Of this architecture. First of all, the chip has 3 cores, and each core can handle 2 instructions, and each instruction can get to 5 processing branches.
Also it can handle 2 threads for its vmx engine and fpu engine, this is a LOT of data crunching power...
They have setup special instruction for matrix operations...
I wonder, what would be the processing power of this chip, used for sciences data crunching?
This chip is awsome...
What could be hope for the 7 core chip for ps3, but, I think the 7core ps3 chips is rather different. At xbox 360 you have 3 general purpose power cores, and at the 7 core ps3 architecure, each core is for different tasks? Rigth? Worng?
Last week, I was invovled in the data migration of and old, 5 year running dbase program to a brand new LAPM program.
The data, needed to be transformed, 3 days of tools development for the migration, and we were all set.
The procedure, we took, was: Transform document to csv, take the csv with php, create database, add pre-studied indexes, and run migration tool...
So far, so good.
Windoze machines, with Office 2000, Linux server 3.0 gighz with 1 gig ram, and 2 laptops, 1 G3 power book with OpenOffice 1.x and the other a dell with suse 9.0 and OpenOffice 2.0 beta.
We were using, a data sample, not larger than 45k rows x 1500 rows...
Ok.. on you marks, set.. GO!.
And widnows 2000 + office 2000, excel was able to open de dbf file, which was chopped to smaller databases, but were unable to handle the single 90megs csv files over a PIV 1gig ram... I tried with my openoffice at my G3 with yellowdog and the 64k limit row was suprassed with the csv file, we tried the openoffice 2.0 over the dell laptop with 640mb of ram.. and THERE WAS IT! the WHOLE file LOADED and ready to be manipulated by the preprocesing team!!!!
We tried to download openoffice for windows to the widowze machine, and for strage reasons, no luck, we were unable to install it, so we switched to underpowered user window station with 256 megs of ram, it accepted the openoffice, and we were able to do our migration task...
I was working only at my ibook, and my partner was only using phpmyadmin, and quanta. The process was going to slow becose Openoffice and the 256 megs machine, so we let our SuSe laptop to the other team,and instead mounting the data with samba, we used fish, becose the fileserver was already a linux server, my partner took my ibook, and I took the server console...
And the work was done...
And linux AND, mostly OpenOffice saved the day...
I use openoffice as a daily basis at my G3, I don't need any other feature coming with the 2.0 version...
My father uses also OpenOffice, he is a doctor. OpenOffice, lacks a lot, but its MUCH MORE stable than Office.
Deskop app more richer than web app? How?
on
The Future of HTML
·
· Score: 1
Current, html+css+javascript+ajax are good enough.
Theyre not a lot of "diferent languages, they are just different specifications for the same thing.
About, interactivity, there is javascript for client side parsing, presentation using html + css isnt so hard to make, also, How may applications are "nicer" or "friendlier" than a web page?
Yeah, sure "Ok" and "Cancel" are self explanatory, pull down menus are SO easy to do, and adding timers or counters is SOOOooooo easy in any language... No, sir.
HTML has made the development of richer UI app easier, applications maintanance centraliced, so is cheaper.
How may "lines" do you need write or wizards to click to add a single image to a desktop application? What about an animation? those, common task are done with just a couple of lines at the web.
Trying to make web app look like desktop app, is WRONG... SAP interface, is one of the ugliest, difficult and cryptical interfaces I have ever seen. Pull down menus, inside pull down menus, inside lateral menus, as word/excel and so many other app, are less than intuitivie!!!
Stop trying to make web app look like desktop app, web experience, is much more richer than desktop app. We can help the user with flash, process data with php/perl/c/net/pick your language, client-side parse thing with javascript, create "real-time" feedback with ajax...
What is the issue? Desktop should be working to be AS easy as the web... not web trying to be as clumsy as desktop app...
We know that patenting something is 'generally speaking' a good idea.
Patentes, were made to create a protection for Innovations, but rigth now, to define what is an innovation and what is not, is hard, even for experts...
Maybe you shoudl be able to patent, the hole source code of a program, but not the idea that implements the code.
