Deciding Between SCO and Linux?

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?"

Comments

Well...

[His name cannot be s]

Short answer: Buy Linux.

Long Answer: With the uncertain status of $CO , you really have to ask yourself: What happens if IBM wins? Or drags the case out for 10 years? IBM is the Master Litigator(tm). Throughout their existence they have used the courts to smash other companies into bits, or drag things out long enough to bankrupt the other guy. The only company that was worse than IBM for this was NCR (circa late 1800's to early 1900's --- several of their board got convicted for crap like that.)...

But I digress... IBM will keep the fires going for a really long time, and SCO can't last forever. By going the SCO route, you are essentially betting the farm that SCO wins, which seems a bit strange. If you go with Linux, you can be fairly confident that linux will be around for a hell of a lot longer, as SCO *may* have a case against contract breach by IBM, but they have't a leg to stand on against anyone else.

Given, that after the lawsuit is over, the entire community will shun them, they will have nowhere left to turn for customers, and let's face it: SCO never had many anyway. Aside from making a shitty product (And I've been exposed to SCO for over a decade now) they won't be spending any of their new found wealth on development, that money would be earmarked for the investors.

Linux is here to stay. No force in the planet will change that. Even if all the top Linux Kernel hackers died, Linux is going to persevere forever.

Here are some good reasons...

[MBCook]

OK, how 'bout these #25 reasons?

1. No future price hikes because Linux is free. Price for each version won't change.
2. No planned obscelescence, you're in control. Run kernel 2.2 and use KDE 2.2 untill the end of time if you want.
3. No forced bundles. What happens if SCO decides you can only buy their OS if you also but program X and a 1000 seat license for it (at $500 a pop)?
4. Speaking of which, no per seat licenses. If SCO doesn't charge them now, how do you know they won't in the future?
5. Upgrades are free. Security patches are free. It's ALL free.
6. It's TRUELY open. You have a problem? Your techs can look at the code to see what's going on. You don't need to call in an expert from SCO.
7. Need a feature? Add it! You can add it directly to the software, you don't need to do it as some hack script that you run things though.
8. Not tied to a company. What happens if/when SCO goes out of business? You have to find a new company for support (costs more $$$), you'll have to switch to a different OS (costs more $$$).
9. Linux has Tux, the cute/cool little mascot. What does SCO have?
10. You get companies like IBM working to improve things like the core system (the kernel) and other programs (samba), and you get those improvements for FREE. That's NO $$$.
11. Not tied to any specific architecture. What happens if SCO say "From now on if you want to run our OS, you must run it on our new SCOlding 7 processor." So you switch platforms (massive $$$), or you switch OS ($$$). You can buy x86s, IA-64s, x86-64s, PPCs, m68ks, Sparcs, ANYTHING.
12. SCO's situation. Right now they are FUDing all over the place. If they lose the lawsuit, they could be out of business. Even if they survive, do you want to pay their legal bills? Why is it that since their stock price has gone up after this FUD thing, their seinor execs have been selling sizeable chunks of their stock offerings. Does that give YOU confidence in them?
13. If they are affraid of the who SCO vs Linux thing, why not go with FreeBSD or OpenBSD?
14. How long is the SCO EULA? Have your lawyers read everything in there? With Linux, all you have to fear is the GPL, and that's nothing to fear as it's harmless.
15. SCO's OS is only now getting support for the Pentium 4 and such. Linux has supported the x86-64 line since before it was released. I think it was the same with IA64, and PPC-64, and others.
16. How long will it take for SCO to add PCI-X and PCI Express when you get new servers that include them? Linux will have them soon, and you won't have to pay for it.
17. Scalability. Linux can install and run on 386s with 8mb of ram and 100mb of hard drive. SCO want's a Pentium with 64mb and 400mb of hard drive.
18. SCO's OS can only support 537gb per volume (so you couldn't have a 2tb raid). Linux supports terabyte sized disks, doesn't it?
19. Linux supports just about any piece of hardware you're likely to be using. Are you using Adaptec RAID cards or chips? Adaptec maintains highly optomised drivers that they put in the kernel so you can get maximum performance out of your hardware. Do they do that with SCO?
20. You said that Linux can to more transactions faster on your current systems than SCO. That means running Linux you can go longer between hardware upgrades. And when you upgrade that hardware, you can go longer before you need to upgrade again, and so on. Saves you $$$.
21. You can train your interns in Linux, and since Linux is an "In Thing," you might get more qualified interns (or at least more eagre ones) applying which means that you get better people working for "expirance" (read: near free) than you might have now!
22. Linux is being improved not only by hardware people like IBM, but all the numerous distos are trying to make things better. They also mean more choice so you can find something that fits you better that the somthing like SCO's product, where only one company is offering it. Even if you don't use RedHat, you still have

Re:trick question

[BrookHarty]

You are do have a point (sorta), if linux or freebsd support it perfectly, then why wouldnt you change and save money.

If the support for the raid system is still in beta, the drivers are untested, go with SCO. *GASP* But I suspect the RAID hardware whould have good BSD/Linux support, seems most people support Linux now a days.

Correct me if I'm wrong..

[PFAK]

But isn't OpenServ just a "SCO" version of Linux? Packaged as something that Linux isnt.

As in, Linux kernel and GNU userland..

Re:This is Everyday Stuff

[Chester K]

Answer: no. You shouldn't be using a required hardware upgrade to drive a major software change. That's a bad practise to get into. You should be approving the minor software upgrade to SCO 5.0.7.

Exactly. I'm glad to see a reasoned answer to this here, and rated 5. Upgrading Openserver 5.0.5 to 5.0.7 presented absolutely no technical challenges or incompatibilites with our software when we did it in my company.

Just Do It.

[torpor]

Take them a Linux box with things set up, ready to roll, go over on a Sunday afternoon with a case of beer, if you have to not interrupt workflow, and do a demo switch with a Linux box inline with their old SCO machine.

For bonus points, I'd convince them to let me take their SCO disks offline, and do an install of Linux on a fresh disk on their *same old hardware*. If you can't get them to let you do that for some reason, then this is all the more reason to keep trying.

Put the old SCO disks aside, bring a fresh Linux one online, same hardware, configure it for their network and RAID.

Incidentally, I'd be surprised if you couldn't get that RAID working pretty much right away with Linux

One last thing: I'd suggest you use Gentoo in front of their engineers, over that case of beer.