.

    The only real difference you might get is in them handling load differently. FreeBSD is reportedly set up to handle high load better, while linux is supposedly better for all around speed (you're not going to see much of a difference at all in dynamic serving unless you're stupid and are using CGI and forking a process every second).

  82. Re:Reasoning is not quite so hot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    can I wave my os flag too? :)

    sufficiently

  83. Re:How was THAT flamebait?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    *sniff* they didn't give me any... (anonymous because I moderated already - honestly I got no idea why that was mis-moderated, but you'll notice another moderator corrected the error rather quickly no?)

  84. N0 D00D VB C0DERZ M4KE THE M0ZT MUNN1E by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    D00D 3Y3 DR0PP3D 0UT 0F H16H 5CH00L 4ND W3NT T0 W0RK F0R MY D4D A5 A VB C0DER .. L3T M3 +3LL J00, VB C0D3RZ M4KE THE M0ZT C0LD H4RD C4$H .. 3Y3 N0W 0WN 3V3RY BR1TN3Y 5P34R5 CD TH3RE 1S .. D00D 3Y3 T3LL J00, J00 H4VE 60T T0 TRY VB D00D

  85. Re:World domination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A general purpose OS isn't going to fulfill everyones needs, especially when people are going in different directions. Your whole idea of "lets unify UNIX" is completely absurd. Specialization as well as competition keep vitality in unix like operating systems.

    "Why would we WANT to maintain different development cycles"

    Different goals and requirements elicitation.

    Examples:

    a) OpenBSD spends a lot of their development cycle worrying about security design and testing. Developers of the linux kernel and whatever is specifically available for it may not be. The problem here is weighing time to market and security and stability.

    b) FreeBSD developers may like a completely standard system where they control everything. Linux developers may not. FreeBSD developers may like long articulate man pages while linux developers may not.

    c) Linux developers may want to make a dash for desktop space. Other unix like operating system vendors may not.

    Again, a one true OS is just stupid. Different applications have different requirements. Various operating systems fulfill those different requirements.

  86. Re:Some troll-free predictions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    haha, predictions to 2010 in the software industry.

    Me in 1990:

    "OS2 will own 80% of the market by 1997!$"

    Really, I ran a thorough computational model on a supercomputer. I just hadn't factored in the possibility of them firing their entire marketing department and hiring a 12 year old retarded kid (our servers are magic boxes).

  87. Re:It's because of their approach. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Micros~1 :-) I don't know if you thought it up yourself but this is humor.

  88. Re:SMP Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    2.3 isn't shipping anywhere. This is sm@rt reseller. Their target audience isn't slashdot.

  89. shit bacon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    shit bacon

  90. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How badly they're handling it? Puh-lease. Microsoft could care less about Linux. Win2K is all around better than any distro of Linux.

  91. Look, a troll or a fool. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    >without providing any facts to back himself up.

    Looks to ME like YOU are trolling.

    >>FreeBSD is a OpenSource OS
    FACT. Unless you know something we all don't.

    >>with a licence that promotes the software to be used ANYWHERE,
    Want to claim that a BSD licence does not promote the BSD code in other projects? Or anywhere else?

    >>is stable and robust,
    That is what the web page says. Given Microsoft said NT crashes every 5.1 days, and I've seen BSD boxes up more than 100 days, looks stable and robust from where *I* sit. Care to refute this?

    >>and has a strong UNIX(tm) tradition.
    Given BSD is 25 years old, and based on AT&T Unix, care to argue BSD does not have a strong UNIX tradition?

    >>Linux binaries, SCO binaries, Xenix binaries,
    Go to the freebsd web pages...this is listed.

    >and no, he didn't give anything but rhetoric to back up his preference.
    Really? Care to back this statement up?

  92. The Best One is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Xenix. It's made by a really great company. I can't recall it's name at the moment....Macro...Micro... Oh well, I'm sure you guys know all about it.

    1. Re:The Best One is... by zeppelin71 · · Score: 1

      Yes - and be sure to run it on a TRS-80 Model 16.

    2. Re:The Best One is... by kathuria · · Score: 1

      Boy I cant believe some of people actually remember Xenix... the great grandfather of NT. Interestingly enough, there are still many traces of Xenix still in Windows. Does anyone also remember that M$ used to bill IBM at a "per lines of code" rate? Such a deal!

  93. Re:No SMP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I believe you can still fix that with a registry entry... of course that violates your EULA *cough*

  94. Re:How was THAT flamebait?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Around here, saying that ANYTHING is better than Linux gets you modded down. The only thing more diss'ed than Apple is Microsoft.

  95. Re:SMP Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As for SMP in general, if I had to have heavy-duty SMP Right Now on Unix. I wouldn't use Linux or Intel.

    Hmm... nobody has to have SMP; it's just a way to get performance. And Intel isn't really known for high performance either; it's known for cheap performance.

    What I'm getting at, is that SMP isn't an issue. The real issue is: do you want bang, or do you want bang-per-buck? Linux/i386 is aimed at the bang-per-buck market.

  96. Re:Wait a minute.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    here is why unix/linux will NEVER be unified:

    if it was, source code wouldn't have to be distributed to work across all forms of *nix. open-source advocates will tell you it's not open-source is not forced, but in a sense it is!

    if everyone used one version of linux, I would only have to release the binaries to my programs. Think about it.......

    that is the true reason why open-sourcers hate standards, not for "freedom of speech", but because it will mean the end of the OSS movement.

    ---just an opinion, not flame or troll.

    (rimshot)

  97. Some troll-free predictions by DG · · Score: 1

    Let's pop out the ol' crystal ball for a sec, and make some predictions about the future of IT.

    This ain't trollin' - I'll leave that to those more qualified. These are my honest predictions:

    1) More and more of the old school UNIX vendors will stop producing their own UNIX and switch to Linux, especially on or around the time when they release new (incompatible) hardware.

    I expect AIX to go sometime around the end of 2001, sooner if Linux can develop the features (HA clustering, journaling FS, etc) that AIX has but Linux doesn't. Expect to see more and more IBM UNIX developer-type folks working full-time on the Linux kernel instead of on AIX.

    SCO will not see 2002. Neither will HP-UX.

    Solaris will hold out the longest, but the Linux tide will overwhelm it by 2005.

    2) We'll see a rise in the use of the *BSD family for the next couple of years, but as more and more people are exposed to the GPL through Linux, more and more people will _expect_ the GPL on their software. Sometime around 2003 the upwards trend will reverse, and *BSD will slowly slide to obscurity and historical curiosity - made worse as it loses developer mindshare to Linux.

    3) I expect that the governments of the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, and Germany will require the GPL on all software in use in government institutions by 2004.

    4) Microsoft will declare bankruptcy by the end of 2005. The stock value will peak in early 2002.

    5) We will see one more Windows release post-Win2k. So there will be Win2K, a stopgap WinFoo, and then that's all she wrote.

    6) By 2010, the concept of "selling software" will seem as alien as selling air, or sunlight.

    Happy St Patty's day.

    --
    Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
    1. Re:Some troll-free predictions by ethereal · · Score: 1
      Uh no, thats only 2 years away. Linux will be luck if it has 5% of home users by then.

      Actually, I saw a pie chart in an article linked from /. either yesterday or the day before which showed the Linux home user base increasing from .4% in '98 to 4% in '99. 5% home penetration in a couple years is a very low prediction I think, considering the rapid rate of improvement of the Linux desktop experience. The newest "Desktop" distros like Corel already seem far ahead of the Mandrake 6.1 I installed last year. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Mac user base passed this year or next, considering that in upgrading from Windows to Linux you don't have to buy new hardware but to get a Mac you do.

      Linux might take over the UNIX market, but believe it or not, there are many people who don't really think UNIX is the OS used by god.

      I don't know, if you compare a Unix sysadmin with God, you see that they both have a long white beard and a strange love/hate relationship with users/humanity.

      God: "Here's a quarter, kid, get yourself a real operating system." [ducks flames] :)

      --

      Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and

    2. Re:Some troll-free predictions by rangek · · Score: 2

      I expect AIX to go sometime around the end of 2001, sooner if Linux can develop the features (HA clustering, journaling FS, etc) that AIX has but Linux doesn't.

      Sorry, I just don't see it. The changes Linux would need to support SP2 type systems isn't going to happen within a year or two, whether or not IBM helps.

    3. Re:Some troll-free predictions by be-fan · · Score: 2

      Thats ridiculous. Nobody uses Linux at home. If a Linux running home computer is not offered at CompUSA/BestBuy, etc, Linux cannot have anywhere near 4%. Maybe 4% of business desktops, but even that I doubt. Right now, there are maybe a 10 to 20 thousand people who use Linux as their home desktop machine. Nothing compared to the dozens of millions of home users there are. I think the real number is around .01% or so.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    4. Re:Some troll-free predictions by be-fan · · Score: 2

      ) More and more of the old school UNIX vendors will stop producing their own UNIX and switch to Linux, especially on or around the time when they release new (incompatible) hardware.
      >> Better hope not. I doubt a bunch of hackers can better tailor their software to their system then they can.

      I expect AIX to go sometime around the end of 2001, sooner if Linux can develop the features (HA clustering, journaling FS, etc) that AIX has but Linux doesn't. Expect to see more and more IBM UNIX developer-type folks working full-time on the Linux kernel instead of on AIX.
      >> Lets hope AIX survives. Do you really want to buy a $30,000 RS/600 and run some crappy unix clone on it, one that originated on i386 no less? (Not a troll comment, but compared to AIX on POWER, Linux on POWER is a crappy UNIX clone.)

      SCO will not see 2002. Neither will HP-UX.
      >> Better hope HP-UX survives. I don't think Linux runs on PA-RISC, and if it does, its probably a pretty alpha port.

      Solaris will hold out the longest, but the Linux tide will overwhelm it by 2005.
      >> Maybe, but when Linux can scale to 128 procs (it can't really do 2 that well now)

      2) We'll see a rise in the use of the *BSD family for the next couple of years, but as more and more people are exposed to the GPL through Linux, more and more people will _expect_ the GPL on their software. Sometime around 2003 the upwards trend will reverse, and *BSD will slowly slide to obscurity and historical curiosity - made worse as it loses developer mindshare to Linux.
      >> Again, better hope BSD doesn't die. What would happen to all the servers that need the unity and rock solidity that BSD brings?

      3) I expect that the governments of the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, and Germany will require the GPL on all software in use in government institutions by 2004.
      >> Doubt it. GPL is a license. The government would never do something that stupid, (like they did when they tried to make ADA the official language.) Say I come up with a critical piece of weather software that I'm selling for $50000. No way in hell I'm GPLing that. And you're telling me a bunch of hackers will be able to come up with something that good in a timely manner? When you show me a GPL product that can seriously stand up to its propriotory competition at something, I'll listen, but until then, its just talk.

      4) Microsoft will declare bankruptcy by the end of 2005. The stock value will peak in early 2002.
      >> Uh no, thats only 2 years away. Linux will be luck if it has 5% of home users by then.
      5) We will see one more Windows release post-Win2k. So there will be Win2K, a stopgap WinFoo, and then that's all she wrote.