Almos any problem, can be solved in many ways. The particular way of solving particular problem, is what should be patented.
Not the general description of the problem, and this is what is seems happening at the Patents Office...
And since, there are many problems "patented" and may solutions addressing the problem, mostly at software designing, then, trying to enforce patents at Sotfware Industry create this patent agony we are living, were patents are used as weapons, not as shields...
What and How, shoudl be specifically patented, not the idea...
Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD = Sony vs Microsoft.
on
Bad Day To Be Sony
·
· Score: 1
Blu Ray DRM is based upon java. HD-DVD DRM is based upon iHD from MS.
HP is pressing Blu Ray to adopt iHD...
And now, Sony is having a big issue reinforcing they own content using they own DRM scheme...
And Microsoft could alledge better security with DRM as inherent part of the SO, obviously iHD and Windows Vista...
But seems Blu Ray has more advocates among the industry, and DRM is a concern...
Microsft now can use Sonys own mistake as a plus of their iHD OS built in DRM...
Sure Apple gets it revenew from hardware sales, software sales AND gadget sales...
Keeping Mac OSx86 out of mayority of x86, will cost money to Mac, shouldnt be more bussines to Apple if drops prices of MacOSx86 and let be on selected more machines?
I know the quality assuranse of Apple Software, driver componentes, is much more harder than MS, and since there is a LOT less hardware, there a lot less cheap hardware...
But, since Aplle likes so much licencing, they could license Ready for Apple logo to hardware vendors only support selected hardware, I belive this could get so much revenew to Apple...
AND also, Apples hardware is being selling more and more due the iPod, iTunes, iThing gadgets, and that people 'feel' they work better at MacOSX...
The market is waitting for a generic version of MacOSx, why not give it to them?
Maybe that MS money at Apples is restrining to do that?
It seems that lots of money, since Venture Capital is high risk capital, but at the same time, high return of invesmet, if the bussines model takes off..
So far, as a stakeholder, shouldnt Ive concerned about having the same VC at 2 competing brands: Take Yahoo and Google.
With money being a very powerfull weapon for corporative control, should Sequoia cannot be using inside information and just plain playing with the market?
Is this ethical? Doesnt this presents a confict of interests?
How does a VC works, so this doenst happens? Arent VC regulated?
THe IBM site es HUGE... really, really huge, and trying to find something specific is very hard, usng the search tool provided by IBM.
For example, trying to get to the Java JRE 1.4 for PPC 32 bits, to use at my IBOOK, is much more easier with google than ibm own serch engine.
Also, my last painfully search at IBM, looking for development information for their JPOS implementation, was almost impossible with IBM serch engine, but using google, wasnt so much..
Really IBM should hire or use the google services...Maybe this is a beggining... And IBM partering with Google, one more thing to worry about for Microsoft.
IBM lately, with porting a lot of apps to Linux, is showing a remarked "low profile" hostility to M$..
They are a lot of benefits if you switch from MS to Linux at IBM products...
The effor for migration macros, isnt derived from a bad "emulation" of the language, The OpenOffice macro language, is almos equal thant the language at Microsoft Macros, the difference is that, at OpenOffice, there are a lot of restricctions, strict typing for variables and method calling, so you are unable to create Macro Virii for OpenOffice.
About Project management. There are also more evolved tools, phpgroupware, dotproyect, but Yes, I must say that Project is a easy and quick to modify proyect managment tool, but when trying to keep sincronized amog a lot of users, then something web-enable is easier, with out the high costs Project + Office integration demands.
And about visio, stick figures are useful only to illiterated clients, that doesnt even have the hability to understad that a boxed item is a part of the process... If you are to draw process diagrams, you could use tools and standards made for that, for example use the UML bussines extensions, or the BMP XML notation.
Bussines Modeling Process (BMP) has a very good drawing tool: Jawe, and BMP looks further onto the integration of process development and IT.
OpenOffice has a very sweet gallery to be used with OpenDraw or OpenWriter, and for more complex graphics, you can use Dia, or the galleryes for OpenOffice.
So, thinking about visio and project as stoppers, means that you are getting anachronic to the market tendencies, and YES, this is fault of Microsoft, which pretends to keep every one aspect of the industry under they rate of development.
