Since AOL want to call it 'AOL search', aolsearch.com actually makes a lot of sense. Of course, that doesn't mean they should be allowed to steal someone else's domain name.
As for IPv6, that's a completely different issue from domain name registrations; there will still only be one 'aolsearch.com' after IPv6 becomes the standard and IPv4 has died. However, the new TLD's might help a bit. We can but hope. --
Actually, the drive _have_ to be identical for mirroring or RAID-5. Only striping allows disparate disk sizes. To elaborate for RAID beginners:
RAID-5 uses a number of disks (minimum three) to store data. The bits are spread across the disks, with one last disk acting as a 'parity' disk (in real situations, parity information is spread across the disks). When data is written to the disk, the parity bit is calculated and written to the final disk. When data is read (in normal circumstances), the parity information is ignored and the normal data read off.
When the parity disk fails, nothing special happens except that the parity information is not stored. When another disk fails, performance dies, as reads have to be 'reverse-engineered' from the parity information. Once the disk is replaced, the information is rebuilt from the parity data.
Mirroring is simply writing the data to two places and reading from a random disk; if one disk dies, data is simply read from the second disk. Since there is no calculation involved (the data is simply written to two places), reads and writes are much faster. However, this is more expensive in terms of hardware required.
Of course someone is going to suggest "put 3 2gig partitions on the 6 gig and 11 on the 22 gig and now you have 28 gigs!
As you've pointed out, this is a bad idea! The reason for using RAID-5 is reliability, and dumping 11 partitions of your RAID volume on one disk is asking for trouble! You will gain a little reliability if your disks tend to get bad sectors, but that's about it. Since RAID-5 will slow down your disk writes (and, to a lesser extent, reads) you only ever use it for reliability in the face of disk failures.
In addition, that 22GB disk is going to slow down the rest of the system; writes and reads will require data from the entire length of the disk, which is not good.
On a home system, it's not really worth the headaches and performance hit for it. Just take regular backups and you'll be ok. If you really want extra reliability, use mirroring; it's a lot faster. --
It isn't legally permissible for them to take your code, incorporate it into another product and sell that product.
I may have this wrong, but I thought you could modify GPL'd software as much as you want and then sell it, but you had to make your changes available. While this prevents it becoming proprietary, you can still sell it on. --
I doubt they would 'bundle' it; more likely, they'll add their modifications to the kernel and ship that. This is probably why they want to use linux; since a lot of what they are doing is running at a very low level (raw packet level), they want something they can control at that level. Although you can do this in Solaris/AIX/NT, if you have kernel sources, it becomes easier.
Of course, at this point, you can almost run this like Cisco's IOS, shipping a firewall OS.
It's a bold step, but I can't see it happening anytime soon; Tivoli might start shipping linux stuff by the year end, but I doubt they'll drop other OS support for at least two years, possibly more. --
Plus the stereotype of geeks drooling over porn sites while sitting in their rooms, hence they are actually targetting potential customers (the validity of this assumption is, of course, open to debate). Dunno where they got the addresses from, though; I haven't been mailed and my email address is non-munged. --
After I wrote this yesterday, I received a reply from him. Here it is, for what it's worth:
Some point regading the printing:
The editors removed the key point regarding available applications. The line "With Linux, these services will soon be available as a multivendor product" should have read, "Commercial versions of currently used IT products will soon..." Announcements from Oracle, IBM, Progress Software, BEA, are what should have been referenced here, but due to size they decided to take a dangerous shortcut.
The SMP point has been argued both ways. Yes, there are versions of Linux that work on SMP, but not all Linux distributions until recently.
Thank you for your points. Hey, all writers are entitled to one "off" article.:-)
Someone mentioned posting a mail to the guy, so I did. Here it is for anyone interested in the points he raised (post HTML-fied for/.):
From: jr@scms.rgu.ac.uk To: jp@ncfocus.com Subject: Re: Look before you leap into Linux adoption
Well, I've just read your article, and would like to raise a few points:
First of all:
Linux is an open-source project; therefore, all changes to the kernel are subject to review and approval by a small team that controls this portion of the operating system. Companies that add features they need, but that are not accepted into the core distribution, may find themselves in a redevelopment and retesting cycle every time a new version of Linux is released.