      6) By 2010, the concept of "selling software" will seem as alien as selling air, or sunlight. >> They'd better be selling software, or else people wouldn't be making money.
      You speak as if UNIX will take over the world. I for one will never use UNIX as for my media stuff until it can equal what BeOS is today. (But BeOS will be a lot more by then. The OS might die, but the concept of a light media OS won't.) Linux might take over the UNIX market, but believe it or not, there are many people who don't really think UNIX is the OS used by god.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  98. I chose Corel by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

    And I just got it connecting to the internet just now!

  99. Re:It's because of their approach. by Uruk · · Score: 1

    I didn't think that up - it's been floating around the net for a very long time - but it is kinda funny. :) Reminds me of how much I hated DOS once windows95 and long file names came into existance - they probably should have just realized that they were a 2 bit OS and not bothered implementing long filenames...

    --
    -- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
  100. Re:Which Flame War do you want to get today? by Yakko · · Score: 1
    Ban Jon Katz from Slashdot forever!

    Do you want a flame war, or a CONSENSUS? :o)

    --

    --

    --
    Me spell chucker work grate. Need grandma chicken.
  101. Troll? by unitron · · Score: 1

    How can anybody be on that much medication and still find the moderator buttons?

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  102. Re:It Depends by jjr · · Score: 1

    That is why I put cost last
    because what is costly to you may not be to me


    http://theotherside.com/dvd/

  103. The Nature of people by jjr · · Score: 1

    People tend to follow the path of least resitance That is why NT and Windows9x solutions are out Everyone believe them to the easiest things to use. I seen a payment terminal at a movie theater that crashed and it was running windows 95.I would have shot the devoloper myself. I would have choosen QNX/BSD/LINUX/OS2/DOS (not in that order) over windows95 any day but agian people don't think about what they are doing so that is why things like this happen. There are some things that I can devolop Unix that would take a longer time in window95 then the opposite is true. You always need to know that that people are going to use what they want no matter what people do or say


    http://theotherside.com/dvd/

  104. It Depends by jjr · · Score: 1

    What really matters on
    1) What you are doing
    2) The Knowledge of your staff
    3) Cost


    http://theotherside.com/dvd/

  105. Apache percentages? by Thrakkerzog · · Score: 1

    They say apache has 29% of all public web servers. Isn't it 59%? (According to netcraft)

    I can't get to netcraft's site right now to check.


    -- Thrakkerzog

    1. Re:Apache percentages? by casret · · Score: 1

      Whee! Lets just be an ignorant troll that can't be bothered to read the article! The article says
      that your trusted Sm@rt Reseller got their unbiased statistics from Netcraft.

    2. Re:Apache percentages? by panda · · Score: 2

      They said LINUX has 29% of all public web servers, not Apache.

      --
      Just be sure to wear the gold uniform when you beam down -- you know what happens when you wear the red one.
  106. other-os'ly binaries by Rozzin · · Score: 1

    I'm really tempted to sit down and make Linux able to run FreeBSD binaries....
    It shouldn't be that hard, eh?

    --
    -rozzin.
  107. Re:Smart reseller is l33t by sjvn · · Score: 1

    S@R an NT book!?
    Our readers use every OS under the sun, and we review, report, and Use almost every one of them. Heck, we still cover OS/2.

    Steven, Editor at Large, Sm@rt Reseller

  108. Re:SMP Support by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry... I thought you were replying to this comment.

    No hard feelings!

    :)

  109. Re:SMP Support by um...+Lucas · · Score: 1

    When people around here talk about heavy duty SMP around here, they're talking about much more than home machines running dual pentiums. Your experiences are in no way comparable to the experiences one will have when running Solaris on a 32 processor Sparc machine.

    Solaris on Intel may be available, but where are the highly scalable machines for it? I mean, greater than 4 CPU's? They're few and far between, in my opinion. What about for sparc? Just go to sun's website and click order... There they are - 64 CPU machine? No problem.

  110. I said something similar last year by josepha48 · · Score: 1
    Anyone who has been runing Linux for more than a year and has been tuned in into slashdot for a while has known that Linux is unifying UNIX. This is a good thing. Hopefully it will bring vendors back to UNIX, and there will be more hardware drivers and open specs for UNIX and its flavors. If the NIX flavors continue to stive for standards and if Microsoft also pushes for standards (there is an article of Microsoft using XML for interapplication operability in school apps that may be an open standard). It may be possible that Microsofts stronghold on the OS will go down. They may never disapear.

    Remeber IBM used to be the big chip maker many years ago, and now it is Intel and AMD is giving them a run for there money. It could happen to Microsoft too.

    Incidentaly I use Redhat they are not the best, but I find them to be "almost" a standard in Linux. Many (not all) distro's use rpm and there are some other reasone that I think this but I am entitled to my opinion even if you do not agree with it!

    send flames > /dev/null

    --

    Only 'flamers' flame!

  111. Re:Wait a minute.. by ethereal · · Score: 1
    What the HELL is 'linux compatibility' supposed to mean?

    When I read that part, I immediately assumed that he meant binary compatibility. There are a number of products and/or compatibility layers which are supposed to allow x86 binaries to run under many x86 Unices. Of course, these aren't compatibile with PPC Linux or Linux on Alpha, so I'm inclined to agree with you that real compatibility is fleeting.

    --

    Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and

  112. Re:Top 5 Distros... by pilot · · Score: 1
    If you read the article, you would have noticed that the unices were compared for file-sharing, web serving etc. This article was comparing distros for the server market. These corporations are going to want liability for their product, and enterprise level support, which debian does not provide at this time. But If i were a corporation, I'd go with a contract from LinuxCare anyway, so this wouldn't matter.

    Disclaimer: This comment was posted from a box with a running woody.

  113. Re:No SMP? by fuerstma · · Score: 1

    NT Workstation only can utilize up to two processors. Server can do up to 16 (4.0 NT land).

    --
    www.jackasscritics.com
  114. Re:SMP Support by egregious · · Score: 1
    "advantage" goes. No insinuation that Linux can't do SMP, just a belief that it's temporarily behind W2K for >3-way SMP and a statement about that changing soon.No need to get defensive.

    Dude, what article did you read?:

    >> However, the next public edition of the operating system, Linux 2.4, due out this summer, will offer SMP support.

    What does that mean to you? Crappy INACCURATE writing...

  115. question about SCO by tweek · · Score: 1

    I read over the article really carefully but I think I've missed something. They kept bundling SCO and caldera/turbo linux together. Is there some sort of relationship there I've missed? Anyone care to enlighten me?

    --
    "Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
  116. You lying dung funnel by gruntvald · · Score: 1

    You state the Linux is great on Uniprocessors, but will soon have SMP. *NOT* that it already has it. This is not a typo, or piss-poor proofreading - IT'S DIS-INFORMATION.

  117. Re:Which Flame War do you want to get today? by Menthos · · Score: 1
    Yes, vi vs. Emacs is dead.

    Nowadays truly "hip" geeks flame over Gnome vs. KDE instead.

    --

    GNU/Linux. The Freshmaker.

  118. Re:Balance in an article! by delmoi · · Score: 1

    By the same token as he says to look at Linux when 2.4 comes out, the same can be said for Windows (or any other OS). Wait until SP2/3 comes out and you'll see marked performance increases. Anyone who builds a sufficiently complex system knows that it takes a while to iron out the wrinkles.

    There's a pretty big difference between SPs and kernel versions. 2.4 isn't a 'service pack' for Linux, it's a whole new version with all kinds of new stuff. It would be more like the difference between NT4 SPzero, and Win2k SPzero. Also, windows and windows service packs encompass a lot more then a kernel, you should compare it to something like red-hat or whatever. A 'service pack' would be like the difference between RedHat 6.1 and RedHat 6.0...

    Also, the release kernels are usually almost bug free, unlike windows...

    --

    ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
  119. Re:Linux-like operating systems by Chuan-kai+Lin · · Score: 1

    ... that this constant "Linux isn't Unix, nah nah nah" harping ...

    Huh? I thought only GNU's Not Unix.

  120. Re:Balance in an article! by SEWilco · · Score: 1

    The author mentions at the beginning that this is a summary based on their past experience, and their tests that they've been publishing. It is done in editorial form, with summary of past experiences.

  121. Conclusion by SEWilco · · Score: 1

    For those of you who want to hop to the conclusion, there it is. A summary of their summaries, but you'll have to read the other pages of the article to find the reasons.

  122. Re:Xenix--sco? by SEWilco · · Score: 1
    Look around just a little and you'll find the relationships. SCO is the company which had Xenix. It's mentioned in the Unix FAQ, although Lisa Xenix is not mentioned there.

    Montgomery's short "An Introduction to Unix" points at the Unix system family tree.

    That 1997 document does not mention Linux, which grew out of the POSIX definition, System V, NetBSD, and GNU tools (developed on many Unix flavors). The Unix History segment of the Unix FAQ does mention Linux briefly.

  123. Magical boxes...... by twixel · · Score: 1

    I must have one magical motherboard then. Using the SMP stubs in the Linux kernels on my dual-PII, I get twice the rc5des output than a single processor. Funny, isn't it?

  124. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by Ozric · · Score: 1

    You were looking at the C2 tool. It recommends you remove the POSIX and the OS2 sub systems. Dont forget to unplug your network drop and take out that floppy too. :).

  125. Re:Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by Wah · · Score: 1

    funny how both of those posts (yours and his) got moderated up. /. has gotten waaay more PC recently. Just like the conservative element in the U.S. makes most of the laws we all have to live by, the whacked out element of /. makes most of the moderation we all have to live by. If you don't like how a place works, make an effort to change it (i.e. stop posting so you can moderate)...or leave.

    --
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.

    --
    +&x
  126. Re:SMP Support by Zurk · · Score: 1

    huh? worked out of the box on a redhat 6.1 install for me with win98/95 and NT. maybe you should install redhat and let the default install of samba work for you.

  127. Re:World domination by Zurk · · Score: 1

    yep. besides i love all the different flavours of unix and im not going to give up my irix, solaris, linux, bsd, osf/1, aix, ultrix and hp/ux anytime soon.

  128. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by tono · · Score: 1

    I run vim under win98 from vim.org and the win32 binaries that are there. No need for cygwin at all.

    --
    cheese logs keep my wang warm at night.
  129. linux and unix--same thing! by sirinek · · Score: 1
    I am really tired of using people trying to separate linux and unix. Linux is every bit as much a UNIX as Solaris, AIX, HPUX, Unixware, and the myriad other flavors of UNIX.

    Could someone give me some concrete reasons to differentiate Linux and UNIX?

    1. Re:linux and unix--same thing! by bugg · · Score: 1
      Linux was written from scratch, and never contained any UNIX code. It wasn't based on patches to UNIX. Its authors did not have UNIX source. The only thing it inherits is its feel- which to most purists, isn't enough.


      To draw an analogy to the logic behind this:
      Linux isn't the son of UNIX. It's a kid who happens to have an eerie resembalance to UNIX, dress like UNIX, act like UNIX, and copy UNIX in many ways. But, despite all of the similarities, they aren't technically related.