I didnt know I was using Linux. A friend of mine, setup a Linux box for me to setup a Mud. I didnt know C either, just a little of programmig. I was a seasoned coder for Casio advanced calculators.
I needed to do something about a malloc redefined, and something about crypt. I didnt understand, so, bliss the ignorance, comented the code and everything worked. I started coding at LPC for my mud version... and I wasnt aware that I was running Linux Slackware 1.0...
Later, when I needed to do mainanence routing for a rapidly user/coding grown game, I needed to learn bash... move file, approve accounts, that sort of thing...
LATER, when I was asked for my college, to REMOVE my game, which was having like 1/2 of my generation loosing class, thats when I learned what was under the hood of my mud...
Becose I needed to install it. Another machine was assigned to me, a PowerPc PowerStak II from motorola. Ever heard about it? Me neither, there was only 2 links about it on the internet... and redhat had a port. Tried to install a "new" distro, into a strage machine, and I hated redhat.
I wanted my Slackware!, so a user, admin of the network of another state college, offered me an IP, for my game... and learned to install Linux... Thas was about 1.5 years of using it...
Later, I needed to finish my studies, plugged off the mud, and with the experience, I started giving support for local ISP with apache, ipchains, and other stuff, and then... I took a market choise.
Windows was full of people giving support, developing. I was of the few, knowing, and using linux... And I have clients paying for my knowldege, and there was no competition...
So, I belive, I never "switchet", just evolved with Linux....
Also, and more importantly, those clients are used to pay. So, the SuSe offering of novell, with the tools used by novell admins, is cheaper, then they will maintain, and grouth their market share.
Also, Microsof pricing as a Network Operating System, is way more expensive than Novell offerings, and for example, a iDirectory with Identity Manager, are good solutions, and their OpenSource counterpart, needs a LOT of time to implement it correctly, lot of hack and slash, and Novell provides clients from windows/linux/mac...
So, big & medium size co, searching for a cheaper infrastructure, and wanting to still have somebody to sue, and have WorldWide support, then Novell SuSe is the way to go...
PHP as any other language, has its pros and cons.
Back in the old days, when I was starting to develop for Windows, the OWL borland library was a plus, but there is always the awful presentation layer.
Ergonomy of GUI is something unexplored now. The downbar left button has become an standar, but is it: Rigth?
Always the presentation layer is a pain. Then you have a system: Web applications, that you could leverage the GUI to graphical designers, wich dont have the twisted mind of a developer. Create visualy rich applications, easy add of eyecandy, easy to make it work coding, this was PHP bringed to the Web...
There was C based CGI, JSP pages, both of them, where from "those things are difficult" and posed a mental barrier to those "brilliant" designers. PHP presented as: Personal Home Page, something without strange names as "strict typing", "pointers", "standar input", or so...
Thats why PHP gained so much terraing against any other languaje, and PHP is a specific purpouse language, so as a language, the documentation found at internet, is much more specific, and also PHP was very fast absorbed by the newly hungry of identity "internet developers"... and with out very much fuss... PHP becomes a standar, almos the facto, with out much things to learn, like C, and with out distribution issues as Java...
Linux also evolved this way... When you where entering the world of Linux the easy thing you could do at your new linux installation was: Develop PHP with Mysql. Both at the distribution...
A new market, for a new paradigm.. thats why PHP has become a wide used language.
And for scalability: Bad code scales well in PHP, Bad code doesnt scale at Java/JSP, and Bad code is impossible to scale with C/C++/C#/C-anything.
There are thing that PHP is missing when talking to Industrial strength applications... but for the 50/60% of the market, the micro, small and medium market, that wich provides food and shelter for about the 90% of the world population, isnt so important.
PHP belongs to the ecology of Linux and Internet. It will be there, until Linux flops, and the Internet breaks...
Take a look at LCD and Plasma Displays, speaking about its financial issues. LCD and Plasma uses less energy, so they are more "green" to the environment, also, they produce less heat, again, less energy is needed to cool down a room/place fill with monitors (Take an office for example).