Huh? This makes little sense. Under linux, it is actually _possible_ to modify almost anything in the OS without paying extortionate licencing fees and signing NDA's. The fact that anyone can modify the kernel source code this easily is to seen as a strength, not a weakness. That not all modifications make it to the 'standard' distribution is also good, for without quality control, the kernel will rapidly become more bloated and less stable. Rather like NT, in fact.
Next:
Microsoft provides a better value proposition. Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition ships with a full complement of Internet services, including Web, proxy, index, messaging, database, transaction and firewall services.
Almost none of the products come with a standard NT server or workstation licence package. If you pay in the region of $10,000 you might have a server licence for each + 5 client licences. Let's check linux:
Web: apache web server. Unlimited client accesses. Admittedly, this is also available for win32, but is not yet as stable or efficient as the NT version. Cost: free.
proxy: Squid or apache. Again, cost is free.
index: Not sure what you mean here; LDAP is certainly available for free under linux.
messaging: Email? Linux is well served by sendmail, qmail and several other MTA's, all of which are free.
database: Postgres and MySQL are both free for 99% of uses, and Oracle is also now available.
Transaction: Again, I don't know what you mean here.
Firewall: built in to the kernel, so it comes with all releases. There are also distributions of linux which are designed to be used as routers/firewalls.
In short, linux has all of those things you mentioned. For free.
Re: integration of these packages:
The most critical of these integrations will be security and access control.
I've never had any problems with access controls being specified for multiple packages under linux/unix (both use the same security model). NT has several stupid access requirements for several packages, although this can in general be attributed to idiotic programmers (one package actually stores temporary data in win.ini!).
SMP:
Linux is just beginning to be retrofitted for symmetric multiprocessing
Excuse me? Linux has had SMP support for several years. Admittedly, the support under the 2.0.x kernels was not one of the best, but this has improved dramatically with the recent 2.2.x kernels. I'm not sure of the extent of the MP capabilities, but certainly 4-way is possible on intel, and further capabilities may be possible with alpha/sparc architectures. Since NT is only up to 8-way on proprietary HAL's on Alpha's, it's not that far behind.
Also, remember that Linux is still Unix.
No it isn't. Linux is a unix-like OS (pedantic, I know..). In any case, I don't view this is a penalty as I find unix a far better OS for my needs. I have to struggle with NT whenever it is inflicted on me, but unix/linux is far more easily configured and tweaked.
Skills:
Simply because a low-cost version of Unix is now available, it does not automatically generate more people capable of managing and configuring these systems.
It is far easier for a cash-strapped student to get linux and install it than to get Windows NT and install it with a range of add-ons (email, usenet, www etc). This will result in more students having linux/unix skills on leaving university than there will be with NT server skills simply due to opportunity. Give it 3 years, and see which skills are most common. --
Hrm, would that mean a dog lover wouldn't be able to register shitsu.org? (Note: It seems this isn't registered yet, so any shitsu owners can feel free to register it. I know I don't want it) --
Seems they're having server problems; most CGI's give internal server errors. *sigh* Can't even find out the prices! (although I saw $35/yr mentioned in another article; it's less than both the old service and a lot less than the.uk service) --
the cheapest phone calls you are likely to find will be 1 pence per minute
Not so; find the right provider, put that on friends & family (20% discount) and get premier line (another 10-20%, IIRC). The cost comes right down to about 0.6 - 0.7 p/m. Still adds up, of course. I remember in my MUDding days running up a 200 pound phone bill (about $300-350). --
They apply only to BT. You have a point about other companies, though; they could increase market share by doing this but in all likelihood, they would charge extra line rental to cover the extra costs since most (all?) customers taking this offer up would be the heavy users (eg, Geeks with modems or tele-workers).