      --
      -bugg
    2. Re:linux and unix--same thing! by Terra+Native · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and Billie Jean is not my son.
      __

      --
      __ While you sleep, I creep... gaining ground by the week.
    3. Re:linux and unix--same thing! by bmajik · · Score: 3

      Linux doesn't inherit the 25 years of UNIX history. Other UNIXes are either SVR chidlren or BSD children. Linux "does its own thing" in a couple of key areas.

      The linux IP stack was home grown. Note the plethora of of DOS attacks on linux's stack. These basically did not affect any other UNIX more often than not. Traditionally there have also been scalability/reliability concerns amongst ircd operators for instance, where last I heard freeBSD was the platform of choice.

      The VFS/vnode layer in linux is quite different from the 4.4BSD implementation (or the SVR4 one for that matter). For more information, consider reading the websites/papers on GFS (the Global Filesystem at University of Minnesota). To paraphrase, the linux VFS layer is very local-file-system oriented, thus making it tricky to implement distributed/remote file-systems.

      UNIX has been a moving target for years and years. Most modern unix deriviates are just that -- branches of the original. Linux is different. It does not contain any code retaining any of the original UNIX licenses. It was developed to work similarly to UNIX, and in many ways it does and sometimes can even work better. But it is not derived from the original codebase, nor from any of the subsequent branches. This has its good and bad points. Two "bad points" are mentioned above. The good points of starting with a clean slate (as far as implementation goes - functionality must be mimicked) are obvious to anyone doing software development.

      --
      My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
  130. Re:Balance in an article! by drivers · · Score: 1

    Is every OS really equal or is that just postmodernism?

  131. Disregard by drivers · · Score: 1

    Sorry, my mom said I have to be nice to the people on the computer. Disregard my last message.

  132. Re:Which one to choose by divec · · Score: 1
    If I give you beer and include the recipe for the beer, does that mean that the beer is free as in software or free as in beer.

    That depends on whether you're allowed to distribute the beer when you've finished it.
    --

    perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'

  133. Re:Top 5 Distros... by tak+amalak · · Score: 1

    With that overwhelming evidence, who could argue with you?
    Calm down, it's just a joke! I swear!
    --

    --
    Don't lead me into temptation... I can find it myself.
  134. Re:Here's a list of 329 MSO2k Bug Fixes by Cy+Guy · · Score: 1

    MS just released SR-1 for MS Office 2000. Here's a list of the 329 bug fixes included in the service pack.

    Oh, don't forget that you get a FREE copy of IE 5.01 thrown in.

    The patch file, depending on your system and prior patches applied, is between 24 and 40 Mb.

  135. Still manages to sneak in M$ FUD by Cy+Guy · · Score: 1
    The article still manages to sneak in a little pro M$ FUD by implying that even the full version of WordPerfect Office for Linux won't be able to compete with MS Office in terms of features. I don't have a copy of the WPO2K beta so maybe he's right, but I sincerely doubt it.


    "End-user applications, Unix desktops' traditional bugaboo, are becoming less of an issue.
    ApplixWare, Star Office and (soon) Corel's own WordPerfect Office Suite are not as feature-laden
    as Lotus or Microsoft's Office suites."


  136. Re:Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by quonsar · · Score: 1

    You have to remember that many of the /. moderators got those positions a year or more ago...

    I don't think you know what you are talking about. There are no moderator positions. Moderators are chosen on the fly by the software. You have to stop by fairly regularly, post occasionally, and some other criteria, but there are no moderator "positions" and nobody has ever been moderator for a year. The 5 points expires after 3 days. It may be weeks before you get chosen to moderate again. As for anonymous posting being a requirement, the rule (enforced by the software) is only that you may not post in a discussion you are moderating. One time I forgot this, and after previously moderating 2 comments, I posted one. Slash undid my previous 2 moderations in that discussion while informing me of the fact, I lost those 2 points, but I was still a moderator with 3 more to spend. Do you ever actually use this site, or do you just hang on the sidelines posting anonymous speculation about how you think it works?

    ======
    "Rex unto my cleeb, and thou shalt have everlasting blort." - Zorp 3:16

  137. Re:Top 5 Distros... by cdrudge · · Score: 1

    I've always considered Mandrake a derivative of Red Hat. I know it is its own distro, but wasn't it (or maybe still is) derived from RH?

  138. Re:Which Flame War do you want to get today? by ichthus · · Score: 1

    This is very good! But, just out of curiosity, how long have you been saving this post in /home/noryungi ? I enjoyed every bit of it.

    --
    sig: sauer
  139. Re:My recommendations for UNIXen by bradstew · · Score: 1

    Actually, my company's enterprise software is written in BBx running on SCO right now. It's still out there in a lot of decent-sized companies.

  140. Re:Wait a minute.. by AntiBasic · · Score: 1
    It's a stupid article that makes a lot of false assertions written for people who won't ever know the difference.

    Amen! to that brother! But this is slashdot and this kind of garbage is allowed to exist because it is pro-linux. This is coming from an HP-UX lover btw just to avoid a BSD vs Linux war.

  141. That article said that W2K by TummyX · · Score: 1

    That article said that W2K was up for only 7 days. What a load of crap. There was no proof of that, they just stuck it in. I've had W2K servers up for over 4 months (and counting).

    Saying windows 2000 stays up for only 7 days is ridiculus, and obviously FUD - and I'll take it as that until I see any proof it's true.

    1. Re:That article said that W2K by Xent · · Score: 1

      Umm, I hope you didn't use that pre-Windows 2000 software on your server (if it was mission-critical). Actually, Win2k has only been around since Feb 17th, so it must have been a beta, alpha, or pre-release. Also, if you thinks thats a lot, there is a NetBSD system that has been up for 7 years straight (I think).

  142. Re:Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by mr · · Score: 1

    > /. has gotten waaay more PC recently.

    Eh? What *DO* you mean by PC?

    In your mind, is it 'PC' to think of more than Linux when someone says OpenSource OS?
    (You have BSD, Cygnus, darwin(BSD-esque), HURD come to the top of my mind) If so, I make no appology for wanting the rising tide now refered to as OpenSource to float *ALL* boats. (Yes, even your dinghy.) I remember when this software was "code that you downloaded and compiled, with licencing terms which were favorable for reason X". Calling it OpenSource is eaiser, is more inclusive, AND has helped raise the profile over that long-winded name.

    Or, do you have some other meaning for PC??? Because it sounds like you want to practice exclusion and not inclusion.

    --
    If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
  143. invocation for a licence flamewar by mr · · Score: 1

    Oh, you want a flame war?

    [lays out a token ring of protection]
    I invoke thee-dark daemons of licence-debate!
    Brett Glass
    Brett Glass
    Brett Glass
    I summon thee to smite the GPL promoters! These GPL minded folk think the GPL is about freedom! Show them your might, prove you are right!
    Smite them with your words of taking work and money with the GPL! Sway them to the idea of how a BSD licence allows ALL to benefit from the code!

    In short, give them the pointy end of your forking process!

    --
    If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
  144. Wasting efforts WAS Re:World domination by mr · · Score: 1

    >Furthermore, the MORE unixes that exist, the more effort is being wasted, in redundant kernel code,

    Then based on your feelings, why don't you advocate everyone use a BSD licence so ALL of the computers in the world can use that code?

    --
    If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
    1. Re:Wasting efforts WAS Re:World domination by Andrew+Cady · · Score: 1
      What makes you think I don't?

      Oh, the title ("world domination")? I didn't mean to imply Linux world domination. The phrase just seemed fitting to the topic.

  145. Reasoning is not quite so hot by fkittred · · Score: 1
    I found the general tone of the article interesting, because it implies that the demi-clueless in the corporate world are starting to wake up from their long, bad dream.

    However, I loved the part where he says that Linux is bound to take over BSD, because Linux had more "apps" for developing web pages.

    1. Most of those apps are crap anyhow
    2. "BSD for server. Linux for workstation." One creates the web pages behind the firewall on a Linux workstation, then the servers/databases run on BSD.
    3. By the same logic, Windows would win out because it has superior numbers of apps.

    Finally, in defense of the author, the article was written before the BSDI/Walnut Creek merger. The landscape looks considerable different now :)

    1. Re:Reasoning is not quite so hot by be-fan · · Score: 2

      BSD for server. beos for workstation

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  146. Re:SMP Support by jon_c · · Score: 1

    what got me was the "samba is a no-brainer".

    well shit. me my roommate and 4 rocket scientists tried getting that thing playing nice with NT for about 12 hours with no go. maybe with a weak sauce Win98 network it would play nice. but the FAQ for NT/Samba is a freaky weird land, and defiantly not a no-brainer.

    --
    this is my sig.
  147. some ignorant leads. by NuclearArchaeologist · · Score: 1
    Multimedia stuff is not my field, but I'd wager you are better off where you are. The Linux desktops have really come up in the world, but it looks like you have a special set of tasks. If what you've got works and works well, you might leave good enough alone. I've never heard of using Solais for sound stuff. Where I work, the Suns are used for number crunching. Outside of Microsoft, Linux has the most software drivers, and I've heard that Solaris x86, like BSD's have some problems in that department. But then again, I wouldn't know aboout sound to begin with, I just don't do it.

    A quick look at Google pulled up about 6,000 articles, mostly old. Have a look around, you're bound to find someone who knows something at these sites:

    Here's an old slashdot article about Solaris8. From this article, I don't see Solaris8 on x86 becoming a hot development platform, but judge for yourself.

    Here's an older looking page about sound on x86 hardware with Solaris.

    Here's one from Gnome. This is one of the slickest desktops around. If it don't do sound yet, try KDE.

    Look for atricles with your specific hardware and linux. I found out that MediaGX had some Linux sound support that way. It's just some hardware that I had. That sound was supported was luck of the draw. I'll bet you want better assurances than that. Sun has a forum for questions like this, here.

    Hopefully, someone who knows something will answer your post. I'd like to know what you find, please post back if you learn anything useful.

    1. Re:some ignorant leads. by be-fan · · Score: 3

      From what I was able to scrounge up from various sources, I've determined the following.
      A) No-one uses Solaris for multimedia.
      B) Solaris 8 is pretty fast, but for single proc. performance it is still slower than FreeBSD.
      C) Even the x86 version is really fast for dual procs.
      D) The sound system isn't anything special. Its straight OSS.
      E) They do have some media apps, especially speech recognition and multimedia authoring.
      F) Doesn't really support graphics cards that well. (In SunX)
      So I guess Solaris is out. Anyone know if IRIX is coming to x86?

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  148. Web Servers: Free BSD or Linux by Orville · · Score: 1
    This article made me wonder:

    The article states that FreeBSD is the choice for "Basic Web Serving" while Linux systems are the choice for "Advanced Web Serving".

    Since no real numbers were given, it's pretty hard to draw this conclusion. I'll buy into the claim of "networking that's a bit more stable" and all, but does anyone have experience or hard numbers to back this up?

    *shrug*.. I've never set up and run a Web server before...

  149. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by john_boy · · Score: 1

    Oh, sure. All you have to do is get the file POSIX_ME_HARDER.BAT.

