*BSD News Article 34034


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From: afajimw@aol.com (AFA JimW)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Which O.S.?
Date: 2 Aug 1994 13:28:09 -0400
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My company is developing a commercial product which will be scalable for
both small (single-user) and medium (3-5 users) installations. We are
planning to use a client-server model with the clients being MS-Windows
machines and the server being a Unix box. The server will maintain a
relational database using a commercial package like Oracle or Informix,
and will also manage communications with other external systems. The
clients will use a GUI-style interface to query the database, run reports,
and issue commands to the external systems.

I'm looking for comments regarding which Unix to use for the server. Some
folks have suggested Linux, while others have cautioned that we may be
creating maintenance and support headaches if we use Linux (I have have
read the Linux article in the Sept '94 Unix Review). The problem, of
course, is that most commercial "Unixes" are somewhat expensive. Specific
questions, for Linux and for alternatives, are:

* Will the O.S. be cost-effective in the long run?
* Is the O.S. appropriate for a commercial product?
* What development tools exist for the O.S. (CASE, compilers,
  debuggers, CM, etc.)?
* What problems can we expect with the O.S.?
* What good alternatives exist?

Thanks in advance for your help. If you'd prefer not to post to the group,
feel free to respond via e-mail.

-- Jim Warthman              afajimw@aol.com     Internet
-- CSI, Inc.                 AFA JimW            America Online
-- 1235 Evans Rd.            407-676-2923        Voice
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