Like I said, you have to pay the companies somehow; might as well be through per-minute tariffs. Myself, I want to get DSL or a cable modem when I buy a flat:) --
You should be administering our lovely RGU network, not perusing the wonderful/. !!
Well, this lets me keep up to date with a fair few things I wouldn't otherwise be hearing much about.
In any case, the TNT2 sounds real good; there's one in a local shop (Electronic Boutique, FWIW) for 100 quid, although I could probably get it cheaper mail order. I'm sorely tempted just to get one for my current PC... So many toys, so little money! --
British Telecom is kind of tied up in this regard due to the laws which were made when it was privatised in the 80's. Cross-subsidisation is not allowed within BT; this means that it no part of the company should be used to 'prop up' other parts; each part has to pay its way. If unmetered calls were used, this would have to either be cross-subsidised (against the laws) or have a much higher line rental which would probably be at least as expensive as line rental + calls.
You get nothing for nothing; even if you get free calls, you'll still be paying more for line rental. --
I'm with Demon because they're fairly reliable and have a good news feed. It looks like they're doing this as a bit of legal ass-covering; making sure they can't be sued heavily later.
I don't particularly like the way this might head, though... --
FWIW, XFree has proven to be better than Sun's X-server under Solaris 7 x86 on our Ati RAGE IIC cards. Using the Sun version, it was sloooow and tended to leave pixels on the screen when scrolling text (the leftmost two pixels of 'm' characters would stay, for example). Switching to XFree has been relatively painless, except that CDE doesn't pick up the fonts for some locales (eg, en_GB.ISO8859-15). Performance has been rock solid.
The only missing feature has been Display postscript; I didn't see it mentioned in the list of features, but I believe that work is being carried out on this. --
Well, this certainly gives me more of a reason to buy an nVidia card when I upgrade my PC (probably near the end of the year). I wanted a good 3D accelerator after having seen a P166 + 3D card produce graphics far better than my 233 could have. However, I was always going to make sure that the linux support was there (and possibly Solaris). I'll probably now get an nVidia card when the time comes, unless some better 3D support is supplied. --
Re:Aha, the real man syndrome strikes again
on
Unix in a Nutshell
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· Score: 1
Hrm, maybe I should. The point still stands that different unices use different commands; some of the gnome installation scripts fail on Solaris unless GNU grep is installed; the book possibly wouldn't cover such a variation. --
Anyone know if this is available in the UK or not? It sounds sweet, if a little expensive. --
Re:Aha, the real man syndrome strikes again
on
Unix in a Nutshell
·
· Score: 1
Different unices have different versions of commands in them; under Solaris I use ps -Af to list processes; the nearest equivalent under linux is something like ps aux. man pages pertain directly to the OS you're reading them on. Books have to be generalised.
And, as for learning C programming, once you know the basics, you can go far reading the man pages/RFC's. I'm currently working on a password changing daemon (called from inetd) and I'm learning most of it as I go along through the man pages and a little help from DejaNews. --
This is a good point; at least in the UK, we have the Sale of Goods Act 1979. This specifies that all good must be:
fit for it's given purpose. This is not trivial; you would have to say what you want to use it for and have the seller affirm that it is suitable. If you buy a package you want to run under NT and it only runs under 95, you only have recourse to the seller if you stated your needs at the time of purchase. If you walked in and bought the package without saying anything, there is no legal requirement for the store to accept the return of the item.
of merchantable quality
The latter point is most pertinant in this case. If the software is not "of merchantable quality", you have a right to some recourse from the seller (ie, the shop you bought it from). They in turn can go to the publisher and sue them for supplying them with shoddy goods (this has a slightly different legal standing, but that's another point). In any case, the consumer is protected. However, proving or disproving "merchantable quality" is not the easiest of tasks.