    John

  150. UNIX = $$$$ by Wolfpack+Commander · · Score: 1

    I don't know about y'all but knowing UNIX, especially Solaris, brings home the bacon...and lots of it...if you know what I mean. ;-)

  151. Re:My recommendations for UNIXen by gaudior · · Score: 1
    Actually, I used to install SCO Xenix in turnkey shop-floor applications. Nice platform, good performance. Does anyone remember BBx Progression3 or 4?

    25-40 users on a 486/33 with 48M and 300M hd...

    Those were the days...

  152. Re:World domination by Andrew+Cady · · Score: 1
    Again, a one true OS is just stupid. Different applications have different requirements. Various operating systems fulfill those different requirements.
    It's like you're not even reading my posts. Different applications have different requirements, but practically all applications share *some* requirements; requirements that only need to be implemented once. A single kernel source can be both optimized for 386 and p3. Indeed, a single kernel source can run on both 386 and AXP. So what is this shit about "different requirements"? You have yet to show that a single kernel source base can't provide for different requirements.
    a) OpenBSD spends a lot of their development cycle worrying about security design and testing. Developers of the linux kernel and whatever is specifically available for it may not be. The problem here is weighing time to market and security and stability.
    I don't see how this is relevant. "Time to market" doesn't matter when you have CVS. If linux users want the feature-of-the-week and OpenBSD users don't think it's ready, where's the conflict? Every release doesn't need to be for every person. Linux kernel 2.0.x are still maintained, and 2.2.x will be maintained long after 2.4.x; this is precisely analogous to the situation you describe, but any problems caused are minor.
    b) FreeBSD developers may like a completely standard system where they control everything. Linux developers may not.
    It doesn't matter, because when the source is free, nobody can "control everything". If someone wanted to fork FreeBSD he could, so what's your point?? Nobody has any control anyway, except for what they can convince other people to do.
    FreeBSD developers may like long articulate man pages while linux developers may not.
    OK, I can't imagine anybody *not* wanting long articulate man pages (more likely not bothering to *write them*); but even then, some people might want fatfs in their kernel, and some people might not. If both are going to be done *anyway*, both should be done *to the same kernel*. If FreeBSD folks want to write long man pages for the super-kernel, they can; if someone else doesn't like they're style of man pages, she can write her own separate man pages, and the users can choose. That may seem like a waste of work (it is), but it's still less wasteful than the current situation, where the same thing is done for non-technical reasons.

    As to linux developers making a "dash for the desktop", I don't understand what that means. Do you mean adding features that desktop users would like? And other people don't want those features? Well then they shouldn't compile those features in.

  153. World domination by Andrew+Cady · · Score: 1
    Once people, especially in the Open Source community, realize "one OS everywhere" is bad regardless of which OS it is we will make some real progress toward truly great computing systems.
    Funny, I would say the opposite. One OS everywhere means MUCH less redundant (i.e. wasted) effort. One OS everywhere would have incredible advantages if the OS weren't *too* bad (though if it were controlled by a single corporation that would probalby outweigh all advantage) for everyone: easier to develop and easier to develop for, which means a larger software base for end-users. The main obstacle is stupid legal bullshit: BSD/GPL interoperability problems, and the fact that most OS aren't free software at all. The ideal would be a single source base that could optimize for all possible configurations, or at least most of the similar ones. Radically different hardware or applications might require different OS, but there's no technical reason to have multiple unixes. All the features of all the unixes could be compile-time options in one unified unix kernel, and it wouldn't matter upon which current kernel the super-kernel was based: if all unix kernel developers focussed their effort and previously-written code on that one kernel it would far surpass all current offerings very quickly.

    Furthermore, the MORE unixes that exist, the more effort is being wasted, in redundant kernel code, in redundant kernel-specific user code, and in porting. Do we really need Sun, GNU, IBM, HP, and *BSD all maintaining "ls"? ("ls" isn't even kernel specific! Everyone could use - and maintain together - the *BSD or GNU version *right now*, if everyone agreed. Any compelling technical reason not to?)

    'course it doesn't really matter. Proprietary unix vendors aren't going to release their source code, and *BSD and Linux (or any other two OSes, for that matter) will never be able to collaborate like *BSD collaborates among themselves (which, while not ideal, is much closer to ideal than any other current situation between multiple OSes).

    <sigh>

    1. Re:World domination by Andrew+Cady · · Score: 1
      but there's no technical reason to have multiple unixes
      False. There are many technical reasons. The first is hardware support.
      Hardware support? Seriously, the best way to organize the code is to separate the hardware-specific code from the hardware-neutral code. There's no need to re-do hardware-neutral code *by definition*, and there is a *LOT* of hardware-neutral code in modern kernels. Hence NetBSD's existence.
      They aren't all equal and they all have idiosyncracies (e.g. filesystem differences, SMP, what databases/particular software is available/works best, personell preference and experience, security issues, support, et al).
      The super-kernel should support all filesystems, it should be able to compile-time optimize for uniprocessor or SMP, and it should be able to optimize for all the necessary types of applications. Doing this is no more difficult than doing it in multiple forks. If FreeBSD can be optimized for a certain type of application, the optimization can be added as a compile-time option as easily as a new fork (and etc).

      Given *any* two OS, there is assuredly going to be tasks common to both: those tasks *should* be done with the same code, and that code *should* be maintained *only in one area*.

      Not every project has the same goals. Stating that is naive and stupid.
      Nobody stated that.
      Any compelling technical reason not to [unify ls]?
      -divergence of design ideaology
      ls could be made to optimize at compile time for all the various ideologies.
      -different requirements
      Ditto.
      -licenses
      Exactly. This isn't a technical reason.
      -different development cycles
      Why would we WANT to maintain different development cycles? Don't you understand that that just means the code is going to get there later?
      BSD and Linux ... will never be able to collaborate
      Not true.
      It was true before you took it out of context. With context I said, "[...] will never be able to collaborate like *BSD collaborates among themselves", which is absolutely true.
    2. Re:World domination by Andrew+Cady · · Score: 1
      You're right, it isn't BSD/GPL interoperability, but it isn't GPL/any-other-license either. It's BSD-style/GPL-style, which is what I meant before.

      Most accurately, copyleft/non-copyleft. The GPL isn't the only GPL-like license, after all.

    3. Re:World domination by Arandir · · Score: 2

      BSD says steal all you want, please!

      It is logically impossible to steal that which is free.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
  154. Re:FreeBSD by Kris+Magnusson · · Score: 1

    How did you get it to run Rhaptel binaries? Does that mean I could run the window server and the File Viewer as FreeBSD processes? ........... kris

    --
    "I thought I could organize freedom. How Scandinavian of me."
  155. Now that article bothers me some... by Nostafa · · Score: 1

    It seems to rant about how linux brought about the reunification of unix but working for one the largest ISPs and colocations I can provide this statisic. 70% of our machines are NT, 20% Solaris, 8% HPUX, 2% Linux. Granted the ISP I work for while generally though well of from wall streets sucks the big one in technical minds what im trying to demonstrate is the Wall street buy in on the Linux. Gates is a still a marketing monster and has there ear and Sun continues to dominate the "big coperate" networks. If I had my way the datacenter would be a mix of linux and solaris but on the flip side windows I believe is a nessecary evil. Linux will survive better when Wall street understands its. Right now its generally viewed by Wall street as Flash in the pan IPO material and thats about it. We have no coperate longetivity and with the exception of RedHat have no real voice to the market. Yeah some other ipos happened and did well but those were recent. Maybe in a few years they will mean something.

  156. Where (if anywhere) to get Xenix? by robra · · Score: 1

    Hey ... I just thought it would be funny to try out M$-Xenix. Would anyone have a clue where to het hold of a copy?

    1. Re:Where (if anywhere) to get Xenix? by bio2 · · Score: 1

      where i can find it?

      --
      ---- EoF
    2. Re:Where (if anywhere) to get Xenix? by remande · · Score: 3
      Dumpster dive. Actually, I knew of one company as of 1997 that was buying them out of warehouses.

      That's not the trick. The trick is retarding your computer so that it will run. Race conditions render Xenix unstable past 486/75. I can't laugh too hard, though...it runs on a 286!

      --

      --The basis of all love is respect

  157. Re:Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by jallen02 · · Score: 1

    I know I was shocked one of my comments earlier got moderated up I admitted to having fun looking at WindowsCE Source. lol it generated 3 or 4 critical replies "It didnt compile it means nothing" "Its MS it cant be good its just a marketing ploy BLAH BLAH BLAH"

    Someone take some Prozac and relax.. Sheesh. :p

  158. Re:Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by jallen02 · · Score: 1

    Actually I have moderated a couple of times and all my moderation points were spent promoting GOOD discussion not just Linux discussion. I do try but this particular moderation just irked me I try hard to not complaina bout any of it but I get annoyed some of the time. And I noticed as I replied to a post a little lower down it moved from a 3 to a 4 to a 5. I am Glad for that I found the post kind of funny and worth of being up higer myself.

  159. Re:FreeBSD by jallen02 · · Score: 1

    ROFL This is funny I mean this is the third post ive seen that was marked at flamebait just because the author said I like This operating system which happened to NOT be linux. List some of the relative merits put a little HUMOR """:-)""" indicates HUMOR people. And its a falmebait? Huh??? Sheesh.

  160. Re:No SMP? by Yue · · Score: 1

    AFAIK there used to be SMP even in the 2.0 kernels.
    The pthread-enabled programs used to run about 10 times slower than with the 2.2 kernels but, hey, it worked without any problems.
    On the other hand, I never managed to make NT see more than two processors from the 4 PPros available on that computer, so 4 processors on RH5.2 was better than 2 processors on NT.

  161. Re:Where was QNX by bio2 · · Score: 1

    I test the QNX diskette and work great, pretty fast and no hardware problems... i think that windows (better called Wintendo 2k) will dissapear... and BeOS, MacOS, QNX, Linux, Unix, will rule on workstation.

    --
    ---- EoF
  162. Maybe the moderator.... by WhiskeyJack · · Score: 1

    Maybe the moderator was aiming at a nearby post and missed? :)

    Seriously though, there's a lot of reasons this might've been modded the way it was:

    • The moderator was an utter Tux zealot who can't comprehend anyone preferring an Apple product over Linux....
    • The moderator accidentally scrolled down one or two choices in the mod menu without realizing it (easy to do if you're forced to use IE and you're in the habit of using the arrow keys to scroll -- it's happened to me before, but I've always caught it before hitting the "moderate" button).
    • The moderator actually _was_ intending to moderate another post and got this one by mistake.
    • The moderator was actually the /. Troll, looking to score a point for Natalie Portman and hot grits by showing how the moderation system can be abused.
    • ....

    Oh, waitasec...I guess you're right. There really is no !lame excuse for bad moderation. :)

    --WhiskeyJack, who's been a moderator twice in the past month....eeee! And no, I didn't moderate this one!

  163. Re:SMP Support by waterbuffalo · · Score: 1

    A quick look at the right part of the Solaris x86 HCL shows a number of machines with more than 4 CPUs which have been certified as working with Solaris on Intel:

    • Hitachi HA8000/380 UWRAID (8 CPUs, PII-Xeon-450) - one of three Hitachi machines of this size
    • NCR WorldMark 4380 (8 CPUs, PP-200 1 MB)
    • NEC Express5800-HX6100 (6 CPUs, PP-200)
    • Zenith Data Systems Express5800-HX6100 (6 CPUs, PP-200)
    • Intel OCPRF100 (8 CPUs, PIII-Xeon-550)

    One of the reasons why there aren't more is that there aren't that many x86 motherboards with support than more than four CPUs.

