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From: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc
Subject: Re: Heh...
Date: 25 Aug 1995 06:58:22 GMT
Organization: HeadCandy Associates... Sweets for the lobes.
Lines: 63
Message-ID: <MICHAELV.95Aug24235822@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
References: <41ip4t$900@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mindbender.seanet.com
In-reply-to: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu's message of 24 Aug 1995 20:58:03 GMT
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:5143 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:710
In article <41ip4t$900@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul) writes:
Hey kids, check this out. Micro$oft recently put up a bunch of
web servers dedicated to Win95 things. They have names like
www.windows.microsoft.com, download.windows.microsoft.com, etc.
There's apparently a bunch of them set up in a round-robin DNS
rotation. Curiously, telnetting to them reveals this:
[...]
BSDI BSD/OS 2.0 (wl8.windows.microsoft.com) (ttyp1)
[...]
BSDI BSD/OS 2.0 (wl9.windows.microsoft.com) (ttyp1)
[...]
Kinda makes you think, don't it.
Your point being? If they're going to run a Unix server, they have to
run some type of Unix on it, correct? BSDI is a popular choice
because it's excellent, and it's commercially supported.
And, Unix is still the best platform of choice for a really heavy-
duty Internet Web server.
It really doesn't seem all that odd to me.
I still keep hoping that one day I'll find a machine in their
domain with a FreeBSD login banner.
It's doubtful that you will, since most Microsoft machines are on an
internal network, which has no physical connection to the Internet,
for obvious reasons.
However, there are machines of many flavors inside Microsoft. It's no
secret that Microsoft developers don't work in an MS-only vacuum. I
know of a few NetBSD servers that ran there for awhile (one may still
be running). I know of at least one Linux box, and I wouldn't be
surprised to see a FreeBSD machine, as well. I know of multiple
SunOS/Solaris SparcStations, a DEC Alpha OSF/1 (Unix) server or two,
at least one VAX, and a PDP-11, for heaven's sake. There are other
machines and OS's too, but this is all I can think of off the top of
my head. Do you think every machine at IBM runs OS/2, AIX, or MVS?
Every machine inside Novell runs NOS or UnixWare?
Porsche buys Corvettes so they can race them and take them apart to
figure out how to make Porsches better. Chevy buys Porsches for the
same reason. Both companies probably buy light trucks and vans made
by neither company for maintenance work. I'll bet Porsche also buys
non-Porsche trucks to do maintenance duty on its facilities.
I can't guarantee you there's a FreeBSD machine inside Microsoft, but
it's a pretty good bet there's at least one. I'll bet there's at
least one of them inside each of IBM, Novell, Lotus, and several other
large non-Unix shops, as well.
--
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Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com
--< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >--
NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4, PC532,
DEC pmax (MIPS R2k/3k), DEC/AXP (Alpha)
NetBSD ports in progress: VAX and others...
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