I'm assuming most countries have similar legislation in place. --
The case has to have the screw holes the correct distance from each other. "ATX case" is a bit of a misnomer in this regard; "case for ATX motherboards" would be more accurate, but also more unwieldy. All you have to worry about is "will this motherboard fit in this case properly?" when buying stuff. --
I stand corrected. However, Solaris 6 had 64 bit file support, and that runs on non-Ultra hardware. There are limitations involved in architecture, but Sun managed to work round them... --
Slashdot Mirror
As for IPv6, that's a completely different issue from domain name registrations; there will still only be one 'aolsearch.com' after IPv6 becomes the standard and IPv4 has died. However, the new TLD's might help a bit. We can but hope.
--
RAID-5 uses a number of disks (minimum three) to store data. The bits are spread across the disks, with one last disk acting as a 'parity' disk (in real situations, parity information is spread across the disks). When data is written to the disk, the parity bit is calculated and written to the final disk. When data is read (in normal circumstances), the parity information is ignored and the normal data read off.
When the parity disk fails, nothing special happens except that the parity information is not stored. When another disk fails, performance dies, as reads have to be 'reverse-engineered' from the parity information. Once the disk is replaced, the information is rebuilt from the parity data.
Mirroring is simply writing the data to two places and reading from a random disk; if one disk dies, data is simply read from the second disk. Since there is no calculation involved (the data is simply written to two places), reads and writes are much faster. However, this is more expensive in terms of hardware required.
As you've pointed out, this is a bad idea! The reason for using RAID-5 is reliability, and dumping 11 partitions of your RAID volume on one disk is asking for trouble! You will gain a little reliability if your disks tend to get bad sectors, but that's about it. Since RAID-5 will slow down your disk writes (and, to a lesser extent, reads) you only ever use it for reliability in the face of disk failures.In addition, that 22GB disk is going to slow down the rest of the system; writes and reads will require data from the entire length of the disk, which is not good.
On a home system, it's not really worth the headaches and performance hit for it. Just take regular backups and you'll be ok. If you really want extra reliability, use mirroring; it's a lot faster.
--
--
Of course, at this point, you can almost run this like Cisco's IOS, shipping a firewall OS.
It's a bold step, but I can't see it happening anytime soon; Tivoli might start shipping linux stuff by the year end, but I doubt they'll drop other OS support for at least two years, possibly more.
--
My favourite comments was:
Hrm, I have 8GB at the moment (on two drives); I could still use more!--
Plus the stereotype of geeks drooling over porn sites while sitting in their rooms, hence they are actually targetting potential customers (the validity of this assumption is, of course, open to debate). Dunno where they got the addresses from, though; I haven't been mailed and my email address is non-munged.
--
--
--
From: jr@scms.rgu.ac.uk
To: jp@ncfocus.com
Subject: Re: Look before you leap into Linux adoption
Well, I've just read your article, and would like to raise a few points:
First of all:
Huh? This makes little sense. Under linux, it is actually _possible_ to modify almost anything in the OS without paying extortionate licencing fees and signing NDA's. The fact that anyone can modify the kernel source code this easily is to seen as a strength, not a weakness. That not all modifications make it to the 'standard' distribution is also good, for without quality control, the kernel will rapidly become more bloated and less stable. Rather like NT, in fact.Next:
Almost none of the products come with a standard NT server or workstation licence package. If you pay in the region of $10,000 you might have a server licence for each + 5 client licences. Let's check linux:- Web: apache web server. Unlimited client accesses. Admittedly, this is also available for win32, but is not yet as stable or efficient as the NT version. Cost: free.
- proxy: Squid or apache. Again, cost is free.
- index: Not sure what you mean here; LDAP is certainly available for free under linux.
- messaging: Email? Linux is well served by sendmail, qmail and several other MTA's, all of which are free.
- database: Postgres and MySQL are both free for 99% of uses, and Oracle is also now available.
- Transaction: Again, I don't know what you mean here.
- Firewall: built in to the kernel, so it comes with all releases. There are also distributions of linux which are designed to be used as routers/firewalls.