LCD arent cheaper even now. But they are a mainstream technology, and they dont are a niche market.
Hybrids car are good, and they will become cheaper. Sooner or later.
Also, in this *insigthful* theory, the correlation between pirates and global warming is shown. Venganza.org.
So, if sharing files becomes you a cheater and shoplifter, then you are becoming you the new breed of pirates, so... this is GOOD for our environment, since it will reverse the global warming effect.
Mostly, U will need a cluster for everything. If you are seeking for a all around opensource, start with this link, later, to use LVS, the tool for makeking load balancing clusters go here: http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/
And if you really are looking for a opensource cheap software costs (not very cheap tco) also you can build your OWN san with ata over ethernet: http://sourceforge.net/projects/aoetools/
With all the licence cost savings, you can Invest a lot of time, and have a fair amount of flexibility.
Sendmail inc, has high availability solutions: www.sendmail.com
Also, you can spend a lot of money and buy a very bit IBM machine with lots, and lots of lotus notes licenses, with that kind of money spent, you can put IBM at your knees if a lawer makes a good contract..
I think, to setup the hole thing, U will need, like about 50 good servers, (maybe u can try IBM openpower with virtualization, it IS a risc CPU), and like.. humm.. a month of technical tests...
The mysql backend will give you centralized administration, LVS will provide scalability and good servers will give you uptime...
And if EVEN you like, you can make a Linux Routers using sangoma hardware: http://wwww.sangoma.com/
Everything can be done with Linux by now... The cuestion is how much responsability do you want to have regarding the stability, and overall functionality of the solution.
IBM, HP, RedHat, SuSe, and ANY Linux Consulting firm would be interested in having you as a success history.
Slashdot Mirror
Of this architecture. First of all, the chip has 3 cores, and each core can handle 2 instructions, and each instruction can get to 5 processing branches.
Also it can handle 2 threads for its vmx engine and fpu engine, this is a LOT of data crunching power...
They have setup special instruction for matrix operations...
I wonder, what would be the processing power of this chip, used for sciences data crunching?
This chip is awsome...
What could be hope for the 7 core chip for ps3, but, I think the 7core ps3 chips is rather different. At xbox 360 you have 3 general purpose power cores, and at the 7 core ps3 architecure, each core is for different tasks? Rigth? Worng?
what about having a communitacion gateway?
:)
Swarm robots send that to the gateway, and the gateweay re-send the data...
Any way, those robots must come out from something else
Last week, I was invovled in the data migration of and old, 5 year running dbase program to a brand new LAPM program.
The data, needed to be transformed, 3 days of tools development for the migration, and we were all set.
The procedure, we took, was: Transform document to csv, take the csv with php, create database, add pre-studied indexes, and run migration tool...
So far, so good.
Windoze machines, with Office 2000, Linux server 3.0 gighz with 1 gig ram, and 2 laptops, 1 G3 power book with OpenOffice 1.x and the other a dell with suse 9.0 and OpenOffice 2.0 beta.
We were using, a data sample, not larger than 45k rows x 1500 rows...
Ok.. on you marks, set.. GO!.
And widnows 2000 + office 2000, excel was able to open de dbf file, which was chopped to smaller databases, but were unable to handle the single 90megs csv files over a PIV 1gig ram... I tried with my openoffice at my G3 with yellowdog and the 64k limit row was suprassed with the csv file, we tried the openoffice 2.0 over the dell laptop with 640mb of ram.. and THERE WAS IT! the WHOLE file LOADED and ready to be manipulated by the preprocesing team!!!!
We tried to download openoffice for windows to the widowze machine, and for strage reasons, no luck, we were unable to install it, so we switched to underpowered user window station with 256 megs of ram, it accepted the openoffice, and we were able to do our migration task...
I was working only at my ibook, and my partner was only using phpmyadmin, and quanta. The process was going to slow becose Openoffice and the 256 megs machine, so we let our SuSe laptop to the other team,and instead mounting the data with samba, we used fish, becose the fileserver was already a linux server, my partner took my ibook, and I took the server console...
And the work was done...
And linux AND, mostly OpenOffice saved the day...