    That said, I'd prefer to use Sun hardware for more than four CPUs anyway - there is so much more to a system than the number of CPUs in the box after all.

    It should be noted that in my article I didn't say that I'd only use x86 machines for SMP. There was also no mention of "heavy duty SMP" either. After all, when people talk about SMP on x86 systems, its rarely in the context of "heavy duty" :) Also, given the context of the original article - the use of Unix as servers in an office environment. Unless your office is very large or you're doing some large scale calculations or database work you're not going to need large scale SMP machines. You can make use of relatively low end x86-based machines to perform the day-to-day file and print serving - I wouldn't want a rather expensive 64 way Sun machine sitting idle doing nothing more than running samba.

    IMHO I'd rather engineer systems which have a number of smaller machines than go for one large machine if possible. That said, this could be achieved using domains with the E10000 (or the domain software on a number of smaller machines).

    --
    Moo
  164. Re:SMP Support by waterbuffalo · · Score: 1

    >If they said that AIX or Solaris

    er... I've got a dual-P90 machine which has been happily running Solaris for SMP work for about five years or so now. It uses both CPUs quite effectively as well.

    --
    Moo
  165. Corel WordPerfect Office Suite by ca1v1n · · Score: 1

    I'm not familiar with the WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux, but if it's anything like the WordPerfect 8 Suite I have running on this Win98 box, I'll take it any day over MS Office. Word has a nasty habit of BSODing, something which WordPerfect never does at all.

  166. Re:Some troll-free predictions + Troll by FreshView · · Score: 1

    Indeed, software developers shouldn't be allowed to sell our hard earned labor. In fact, I think we should include "selling books" and "selling art" as things that should be as alien as selling sunlight and air.

    --
    -------- "All I want in life's a little bit of love to take the pain away" --Spiritualized
  167. Re:Inconsistencies by jailbrekr2 · · Score: 1

    Damn. I'm impressed. I implied that you based your article on advice of others. Considering the fact that you are actively defending yourself on the Slashdot forum, I was obviously mistaken.

    You did recommend that FreeBSD is best for Web Servers, and I do not dispute that. What I disupte is as follows:

    Quote #1:

    "But--and this isn't a small but--you need to really know BSD to do the job right. With no reseller program, this can be a problem"

    The whole strength of the Open Source movement is that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of developers out there who can offer assistance through varies channels (UseNet, email, LUGs, etc). Linux owes its existance to this, and to simply write off FreeBSd because a major corporation doesnt officially support it is a flawed statement. Keep in mind that Intel and IBM, while officially supporting Linux, are embedding FreeBSD and OpenBSD into their internet appliances.

    Quote #2:

    "For advanced Web serving, however, we think that Linux will prove the long-term winner. Because of BSD Unix's low profile, excellent development tools like Corel/Inprise's forthcoming Kylix, IBM and Sun's releases of Java 2 for Linux, Pervasive Software Inc.'s Tango 2000 Application Server, and Red Hat/Cygnus's Code Fusion all are appearing on Linux, not BSD. Unless more development tools are forthcoming, this disparity in development tools eventually will leave BSD out in the cold. "

    Bah! Currently, FreeBSD has a project to port Java v2 to FreeBSD, and near as I can tell, they are nearly done. FreeBSD supports Linux Binaries, so any apps ported to Linux should run on FreeBSD (depending on the app). As well, to say that FreeBSD has a low profile is, in my opinion, inaccurate. With such large sites as Yahoo and Hotmail running FreeBSD, and openly admitting it, this is far from 'Low Profile'. Yes, they are behind Linux, but there is little chance of being left 'in the cold'. FreeBSD will always have a place, due to its mature code base, and BSD license. The BSD license is far more appealing to corporations, especially with embedded applications, as they do not have to release the source code, or even acknowledge that they are using FreeBSD in their embedded app. In the short term, this may not be relevant to the resellers, but in the future it will, as more and more thin servers will be introduced. It is THESE 'server appliances' which will make up the bulk of the server sales within 3-5 years. As well, with the rumblings that there is a FreeBSD port to StrongARM in the works, expect to see PDAs running FreeBSD as well.

    Overall, as I am a reseller, I can see the reasoning behind your article. Resellers are usually not the code hacking, coffee injecting geeks that frequent Slashdot. They are salespeople, with a general knowledge in many areas, and perhaps specialized knowledge in one or 2 areas. Your focus is to determine the best UNIX OS based on who has the greatest reseller resources available. While, from a reseller perspective, your article was well thought out, you missed a few key points. Remember that Linux (and FreeBSD) were created on the Internet, and the Internet is the ultimate reseller channel. You just have to know where to look.

    Jailbrekr.

    --
    Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
  168. Re:Inconsistencies by jailbrekr2 · · Score: 1

    Thou art correct, almighty AC. I have been humbled....

    I based that on third party comments. How silly of me to spread FUD like that....

    They are currently working on JDK 1.2.

    Doh!

    --
    Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
  169. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by nomadic · · Score: 1


    A while ago, Unix==Big Iron hardware. Today, Unix can equal a 486/33.

    A while ago, a 486/33 was Big Iron hardware. I mean, my palm pilot can outperform some of the hardware they used to run Unix on...

  170. Not to be pedantic... by Yax-Pak · · Score: 1

    ...but isn't LINUX UNIX? Why make the distinction in the article between LINUX and UNIX... Or are we talking about UNIX(tm)??

  171. Re:Top 5 Distros... by JDax · · Score: 1

    I'm curious how they decided which five were top. Maybe my personal experience isn't indicitave of the general population, but I've personally met many more people running Debian than TurboLinux. Are they selecting based on the size of the corporation that owns that distro? Number of copies in use (and if so, how do they measure)

    Let me say that the article's mention of a "top 5" was very "USA-o-centric".

    If you look at the "most popular" (or better "most prolific") Linux distros around the world, you will see that Red Hat (and it's derivatives like Mandrake) are most popular in North America, SuSE is most popular in Europe, and TurboLinux in Asia. &nbsp Alot of this has to do with where these companies have offices, although you can get easily download these distros from anywhere in the world. &nbsp For example, having originally purchased the official boxed version of SuSE 6.1 last summer, this past Monday, I upgraded to SuSE 6.3 (then they just announced the availability of 6.4 in 2 weeks - ugh!) via FTP to their N. American site. &nbsp I also run Red Hat 5.2, Mandrake 6.5, and Caldera 1.3 (plus NetBSD 1.4.1).

    It probably would have been clearer if the article had specified "top 5 in U.S" or "top 5 around the world".

    --
    -- Win2k: "It's not so much that it's only 65,000 bugs, it's just that they stopped at 65,535 to prevent an overflow."
  172. Re:Top 5 Distros... by JDax · · Score: 1

    I've always considered Mandrake a derivative of Red Hat. I know it is its own distro, but wasn't it (or maybe still is) derived from RH?

    Mandrake IS a Red Hat. &nbsp Much of the difference between the two has to do with which kernel each ships with (eg., RH 6.0 shipped with kernel 2.2.12-20 whereas Mandrake 6.5, a "RH 6.0", shipped with 2.2.13-4), what packages each ship with (eg., RH 6.x ships with GNOME as a default, whereas Mandrake 6.x/7.x ships with KDE). &nbsp The installers between the two were pretty much the same, although I haven't seen Mandrake 7.0's new installer. &nbsp And don't forget Mandrake's magic wand and top hat logos that replaced that guy with the little red hat... &nbsp ;-)

    --
    -- Win2k: "It's not so much that it's only 65,000 bugs, it's just that they stopped at 65,535 to prevent an overflow."
  173. Re:SMP Support by JDax · · Score: 1

    That's a pretty odd stance, considering I know of several friends with dual-proc boxes running 2.2, and you can easily check to see the processes running on each CPU (or a quick MT RC5 check, too)...

    I'm running Red Hat 6.1 on a dual-Pentium II 200 (kernel 2.2.12-20smp) at work so I'll confirm you on that. &nbsp And you can see what each processor is doing in X + a window manager with a cute little app called xosview too...&nbsp

    But then I guess there's a ghost in the machine because "SMP support isn't available until kernel 2.4". &nbsp One acronym - FUD. &nbsp And please don't tell me it's just "inaccurate reporting" because if the author(s) had been running these *nixes as long as they suggest, then SMP for Linux should have been known to them.

    --
    -- Win2k: "It's not so much that it's only 65,000 bugs, it's just that they stopped at 65,535 to prevent an overflow."
  174. LinuxOne sadly not mentioned... by .Natalie_Portman · · Score: 1

    Having worked with AIX, IRIX, and Solaris I'd just like to say that my os of choice is LinuxOne's fine product. It truly is a disservice not to mention LinuxOne among the top five distros. Why I'd rather be developing under LinuxOne than have hot grits poured down my pants. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

  175. Re:Top 5 Distros... by aarestad · · Score: 1

    What about, say, Mandrake? I guess I'm not sure where it ranks, salewise, with the "top 5." It's a _great_ distro - just wondering how much it's used out there, and whether it deserves to be up there...

    --
    "The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..."
  176. Where was QNX by cheekymonkey_68 · · Score: 1

    QNX is one to watch and did they mention it nooooo "A ZX81 with ram pack wobble is more reliable than windoze" - Clive Sinclair (Allegedly)

    1. Re:Where was QNX by sjvn · · Score: 2

      In our embedded system coverage where it belongs. FWIW, though I like the embedded Linuxes so far if I had to build an application for an embedded box tomorrow I'd use QNX. Battled tested and tried, well documented, and you get really fast code out of it.

      Steven, Editor at Large, Sm@rt Reseller

  177. Re:My recommendations for UNIXen by Atev · · Score: 1

    Well, I'd rather use Coherent on anything as ancient as the machines that ran Xenix 286. Price ratio (Coherent : Xenix) 1:20; Performance 3:1; Number of manuals 1:6; Size of a single manual 1:5

    I think that says it. But unfortunately, Coherent is nowhere to be found. So is Xenix 286

    --
    The danger from computers is not that they will eventually get as smart as men, but we will meanwhile agree to meet them
  178. Re:Top 5 Distros... by chowda · · Score: 1

    I use Mandrake. It's good.

    --

    YouTube & Google Video -> podcast http://castcluster.blogspot.com/
  179. Smart reseller is l33t by jtatum · · Score: 1

    These "old world" tech media sources have such a funny way of writing about Unix. Why is a magazine with a 99% NT-based readership writing about Unix? Are they trying to make resellers comfortable with the alien command-line based world of Unix? Why?

  180. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2
    Yes, I run vi under the NT POSIX subsystem. (It's on the resource kit.)

    Are you sure? The Resource Kit contains two vis. One's a Win32 port and one's POSIX; and with the POSIX one you have to set up termcaps and things before it'll work.

    I use the Win32 one; it's quite good for horrifying people who see me using it.

  181. OS X Server by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 2

    Personally...I like OS X Server.