In short, linux has all of those things you mentioned. For free.Re: integration of these packages:
I've never had any problems with access controls being specified for multiple packages under linux/unix (both use the same security model). NT has several stupid access requirements for several packages, although this can in general be attributed to idiotic programmers (one package actually stores temporary data in win.ini!).SMP:
Excuse me? Linux has had SMP support for several years. Admittedly, the support under the 2.0.x kernels was not one of the best, but this has improved dramatically with the recent 2.2.x kernels. I'm not sure of the extent of the MP capabilities, but certainly 4-way is possible on intel, and further capabilities may be possible with alpha/sparc architectures. Since NT is only up to 8-way on proprietary HAL's on Alpha's, it's not that far behind. No it isn't. Linux is a unix-like OS (pedantic, I know..). In any case, I don't view this is a penalty as I find unix a far better OS for my needs. I have to struggle with NT whenever it is inflicted on me, but unix/linux is far more easily configured and tweaked.Skills:
It is far easier for a cash-strapped student to get linux and install it than to get Windows NT and install it with a range of add-ons (email, usenet, www etc). This will result in more students having linux/unix skills on leaving university than there will be with NT server skills simply due to opportunity. Give it 3 years, and see which skills are most common.--
Hrm, would that mean a dog lover wouldn't be able to register shitsu.org? (Note: It seems this isn't registered yet, so any shitsu owners can feel free to register it. I know I don't want it)
--
Seems they're having server problems; most CGI's give internal server errors. *sigh* Can't even find out the prices! (although I saw $35/yr mentioned in another article; it's less than both the old service and a lot less than the .uk service)
--
--
Like I said, you have to pay the companies somehow; might as well be through per-minute tariffs. Myself, I want to get DSL or a cable modem when I buy a flat :)
--
In any case, the TNT2 sounds real good; there's one in a local shop (Electronic Boutique, FWIW) for 100 quid, although I could probably get it cheaper mail order. I'm sorely tempted just to get one for my current PC... So many toys, so little money!
--
You get nothing for nothing; even if you get free calls, you'll still be paying more for line rental.
--
I don't particularly like the way this might head, though...
--
The only missing feature has been Display postscript; I didn't see it mentioned in the list of features, but I believe that work is being carried out on this.
--
Well, this certainly gives me more of a reason to buy an nVidia card when I upgrade my PC (probably near the end of the year). I wanted a good 3D accelerator after having seen a P166 + 3D card produce graphics far better than my 233 could have. However, I was always going to make sure that the linux support was there (and possibly Solaris). I'll probably now get an nVidia card when the time comes, unless some better 3D support is supplied.
--
Hrm, maybe I should. The point still stands that different unices use different commands; some of the gnome installation scripts fail on Solaris unless GNU grep is installed; the book possibly wouldn't cover such a variation.
--
Anyone know if this is available in the UK or not? It sounds sweet, if a little expensive.
--
And, as for learning C programming, once you know the basics, you can go far reading the man pages/RFC's. I'm currently working on a password changing daemon (called from inetd) and I'm learning most of it as I go along through the man pages and a little help from DejaNews.
--
Nice one! :)
--
- fit for it's given purpose. This is not trivial; you would have to say what you want to use it for and have the seller affirm that it is suitable. If you buy a package you want to run under NT and it only runs under 95, you only have recourse to the seller if you stated your needs at the time of purchase. If you walked in and bought the package without saying anything, there is no legal requirement for the store to accept the return of the item.
- of merchantable quality
The latter point is most pertinant in this case. If the software is not "of merchantable quality", you have a right to some recourse from the seller (ie, the shop you bought it from). They in turn can go to the publisher and sue them for supplying them with shoddy goods (this has a slightly different legal standing, but that's another point). In any case, the consumer is protected. However, proving or disproving "merchantable quality" is not the easiest of tasks.I'm assuming most countries have similar legislation in place.
--
The case has to have the screw holes the correct distance from each other. "ATX case" is a bit of a misnomer in this regard; "case for ATX motherboards" would be more accurate, but also more unwieldy. All you have to worry about is "will this motherboard fit in this case properly?" when buying stuff.
--
I stand corrected. However, Solaris 6 had 64 bit file support, and that runs on non-Ultra hardware. There are limitations involved in architecture, but Sun managed to work round them...
--