I use openoffice as a daily basis at my G3, I don't need any other feature coming with the 2.0 version...
My father uses also OpenOffice, he is a doctor. OpenOffice, lacks a lot, but its MUCH MORE stable than Office.
Current, html+css+javascript+ajax are good enough.
Theyre not a lot of "diferent languages, they are just different specifications for the same thing.
About, interactivity, there is javascript for client side parsing, presentation using html + css isnt so hard to make, also, How may applications are "nicer" or "friendlier" than a web page?
Yeah, sure "Ok" and "Cancel" are self explanatory, pull down menus are SO easy to do, and adding timers or counters is SOOOooooo easy in any language... No, sir.
HTML has made the development of richer UI app easier, applications maintanance centraliced, so is cheaper.
How may "lines" do you need write or wizards to click to add a single image to a desktop application? What about an animation? those, common task are done with just a couple of lines at the web.
Trying to make web app look like desktop app, is WRONG... SAP interface, is one of the ugliest, difficult and cryptical interfaces I have ever seen. Pull down menus, inside pull down menus, inside lateral menus, as word/excel and so many other app, are less than intuitivie!!!
Stop trying to make web app look like desktop app, web experience, is much more richer than desktop app. We can help the user with flash, process data with php/perl/c/net/pick your language, client-side parse thing with javascript, create "real-time" feedback with ajax...
What is the issue? Desktop should be working to be AS easy as the web... not web trying to be as clumsy as desktop app...
Then, there is no need for software patents...
We know that patenting something is 'generally speaking' a good idea.
Patentes, were made to create a protection for Innovations, but rigth now, to define what is an innovation and what is not, is hard, even for experts...
Maybe you shoudl be able to patent, the hole source code of a program, but not the idea that implements the code.
Almos any problem, can be solved in many ways. The particular way of solving particular problem, is what should be patented.
Not the general description of the problem, and this is what is seems happening at the Patents Office...
And since, there are many problems "patented" and may solutions addressing the problem, mostly at software designing, then, trying to enforce patents at Sotfware Industry create this patent agony we are living, were patents are used as weapons, not as shields...
What and How, shoudl be specifically patented, not the idea...
Blu Ray DRM is based upon java.
HD-DVD DRM is based upon iHD from MS.
HP is pressing Blu Ray to adopt iHD...
And now, Sony is having a big issue reinforcing they own content using they own DRM scheme...
And Microsoft could alledge better security with DRM as inherent part of the SO, obviously iHD and Windows Vista...
But seems Blu Ray has more advocates among the industry, and DRM is a concern...
Microsft now can use Sonys own mistake as a plus of their iHD OS built in DRM...
Bad move sony, very bad move...
And at the end, we all loose...
Sure Apple gets it revenew from hardware sales, software sales AND gadget sales... Keeping Mac OSx86 out of mayority of x86, will cost money to Mac, shouldnt be more bussines to Apple if drops prices of MacOSx86 and let be on selected more machines? I know the quality assuranse of Apple Software, driver componentes, is much more harder than MS, and since there is a LOT less hardware, there a lot less cheap hardware... But, since Aplle likes so much licencing, they could license Ready for Apple logo to hardware vendors only support selected hardware, I belive this could get so much revenew to Apple... AND also, Apples hardware is being selling more and more due the iPod, iTunes, iThing gadgets, and that people 'feel' they work better at MacOSX... The market is waitting for a generic version of MacOSx, why not give it to them? Maybe that MS money at Apples is restrining to do that?
This is an offtopic, but.. I really dont know.
It seems that lots of money, since Venture Capital is high risk capital, but at the same time, high return of invesmet, if the bussines model takes off..
So far, as a stakeholder, shouldnt Ive concerned about having the same VC at 2 competing brands: Take Yahoo and Google.
With money being a very powerfull weapon for corporative control, should Sequoia cannot be using inside information and just plain playing with the market?
Is this ethical? Doesnt this presents a confict of interests?
How does a VC works, so this doenst happens?
Arent VC regulated?
THe IBM site es HUGE... really, really huge, and trying to find something specific is very hard, usng the search tool provided by IBM.