    I use RedHat 6.1 at home on IA-32 hardware...but at work I run OS X Server...

    It's my fav of the bunch...but for now at least it only runs on Apple Hardware. If I could run it on IA-32 stuff...I'd be all over that.

    1. Re:OS X Server by James+Lanfear · · Score: 2
      If I could run it on IA-32 stuff...I'd be all over that.

      Take a look at MacOSRumors (and if you have, assume I addressing /. as a whole ;-): Rumor has it that Apple's been talking to some PC manufacturers about porting OSX to their wares. They had an Intel version of OSX, and the current version is supposed to be sync'ed with FreeBSD, so this probably could be accomplished relatively easily. I never really understood why FreeBSD would be their compatability target, instead of, say, NetBSD, if they weren't planning an Intel port, or even abandoning the PowerPC, so making that move would seem to make sense. Of course, we are talking about Apple, so....

      There's also a related rumor that Apple may Open Source (please, no flames about APSL) enough of the remaining closed portions of OSX and Carbon to enable third-parties (can't imagine who that would be ;-) to port it for them.

      Either way, we win.

  182. Top Five RESOLD by Christopher+B.+Brown · · Score: 2
    Which puts the appropriate spin on things...

    The evaluation has nothing to do with any technical meaning of "best," but merely the notion of "most sold by retailers."

    In which situation Debian obviously disappears, regardless of whether it has any valuable qualities or not.

    --
    If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
  183. Re:Solaris 8 performance. by dananderson · · Score: 2
    I would ask this on USENET newsgroup alt.solaris.x86.

    Personally, I don't think Sparc Solaris is good as a graphics workstation. Intel Solaris has a wide range of graphic cards available, but not the software (especially compared with BeOS!).

    You can also see my Solaris Intel FAQ at http://sun.drydog.com/faq/

  184. Re:SMP Support by Guy+Harris · · Score: 2
    People must be celbrating St. Pat's day early because I've been hearing that I don't say SMP is in Linux all day. Folks, read the graph, next to the end of the first page. See how it says 2.4 will have improved SMP.

    Yes, but on the very first page it says:

    But Linux takes a back seat to NT on symmetric-multiprocessing (SMP) systems. However, the next public edition of the operating system, Linux 2.4, due out this summer, will offer SMP support.

    (emphasis mine).

    The emphasized sentence is certainly a true statement - but so would be "However, the next public edition of the operating system, Linux 2.4, due out this summer, will run on x86-based PC's."

    I.e., it's a true statement - but is also true of previous versions of the Linux kernel.

    Perhaps you meant to say

    However, the next public edition of the operating system, Linux 2.4, due out this summer, will offer better SMP support.

    which would also be a true statement and would speak of a difference between 2.4 and previous kernel releases.

  185. Re:SMP Support by Guy+Harris · · Score: 2
    There is the option of enabling SMP support when you do a make xconfig, but enabling it doesn't actually do anything. There's even some experimental code in the source tree but if you look carefully, none of it is ever even called.

    Are you asserting that none of the stuff under #ifdef __SMP__ is ever compiled in, e.g. because enabling SMP support doesn't cause it to be defined (I don't see any place in the 2.2.14 source where, say, defining CONFIG_SMP causes __SMP__ to be defined, but a kernel tree on a machine here has -D__SMP__ in the Makefile), or are you asserting that the code in question is "experimental code" and, even if __SMP__ is defined, "none of it is ever even called"?

  186. It's because of their approach. by Uruk · · Score: 2

    I agree with you on the choice issue - I just wanted to point out that there's a reason Windows is so restricted.

    Micros~1 started off selling operating systems to desktop users, and computer hobbyists. They eventually developed their software more and more, till the point where they broke into the server market with NT. (It may have happened before NT to a certain degree, but they probably weren't that popular as a server platform). So here you've got a company that has always built desktop OS's, (arguably "toy" OS's compared to what is required of a server). Their approach has always been to insulate the user from anything approaching a technical decision, and to swath the deficiencies of the system in a pretty GUI.

    That type of design and implementation is arguably quite good for desktop users and hobbyists, it plain sucks for server configurations. And once they had dominated the market, what's the point of spreading out and porting to other CPUs? (Especially when they're in bed with Intel)

    I think the lack of choice on the wintel side of things has a lot to do with the evolution of windows, whereas UNIX has always tried to run on everything. (remember how one of the original brag points of UNIX was that it was portable?)

    Just my $0.02

    --
    -- Truth goes out the door when rumor comes innuendo. -- Groucho Marx
  187. No SMP? by CMiYC · · Score: 2

    I like how the article states that we have to wait until 2.4 to get SMP support. Gee. Funny how I could have swore I am running SMP now.... I think they meant to say "better support in 2.4".

    ---

  188. Re:Top 5 Distros... by sjvn · · Score: 2

    For us, Sm@rt Reseller, we pick the operating systems we cover in large part based on their reseller presence. After all, they're our readers. Hence, I talk about Corel, but not Debian per se.

    Steven, Editor at Large, Sm@rt Reseller

  189. Re:Inconsistencies by sjvn · · Score: 2

    Darn. And here I thought I'd recommended FreeBSD as the best choice for Web serving.

    As for the BSDI/Walnut Creek Merger (not FreeBSD), that happened long after the article was in. For a take on that, see my sister in writing Mary Jo Foley's latest column:

    http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859 ,2469255,00.html

    Steven

  190. Re:SMP Support by Bad+Mojo · · Score: 2

    And I have a J-40 8 way SMP machine that cranks out some nice numbers for distributed.net quite well. I may not like AIX, but it does a good, reliable, effecient job.


    Bad Mojo

    --
    Bad Mojo
    "If you can't win by reason, go for volume." -- Calvin
  191. Useful focus on sales and service support by Silver+A · · Score: 2
    One of the most useful bits about that article is its focus, especially in the later pages, on sales and sevice support for various Unices.

    For home use, that doesn't matter - I'm not going to pay $100/month for support - I could buy a lot of O'Reilly books for $100/month. For a medium-sized corporate system, that does matter. Real large corporations will keep a staff of Unix (or NT) wizards around for support, but a 100-person office will need someone to backstop their in-house support. Downloading Debian doesn't provide that.

    If I were my company's IT person, I could take that article to my boss to say "here's a good, well-supported, Unix system that will outperform our NT servers, and you'll be able to support it after I'm gone". That would be far more convincing to the bean-counters than a simple exposition of the technical superiority of Unix.

  192. Re:SMP Support by SoftwareJanitor · · Score: 2

    It only took me about an hour to get it working with NT the first time I tried it. It may not exactly be a no-brainer, but it is easier to get working correctly than most of the NFS add-ons I've seen for NT.

  193. Re:SMP Support by rangek · · Score: 2

    As for SMP in general, if I had to have heavy-duty SMP Right Now on Unix. I wouldn't use Linux or Intel. Solaris on SPARC and AIX on PowerPC is where you can really hit the gas with Unix and multiple processors. I haven't tested AIX recently, but Solaris eats NT's, and everyone elses, lunch.

    What about IRIX? I have run Solaris on single and dual processor machines, AIX on IBM SP2, and IRIX on Origin200, Octane, PowerChallange, and 64 processor Origin2000. I find IRIX to be superior for most tasks I do (compuational chemistry).

    Note: My workstation is a 2x PIII-450 running Linux, and i love it. But when I need to hit dozens of processors at once, I like IRIX.

    Just my $0.02

  194. Good for infrastructure, bad for interfaces by for(;;); · · Score: 2

    While infrastructure -- the invisible technological foundations -- should be standardized for interoperability's sake, homogenized interfaces are bad all-around. This is because the interfaces that an individual works most efficiently with vary from person to person. A novice will set up TCP/IP on one machine most efficiently with a hand-holding gui, while an expert will set TCP/IP up most efficiently (and possibly on a large number of machines, quickly) with text files and scripts. Same infrastructure, different interfaces.

    --

    "Whatever happened to fair use?"
    -- Duff-Man
  195. Xenix--sco? by drenehtsral · · Score: 2

    Didn't SCO come out of Xenix? I think after they migrated from 80286 protected mode to 80386 page mode, it just got renamed... I'm not sure on this, but i seem to remember something about that...

    --

    ---
    Play Six Pack Man. I
  196. Re:Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by Wah · · Score: 2

    PC = Politically Correct Personal Computer.

    There is a much more balanced, bland feel to /. and I attribute it to the lack of interesting flame wars. Now, no one wants to go so far as offend anyone. This behavior is called being "politically correct" and makes for boring useless debate and generlally bland discourse.(note: /. is just more PC than it used to be, still not 10000th as much as the nightly news)

    Of course, the trolls are still funny.

    --
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.
    ba-bu-ba-ba-baaa, da-da-dum. Re-boot the ser-ver.

    --
    +&x
  197. Re:SMP Support by Tower · · Score: 2

    Yup, but this AC saying that 'enalbing SMP doesn't actually do anything' is also pretty bothersome...

    Who let in the uneducated masses, anyway ;-) Oh wait... that would include me on some subjects, too 8^)

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  198. Re:SMP Support by Tower · · Score: 2

    >2.3 isn't shipping anywhere. This is sm@rt reseller. Their target audience isn't slashdot.

    True, and I addressed that. It is just as 'public' if you can get it from any internet connected computer anywhere in the world for free and without special logins as it is sold on a shelf. I made that point and understand what he meant. That doesn't mean that it is accurate journalism.

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  199. Re:SMP Support by Tower · · Score: 2

    That's a pretty odd stance, considering I know of several friends with dual-proc boxes running 2.2, and you can easily check to see the processes running on each CPU (or a quick MT RC5 check, too)...

    or check out http://www.phy.duke.edu/brahma/smp-faq/

    If you can't get SMP properly working, there are many people who can help, I'm sure...

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  200. Re:SMP Support by Tower · · Score: 2

    I meant that Solaris and AIX scale much better than NT does (example RS/6k SP ). I certainly wasn't bashing solaris (I've used solaris x86 and liked it).

    Sorry for the confusion.

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  201. Re:SMP Support by Tower · · Score: 2

    Yes, but they didn't say that 2.2 does SMP, but it really isn't up to par with AIX/Solaris, which would be the truth. What they essentially said was that it *doesn't* have it now, but it *will* have it soon. They didn't say 4+ procs (after which NT gained minimally, I haven't made new #s on W2k yet), they mentioned 'SMP' which means 2 or more to me and just about everybody else. It's not defensive, it's ust poor journalism. They can rip on anything that I use, as long as they do it truthfully.

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  202. Re:SMP Support by Tower · · Score: 2

    >n terms of performance, as Sm@rt Reseller has shown over the last year and a half, Linux actually outworks--on low-end Intel uniprocessor systems--all other network operating systems. It also does well on high-end uniprocessor boxes. But Linux takes a back seat to NT on symmetric-multiprocessing (SMP) systems. However, the next public edition of the operating system, Linux 2.4, due out this summer, will offer SMP support.

