*BSD News Article 41411


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From: henryh@well.sf.ca.us (Henry Hwong)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: Linux thoroughly insulted by Infoworld!
Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Date: 23 Jan 1995 08:45:33 GMT
Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
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Message-ID: <3fvqbd$6v1@nkosi.well.com>
References: <950116203411@lambada> <3fjcn4$24u@nkosi.well.com> <3fmi6c$ang@galaxy.ucr.edu>
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Joe Sloan (jjs@dostoevsky.ucr.edu) wrote:
: In article <3fjcn4$24u@nkosi.well.com>,
: Henry Hwong <henryh@well.sf.ca.us> wrote:

: >Nobody in their right mind is going to use Linux as a
: >production database server. 

: I don't understand what you are trying to say here; can you explain what
: you mean? Linux is currently being used in real-world mission-critical 
: applications. Perhaps those using it should hear your warning, if you 
: would care to explain it -

Sure. I am in no way dis'ing Linux itself, but, rather, lamenting its
state as a chaos-bred operating system. Fortune 500 businesses want
certain things for their IS departments, one of which is support.
Contracted support. Something you can hold over vendors when you don't
get what you need.

Another thing they want is a skill that they can either hire (buy) or
train their IS people for. Businesses want to have interchangable people
(it's a harsh, cruel world out there), and, until Linux is used by a
ton of other IS departments, which would create a large pool of people who
could support Linux in a business environment, they aren't going to use it.

Besides, Linux is (*gasp!*) just an operating system. Until Sybase, Oracle,
or Informix port their products to Linux, why use it?

: I have been looking for ways to move more and more services from Sun
: machines to linux machines, emboldened and encouraged by the spectacular
: successes and rock-solid reliability I've seen so far...

Stability should only be one factor when moving platforms. You should also
consider what support you're going to get, as well as the cost of training
your people on the idosyncracies of Linux.

-Henry