For example, trying to get to the Java JRE 1.4 for PPC 32 bits, to use at my IBOOK, is much more easier with google than ibm own serch engine.
Also, my last painfully search at IBM, looking for development information for their JPOS implementation, was almost impossible with IBM serch engine, but using google, wasnt so much..
Really IBM should hire or use the google services...Maybe this is a beggining... And IBM partering with Google, one more thing to worry about for Microsoft.
IBM lately, with porting a lot of apps to Linux, is showing a remarked "low profile" hostility to M$..
They are a lot of benefits if you switch from MS to Linux at IBM products...
About macros.
The effor for migration macros, isnt derived from a bad "emulation" of the language, The OpenOffice macro language, is almos equal thant the language at Microsoft Macros, the difference is that, at OpenOffice, there are a lot of restricctions, strict typing for variables and method calling, so you are unable to create Macro Virii for OpenOffice.
About Project management. There are also more evolved tools, phpgroupware, dotproyect, but Yes, I must say that Project is a easy and quick to modify proyect managment tool, but when trying to keep sincronized amog a lot of users, then something web-enable is easier, with out the high costs Project + Office integration demands.
And about visio, stick figures are useful only to illiterated clients, that doesnt even have the hability to understad that a boxed item is a part of the process... If you are to draw process diagrams, you could use tools and standards made for that, for example use the UML bussines extensions, or the BMP XML notation.
Bussines Modeling Process (BMP) has a very good drawing tool: Jawe, and BMP looks further onto the integration of process development and IT.
OpenOffice has a very sweet gallery to be used with OpenDraw or OpenWriter, and for more complex graphics, you can use Dia, or the galleryes for OpenOffice.
So, thinking about visio and project as stoppers, means that you are getting anachronic to the market tendencies, and YES, this is fault of Microsoft, which pretends to keep every one aspect of the industry under they rate of development.
I didnt know I was using Linux. A friend of mine, setup a Linux box for me to setup a Mud. I didnt know C either, just a little of programmig. I was a seasoned coder for Casio advanced calculators.
I needed to do something about a malloc redefined, and something about crypt. I didnt understand, so, bliss the ignorance, comented the code and everything worked. I started coding at LPC for my mud version... and I wasnt aware that I was running Linux Slackware 1.0...
Later, when I needed to do mainanence routing for a rapidly user/coding grown game, I needed to learn bash... move file, approve accounts, that sort of thing...
LATER, when I was asked for my college, to REMOVE my game, which was having like 1/2 of my generation loosing class, thats when I learned what was under the hood of my mud...
Becose I needed to install it. Another machine was assigned to me, a PowerPc PowerStak II from motorola. Ever heard about it? Me neither, there was only 2 links about it on the internet... and redhat had a port. Tried to install a "new" distro, into a strage machine, and I hated redhat.
I wanted my Slackware!, so a user, admin of the network of another state college, offered me an IP, for my game... and learned to install Linux... Thas was about 1.5 years of using it...
Later, I needed to finish my studies, plugged off the mud, and with the experience, I started giving support for local ISP with apache, ipchains, and other stuff, and then... I took a market choise.
Windows was full of people giving support, developing. I was of the few, knowing, and using linux... And I have clients paying for my knowldege, and there was no competition...
So, I belive, I never "switchet", just evolved with Linux....
Outside Usa...
Also, and more importantly, those clients are used to pay. So, the SuSe offering of novell, with the tools used by novell admins, is cheaper, then they will maintain, and grouth their market share.
Also, Microsof pricing as a Network Operating System, is way more expensive than Novell offerings, and for example, a iDirectory with Identity Manager, are good solutions, and their OpenSource counterpart, needs a LOT of time to implement it correctly, lot of hack and slash, and Novell provides clients from windows/linux/mac...
So, big & medium size co, searching for a cheaper infrastructure, and wanting to still have somebody to sue, and have WorldWide support, then Novell SuSe is the way to go...
Storage with AtaOverEthernet. The cheapest Midium size storage...
And write a fs wrapper to acces clusterd jdbc proyect...
And mysql as file repository?