    That is the paragraph I was quoting. It says that Linux is great on 1 proc, and 2.4 will offer SMP support. Not *improved* SMP support, just that it will (sounds almost like 'will finally') have SMP... That and the "next public edition" thing... I understand what is meant there, but all of he 2.3 series is just as "public" as the 2.2 or 2.4 stuff. Free, anonymous downloads... (but it's not on a shelf at CrimpUSA, so it's not public).

    I'm not disagreeing with the general idea, it was just poorly presented.

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
  203. Re:Wait a minute.. by divec · · Score: 2
    Of course, these aren't compatible with PPC Linux or Linux on Alpha, so I'm inclined to agree with you that real compatibility is fleeting.

    True, but the article was specifically about x86 Unices.
    --

    perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'

  204. Solaris 8 performance. by be-fan · · Score: 2

    Hey, is anyone where running Solaris 8 on a single proc. Pentium II box? I want to put a UNIX on my desktop, and am thinking of Solaris because I don't really love Linux and its hodgepodge style (personal preference) and I would use FreeBSD but people bitch about its sound code. I do a lot of media stuff, so thats very important. Anyway, I'm used to using BeOS, so I'm a little pampered on the interactive performance front. Anyone using it who could tell me how it performs compared to Linux for 3D/2D graphics, media, and general use. (Clicking on files, word processing, moving around the system with the GUI. etc?) I heard that 7.0 used to be called Slowaris on Intel, how is 8.0?

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  205. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by ucblockhead · · Score: 2
    You can get a version of gvim that runs under Windows, though I don't offhand recall if you need the cygwin shell to go with it.

    (A vi fanatic)

    --
    The cake is a pie
  206. Re:FreeBSD by mr · · Score: 2

    The key is to grab all the other libaries and move them over.

    And, the process *IS* documented in the freebsd mailing lists. How I did it is I looked at the old 1995 posts on how to get Solaris for X86 binaries running on FreeBSD and applied that methodology.

    I was working on formal documantation on how do do it, when Steve Jobs took over and junked x86 Rhapsody. Given few would ever be able to use the work, it was scrapped.

    --
    If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
  207. Re:Balance in an article! by TheJet · · Score: 2

    Well, here goes, please hear me out before you start flaming...

    1. The author makes a whole lot of claims, but fails to back up many of them with any real data. Netcraft is mentioned a couple of times, but other than that, there is no hard data.

    2. The author is clearly biased towards UNIX over M$ products (you can basically discount his comments about SMP support, as everyone has pointed out that it is a bogus argument). Not only that, but nearly the entire article is about how great Linux is. I will be the first to say that Linux is a high quality OS, but there are also alot of things that Windows does well. I believe that his shots against W2K are unjustified and misplaced. Has any company/group released a bug-free/best performing OS on their first version. W2K had many problems to overcome, and considering the amount of code they had to merge in and make work on NT, I am actually surprised at the performance.

    By the same token as he says to look at Linux when 2.4 comes out, the same can be said for Windows (or any other OS). Wait until SP2/3 comes out and you'll see marked performance increases. Anyone who builds a sufficiently complex system knows that it takes a while to iron out the wrinkles.

    3. I use FreeBSD and Linux, and to say that you need to be a FreeBSD expert to run it as compared to Linux, is just plain wrong. FreeBSD takes no more monkeying around than Linux does to get it to perform well. As a matter of fact, I find the layout of some Linux dists (read RedHat) to be significantly harder to configure than FreeBSD.

    The way that he dismissed the BSDs is IMHO shortsighted to say the least (with the exception of his comments on webserving). What he fails to mention is that FreeBSD can run any binary that runs on Linux. And there is a strong push to get a native port of Java (much like there was for Linux).

    There are many other things I could say, but I'll leave it at that. The article was an interesting editorial, but it is just that, an editorial. The author clearly has biases and it should be taken as every other editorial is, with a grain of salt. It was nice of the author to promote interoperability, but it should have been done in a less editorial fashion.

    My 4c (all little too long for just 2c)
    The "Top 10" Reasons to procrastinate:

    --
    The "Top 10" Reasons to procrastinate:
    10.
  208. Re:SMP Support by scorpioX · · Score: 2

    Well, it can't. There is the option of enabling SMP support when you do a make xconfig, but enabling it doesn't actually do anything.

    Compile times for a Dual PII 450 w/448MB RAM. Resulting kernel was 650K. 'jx' is the number of make's running, s means single CPU.
    egcs-2.91.66:2.2.13:j4 261.180u 20.280s 2:27.88 190.3% 0+0k 0+0io 334324pf+0w
    gcc-2.7.2.3:2.2.13:j3 232.540u 20.200s 2:11.95 191.5% 0+0k 0+0io 265191pf+0w
    gcc-2.7.2.3:2.2.13:s 261.76user 16.23system 4:38.48elapsed 99%CPU

    What's really interesting is how people claim that their multi-CPU machine is "so much faster" when they enable SMP. Isn't that what psychiatrists call a "self-serving fantasy?"

    Damm! That is some fantasy I have been having. I must have been dreaming when my kernel compile times were cut by more than 50%.

    Think before you speak.
  209. Rant time. by jallen02 · · Score: 2

    Okay Rant time! I dont do this often and most often only people who read to the bottom of the stack get to see my rants but im gonna

    RANT ON

    Okay every time an article compares linux to some other opearting system or operating systems EVERY time I mean every freaking time the author decides to do what good journalists should and not print EVERY SINGLE little detail to made the damn article readable? Just maybe?

    What happens? It is a freaking attack on poor Linux.
    OH Linux can do that in Kernel X.Y.Z the author should have *KNOWN*. Its just so annoying to always see the group mindset of Everyone is out to knock Linux down. Welcome to Marketing 101!!! Get used to it and play harder dont whine granted Im glad to know the author made a possible oversight it just seems like its happening a little often here.

    Someone makes a comment about FreeBSD? Flamebait! Heresey Get it out of here.

    Gosh STOP this please. Linux is a Awesome operating system and it does a lot of things very good but that dont mean everyones always gotta look for someone to be knocking Linux down! They are not I did not really feel much of a Marketing ploy in here just an honest attempt at a little information spreading and *gasp* it just didnt happen to priase Linux right.

    RANT OFF

  210. Which one to choose by timbu2 · · Score: 2

    One reason I love *NIX is that I appreciate choice.

    With Win2K I have one choice, Intel and Microsoft.

    With UNIX, and can choose a multitude of *NIX for INTEL, PPC, Sparc, Alpha, etc. Each hardare/software platform offers strengths and weaknesses, especially considering the level of support that is offered.

    Choice is a strength to an IT organization. Choose the tool that most closely matches the problem you are attempting to solve. With the Microsoft / Intel choice you are very, very limited. If it doesn't work the way you like, wit and hope that Microsoft or Intel will fix things the way you like someday.

    I like to be able to choose.

    Magazines would prefer to cover one platform, with one OS. It is much easier to be an expert in one thing.

    timbu

    If I give you beer and include the recipe for the beer, does that mean that the beer is free as in software or free as in beer.

  211. Re:SMP Support by waterbuffalo · · Score: 2

    >Solaris on SPARC

    Personally I'd add Solaris on x86 to that list as well. As I said earlier on in this thread, I'm currently running Solaris on a five year old dual P90 machine. Naturally this is running the x86 version of Solaris. The Solaris HCL lists x86 based machines with up to 6 CPUs and has done since Solaris 2.5.1 (which was when I started to use Solaris on x86 SMP machines).

    There aren't that many differences between Solaris on x86 and Sparc when it comes down to it. Apart from the lowest level things like device drivers, certain parts of the kernel and certain commands which are very much architecture dependant, Solaris has the same code for both Sparc and x86.

    That dual P90 machine I've got is also handling mail, news, DNS, web, ftp, SMB (file and printing), NFS serving, CD burning and the normal work I throw at it (ie HTML generation and some image processing) without too many problems. Whilst I'm thinking of upgrading this old dual P90 with just 64Mb of memory and a single Adaptec HBA is happily handling this load. Even after I add a couple of new machines I'll still be keeping the machine around as it'll have lots of now empty disk space for me to fill up :)

    --
    Moo
  212. Linux, Unix, BSD, for me? :) by SuperDuG · · Score: 2
    Well it looks like there's more hype as to the O/S wars. With Walnut Creek/BSDi merger. And the hype behind linux. And the money behind Sun, Hp, Compaq, etc. We're about to embark on a whole new type of competition. Look at today in comparison to 5 years ago. Everyone was going crazy to get win95 ... and there was a small group of linux users out there trying to make applications. Then comes the MS Anti-Trus lawsuit. Just what the Alt-OS category needs. But when will the Alt-Os category hold windows and Mac OS? Commercial Operating systems say "Waruntee and Support" but they hold a price tag that the small business and average computer user would not want to pay. So here comes the BSD/Linux/Unix Freebies. Sun picked up on the Idea making solaris free. SCO has a free version of their OS. Linux has always been free. Along with *Bsd ... well not BSD/OS ... but ohh well :) ... So what do we wait for now? Freewin?

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  213. this makes me sick by Lord+Ender · · Score: 2

    "the top five Linux distributors--Caldera, Corel, Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux"

    it makes me sick to see comments like this. when people talk about "market share" and think a distribution of linux is the most popular just because it has the most SALES.

    that is total crap! most people i know DOWNLOAD linux. debian and slackware are very popular, but these writers think they aren't popular because they don't have as many SALES. i am going to go throw up.

    --
    A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
  214. Balance in an article! by Proteus · · Score: 3
    This is something that I, and many fellow Unix/Linux advocates, have been calling for. Finally, an article that acknowledges that there is a place for every OS - and that isn't fanatically for or against any one of them.

    Once people, especially in the Open Source community, realize "one OS everywhere" is bad regardless of which OS it is we will make some real progress toward truly great computing systems. Our emphasis should be on interoperability and using the right tool for the right job -- articles like this are extremely valuable tools in this way.

    --
    : remove whitespace to e-mail me

    --
    We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
  215. Re:My recommendations for UNIXen by sjvn · · Score: 3

    I ran Xenix on a 4.77MHz 8086. Yes, it was sllloooowwwwww. I shudder to think I actually used to program on that platform. The scars are still with me to this day!

    Steven, Editor at Large, Sm@rt Reseller

  216. Wait a minute.. by Blue+Lang · · Score: 3

    My company gets the print version of this magazine. When that article came out, I took into my boss' office, and read the part about all unices moving toward linux compatibility.

    We had a good laugh at such a completely stupid and meaningless statement, and then went back to work.

    What the HELL is 'linux compatibility' supposed to mean? Linux hasn't unified anything, and I'm damned sure that the real (read as commercial) unix vendors aren't going out of their way to make their OS's linux compatible in any more than a marketing sense.

    For instance, how many commercial unices include term type 'linux' in their termcap database? How many use /proc for tcp info? How many make sure that their utilities work under linux? How about tar, ls, or bash? Gzip? Make? Patch?

    All of these programs exist on most unices, and they certainly don't behave in the way the GNU versions do. This is incompatibility, and for someone who write system software across a buttload of unices every day (DYNIX/ptx, solaris, AIX, and linux), these things all suck.

    A handful have started porting some utilities or subsystems to linux, but the truth is that unix is based, loosely, on standards, and that linux adheres, loosely, to those standards.

