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Linux-Mandrake Available For UltraSPARC
Gael Duval, one of the Mandrake developers, dropped me a line to say that "Linux-Mandrake 7.0 for UltraSPARC is finally available. Although
it's a complete port (graphical installation included) of
Linux-Mandrake 7.0/final, it could still have some bugs, so please
consider the current UltraSPARC version as beta-software. You can download the ISO image from our Web site."
Solaris is very finegrained for good SMP performance, but Linux wipes the floor with it when running on one or 2 CPU's.. anymore then that, and Slowlaris makes more sense...
;-)
(as long as you don't do someting dumb like run Gnome on it... Ok, I use Gnome sometimes, but it is a quite resource hungry setup. If you want more speed, use afterstep or just about anything else
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
The above note is definitely a fake.
I actually worked for Mandrake until some time last summer. There have been a couple of problems, but no plans whatsoever to go proprietary back then, and I'm absolutely certain this did not change (I may work for the competition now, but I still know the people around at Mandrake).
Anonymous coward: Do you work for Microsoft, by any chance?
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Running Linux on Sparc hardware makes sense, UltraSparc hardware, less so. As I understand it, Linux runs faster then Solaris, although it lacks the robustness and scalability to multiple processors. As a result, older Sun machines that would be decommissioned can find a little more life left with Linux.
My question is this, would anyone buy Sun Hardware to run Linux? Sun machines are generally more reliable and robust, better tested, and better supported. However, what would be the point of running Linux on one.
With Solaris, you have many Enterprise level tools that just aren't available for Linux. Additionally, any software with source can be compiled on either system, most Solaris admins that I know start by downloading and installing the GNU tools. With Linux, you have that same software.
Shrink wrapped software for Linux is all i386 only, so Sun users won't benefit from these improvements. Overall, I'm wondering what the point is of UltraSparc/Linux.
If the purpose is merely: because we can, that makes sense, it is neat. If it has a real purpose in a real computing environment, I'm curious as to what it is.
It seems to be, that as of now, corporations that are using Linux are mostly using them in low end servers because it is cheap. They put it on several hundred dollar vanilla servers. Sun Hardware is found in corporations that spend the IT dollars on quality. While I'm not suggesting the Linux is rubish, what makes Linux a better selection than Solaris other than it being free? While freedom is very important for people, for a company, it seems less so.
I'm curious, what is the business case for using Sun/Linux as opposed to Intel/Linux, AMD/Linux, or Sun/Solaris, all of which seem more logical choices to myself.
Alex