Ata Over Ethernet
http://freshmeat.net/projects/aoelinux/
Ata Over Ethernet tools
http://freshmeat.net/projects/aoetools/
c-jbdc
http://c-jdbc.objectweb.org/
Mysql
http://mysql.org/
PHP as any other language, has its pros and cons. Back in the old days, when I was starting to develop for Windows, the OWL borland library was a plus, but there is always the awful presentation layer. Ergonomy of GUI is something unexplored now. The downbar left button has become an standar, but is it: Rigth? Always the presentation layer is a pain. Then you have a system: Web applications, that you could leverage the GUI to graphical designers, wich dont have the twisted mind of a developer. Create visualy rich applications, easy add of eyecandy, easy to make it work coding, this was PHP bringed to the Web... There was C based CGI, JSP pages, both of them, where from "those things are difficult" and posed a mental barrier to those "brilliant" designers. PHP presented as: Personal Home Page, something without strange names as "strict typing", "pointers", "standar input", or so... Thats why PHP gained so much terraing against any other languaje, and PHP is a specific purpouse language, so as a language, the documentation found at internet, is much more specific, and also PHP was very fast absorbed by the newly hungry of identity "internet developers"... and with out very much fuss... PHP becomes a standar, almos the facto, with out much things to learn, like C, and with out distribution issues as Java... Linux also evolved this way... When you where entering the world of Linux the easy thing you could do at your new linux installation was: Develop PHP with Mysql. Both at the distribution... A new market, for a new paradigm.. thats why PHP has become a wide used language. And for scalability: Bad code scales well in PHP, Bad code doesnt scale at Java/JSP, and Bad code is impossible to scale with C/C++/C#/C-anything. There are thing that PHP is missing when talking to Industrial strength applications... but for the 50/60% of the market, the micro, small and medium market, that wich provides food and shelter for about the 90% of the world population, isnt so important. PHP belongs to the ecology of Linux and Internet. It will be there, until Linux flops, and the Internet breaks...
Take a look at LCD and Plasma Displays, speaking about its financial issues. LCD and Plasma uses less energy, so they are more "green" to the environment, also, they produce less heat, again, less energy is needed to cool down a room/place fill with monitors (Take an office for example). LCD arent cheaper even now. But they are a mainstream technology, and they dont are a niche market. Hybrids car are good, and they will become cheaper. Sooner or later.
So, if sharing files becomes you a cheater and shoplifter, then you are becoming you the new breed of pirates, so... this is GOOD for our environment, since it will reverse the global warming effect.
You see... pirates are good.
A pain in the ass... Do they smell THAT bad?
Look at postfix + mysqlh tml
http://www.sweeney.demon.co.uk/pfix_imap_virtual.
Mostly, U will need a cluster for everything.
If you are seeking for a all around opensource, start with this link, later, to use LVS, the tool for makeking load balancing clusters go here:
http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/
And if you really are looking for a opensource cheap software costs (not very cheap tco) also you can build your OWN san with ata over ethernet:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/aoetools/
And for webmail a usefull but also ligth interface:
http://www.squirrelmail.org/
With all the licence cost savings, you can Invest a lot of time, and have a fair amount of flexibility.
Sendmail inc, has high availability solutions:
www.sendmail.com
Also, you can spend a lot of money and buy a very bit IBM machine with lots, and lots of lotus notes licenses, with that kind of money spent, you can put IBM at your knees if a lawer makes a good contract..
Also, to complete the solution you can setup nagios and mrtg for monitoring.
http://www.nagios.org/
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/webtools/mrtg/
I think, to setup the hole thing, U will need, like about 50 good servers, (maybe u can try IBM openpower with virtualization, it IS a risc CPU), and like.. humm.. a month of technical tests...
The mysql backend will give you centralized administration, LVS will provide scalability and good servers will give you uptime...
And if EVEN you like, you can make a Linux Routers using sangoma hardware:
http://wwww.sangoma.com/
Everything can be done with Linux by now... The cuestion is how much responsability do you want to have regarding the stability, and overall functionality of the solution.
IBM, HP, RedHat, SuSe, and ANY Linux Consulting firm would be interested in having you as a success history.
Good Luck, and May the Source be With You