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Deciding Between SCO and Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the SCO'd-out-yet dept.

wolfbane01 asks: "I spend some time giving tech suggestions to a medium sized business firm (~100 employees) with a large amount of demand placed on their file server. Their current server is a dual Pentium 500 with RAID array and they are looking to upgrade it. The dilemma is the current server OS is running SCO OpenServer 5.0.5, and their new raid array requires 5.0.7. Their programmers have demonstrated that a Linux box can process records much faster, but are still worried about the investment and potential problems that switching OSes would entail. I have already mentioned the cheaper price and the community availability when problems come up, but what other reasons have Slashdot readers come up with for a switch? What arguments am I forgetting that make Linux more attractive then SCO? Should I advise against switching to Linux and advocate them sticking to SCO? Is SCO going to even be in business long enough to make the upgrades product cycle?"

2 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Don't switch yet by reynaert · · Score: 3, Informative
    If the programmers still have doubts, don't switch. It sounds like they just did a couple benchmarks, and didn't port the complete system yet. Until they demonstrate everything works on Linux, you should stick to SCO. Your first priority should be with the firm, not with your /. karma. So just do that little update to 5.0.7.

    (Unless that little update breaks your system. In that case you've got nothing to lose with switching :)

  2. Leaving sco behind will let you focus. by sshack · · Score: 5, Informative

    Leaving sco behind will let you focus on your core business.
    I was involved in a business that migrated from SGI and SCO boxes to Linux, we saw a dramatic drop in IT costs and at the same time increased flexability. Not to mention we didn't have to pay $150 for a tcpip stack (this was back in '97-99 might have changed).

    Not to mention, that you have a lot more commercial
    applications available on Linux. Really, sco is a mess technically
    they're behind the times, expensive and just plain crufty. Your programmers will learn to love linux in short order. Further, the C*O's will love linux too. With SCO they're probably used to hearing "Can't be done" or "we'll have to buy a license", it's a nice change to hear "sure, i'll do that this afternoon" or "we can already do that".