    It's a stupid article that makes a lot of false assertions written for people who won't ever know the difference.

    Enjoy. :P

    --
    blue, bleeding karma from the eyeballs and loving it.

    --
    i browse at -1 because they're funnier than you are.
  217. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by dillon_rinker · · Score: 3

    I just fired up a utility from the Win NT resource kit the other day that recommended that I remove the POSIX compliant portion of Windows NT Workstation, as it was a security risk.

  218. SMP Support by Tower · · Score: 3

    They sort of insinuate that the 2.2 Linux kernel can't do SMP - the 2.4 kernel is SMP enabled or some garbage like that... I know that Linux SMP isn't the highest performing SMP implementation out there, and that 2.2 doesn't scale to 128 procs, but they said it 'takes a backseat to NT'... last time I check NT SMP above 4 procs wasn't getting you very much... If they said AIX or Solaris, I'd have to agree, or if they at least acknowledged that people *do* run lots of SMP linux boxen. Not very informed.........

    --
    "It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
    1. Re:SMP Support by rise · · Score: 4

      Not quite fair.
      Note that they're comparing W2K to 2.2 kernels for greater than 3 processors. They're quite positive on 2.4 being likely to beat out W2K on SMP scaling, and they even make a point of not benchmarking because of how much 2.4 will change the numbers. In fact they largely damn W2K with faint praise as far as its SMP "advantage" goes. No insinuation that Linux can't do SMP, just a belief that it's temporarily behind W2K for >3-way SMP and a statement about that changing soon. No need to get defensive.

    2. Re:SMP Support by sjvn · · Score: 5

      People must be celbrating St. Pat's day early because I've been hearing that I don't say SMP is in Linux all day. Folks, read the graph, next to the end of the first page. See how it says 2.4 will have improved SMP. Got to have it in there in the first place to have it improved eh?

      As for SMP in general, if I had to have heavy-duty SMP Right Now on Unix. I wouldn't use Linux or Intel. Solaris on SPARC and AIX on PowerPC is where you can really hit the gas with Unix and multiple processors. I haven't tested AIX recently, but Solaris eats NT's, and everyone elses, lunch.

      Steven, Editor at Large, Sm@rt Reseller

  219. Moderation of non-linux topics WAS Re:FreeBSD by mr · · Score: 3

    Getting the moderators blessing on /. is less much about being correct/insightful and more about fitting the adjenda of the moderators.

    Think of it this way: At school, you got your best grades when your answer fit what the teacher wanted. And here at /., a large number of the moderators are not Pro-OpenSource, but are Pro-Linux. And, if you are not a Pro-Linux, Micro$oft bashing, GPL at all costs poster, you don't get positive moderation.

    I don't see it as humorous, just hypocritcal. And a very human response.

    --
    If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
  220. Top 5 Distros... by knitephall · · Score: 3

    I'm curious how they decided which five were top. Maybe my personal experience isn't indicitave of the general population, but I've personally met many more people running Debian than TurboLinux. Are they selecting based on the size of the corporation that owns that distro? Number of copies in use (and if so, how do they measure)? File size? It seems to me that most of their choices for "top distro" are the ones that have been in the mainstream news lately (Caldera, Corel) rather than the ones that are most popular or best suited for the jobs they selected.

    --

    Visualize whirled peas.
  221. Inconsistencies by jailbrekr2 · · Score: 3

    Firstly, the article implied that Linux pre 2.4 cannot do SMP. That is false. Linux has been SMP since 2.0. FreeBSD also does SMP, although it is rather weak. This was never mentioned.

    Secondly, I found conflicting bias regarding Linux vs. FreeBSD. While they did recommend FreeBSD for web services, they made BSD sound like it was on its death bed. There was no mention of the BSDIFreeBSD merger, nor was there mention of the whole slew of companies embedding FreeBSD in Thin Servers/Server appliances. They cited a lack of development tools, but lets be honest here. I honestly dont think that Delphi for FreeBSD will help, as FreeBSD is primarily a server platform, not a desktop platform. GCC Anyone?

    I don't know. I had a bad taste in my mouth when I read that article. It sounded like it was written by someone who based the article on the advice on others, and not experience.

    the positive reporting of Linux is a good thing, but at what cost?

    Jailbrekr.

    --
    Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
  222. I like reading articles like this.. by Tarnar · · Score: 4

    Ones that fly in the face of what we've been told.

    A while ago, Unix==Big Iron hardware. Today, Unix can equal a 486/33. The only 'Big Iron' I'm gonna need is the hardware it'll take to make W2K fly.

    I also smiled when he said 'Unix will have more software, enjoy it while it lasts.' All in response to the incompatibilities between MS'es own new OS and their own software.

    On the flip side, Linux wasn't without growing pains. The lurch from libc5 to glibc wasn't too pretty a while back, but nothing was really stopping you from installing compatibility libraries. Even going 2.0 -> 2.2 was amazingly compatible. In Debian slink, I think there was about a half a dozen packages, out of thousands, that needed upgrading with the kernel.

    It's amazing just how badly MS is handling the growth of Unix. You think they'd borrow a page from the Book of Good OS'es.. But instead they go on doing their thing. Scalability? Portability? Unheard of. POSIX seems to be the future of OS'es.. Who'da thunk it?

    1. Re:I like reading articles like this.. by ucblockhead · · Score: 4
      POSIX seems to be the future of OS'es..

      But we all know that Windows NT is "posix compliant", right?

      (I can here the gails of laughter already. Has anyone actually gotten any of that to work?)

      --
      The cake is a pie
  223. My recommendations for UNIXen by VAXGeek · · Score: 5

    I've used a lot of UNIX flavors over the past 25 years, and I'd have to say that I recommend Microsoft's XENIX for any task. The NFS support really blazes, and it supports "ksh" or Korn shell. Give it a shot.
    ------------
    a funny comment: 1 karma
    an insightful comment: 1 karma
    a good old-fashioned flame: priceless

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  224. Linux-like operating systems by coyote-san · · Score: 5

    You know the joke about how "I am firm, you are stubborn, and he's a flaming *******"?

    Linux/Unix is the same thing. To most people, Linux and Unix are synonymous because they have the same architectural structure, same POSIX libraries, same POSIX tools, etc. Does it run X? Does it run vi? Do you have a command shell somewhere that takes lots of cryptic commands? Then it's Unix.

    Even the vast majority of developers will not see a significant difference in the way they develop code for a Linux vs. "Unix" system. A few files are in a different place, a few commands have "odd" flags, but overall it's about as much difference as between Dallas and New York, vs.
    New York and New Dehli. With the common use of GNU tools, there's much less perceived difference between Linux and *BSD than Solaris and HP/UX (or AIX!)

    But in the same way that many French Canadians can't forgive the British Canadian majority for a defeat hundreds of years ago (going as far as putting "I Remember!" on their the car license plates) we have a few tormented souls who want to make sure that we never, ever, forget the fact that the Linux source tree can't list three pages of "begats" that lead back to King Davi... sorry, back to the original AT&T source.

    Is there a real difference? Yes, but the number of people who actually have to worry about them will probably fit into a small room. For the rest of us, the only real difference is a group that's coming across as increasingly bitter that they have finally achieved the Holy Grail of "Unix" Integration only as they band together to fight the Linux intruder... and they *really* hate to be told that this constant "Linux isn't Unix, nah nah nah" harping is exactly the childish mindset that lead to Unix fragmentation in the first place. This is how they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory a decade ago, and many of us really don't want to see a repeat of it.

    I know one of the defining characteristics of geeks is great precision in speech, but it's time for everyone to remember the big picture. We're in the game show of life and one side has the MS family (daddy W2K, Mom Win98, insane child WinCE) and the other side has the Unix family (daddy AT&T, brother *BSD and adopted brother Linux), and it only helps MS when the Unix family's first response to a question is to whip out a gun and commit fraticide.

    --
    For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
  225. Balanced and well written by jburroug · · Score: 5

    I'm amazed this has got to be the first "battle of the OS's" type article I've read in a long time that not only presents the strengths and weakness's of the various OS's in a balanced and honest fashion but also presents a conclusion at the end of the article that makes logical sense based on the reviews given during the body of the article. I've gotten used to stories (usually involving NT or w2k) that slam a certain OS for performance, stability, and price at every turn but in the end give it their "Editors Choice" because it has prettier widgets than it's competitors. What I really liked best about this story is that not only did the conclusion mesh with the rest of the story but that the author didn't name one OS King of All Unix (on Intel) but gave a nice little chart with very logical recomendations. A nice use the right tool for the right job approach. To add yet another random and disconnected thought to this little ramble of a post, I noticed that the author seemed to put a very high weight on stability, on par with any *nix user I've met, which is nice because I personally value stability above all else for both my workstations and my servers. Ok I'm done with my little pre-coffee post ;->

    --
    "Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
  226. Which Flame War do you want to get today? by Noryungi · · Score: 5
    Flame Wars: how to get the most out of your web site?

    After testing extensively the different brands of flamewars available on the market, our SmashDot(tm) test center has decided to extensively analyze the performance of the following flame wars on geeks, nerds and system administrators. The results are as follow:

    • Which Linux Distro? Flame rating: 82%. An instant classic, the "Which linux distro should I choose?" flamewar quickly degenerates into name-calling Nathalie Portman p0rn and hot grits. "First Post!" content is also well represented. An amusing twist on this flame war formula is to try the "Linux vs BSD" or flame war, which guarantees very bright and entertaining flames (usually due to the presence of daemons-advocates in the Slashdot community).
    • W2K vs Linux? Flame rating: 90% A strong contender to the flame war crown, W2K vs Linux usually has very very high user response, especially from "Anonymous Cowards" posting from microsoft.com domain (9:00am to 05:30pm PST only). Wild numbers such as "99.9% reliability" and "60,000+ bugs" provide much combustible material to this flame war.
    • Ban Jon Katz from Slashdot forever! Flame rating: 99.9999% How much is Jon Katz loved? Just make sure to post and let us know! Ground temperature in the geek compound has been known to reach several millions of degrees, effectively drowning out all pretense of rational discourse.


    Of course, your mileage may vary. Honorable mentions include newbie questions, news for nerds that were posted before, the classic "Emacs vs vi" flame burst (unfortunately losing steam these days) and the "This does not belong on Slashdot!" flame war, which may well be a strong contender as long as

    Since we certainly want the best, hottest and brightest flame wars for our own site, we'll stick with the tried-and-proven favourite: the Jon Katz flame war.

    Jon Katz -- a good roasting guaranteed every time! Get yours today!

    Another public-service testing from the SmashDot(tm) team!
    --
    The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
  227. FreeBSD by mr · · Score: 5

    The question: What OS do you run.... FreeBSD of course.

    FreeBSD is a OpenSource OS with a licence that promotes the software to be used ANYWHERE, is stable and robust, and has a strong UNIX(tm) tradition.

    Oh, and it can run Linux binaries, SCO binaries, Xenix binaries, and I've gotten mine to run Solaris X86 and Rhapsody DR1 binaries, with some tweaking.

    (And on a more humorous note: Linux script kiddies come knocking but don't get in. It takes a BSD script kiddie to get in :-)

    --
    If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!