[rescue] OT: Linux and USB on Intel

[r. 'bear' stricklin]

On Mon, 21 Apr 2003, N. Miller wrote:

> While I don't really have an opinion on the rest of Dave's comments,
> I do have to agree with this point.  Solaris jobs are few and far
> between for this very reason.  Companies like Amazon have come to
> realize that there is no point in paying large sums for E10K's w/high
> dollar support contracts when they can switch over to x86 and
> simply keep their own spare parts depot on site for less overhead.

Wait a minute, I worked for Amazon.com during the E10k time. I was
actually one of the E10k sysadmins, for that matter. There was no x86
system large enough, at that time, to do that job. There still really
isn't, taking into account the growth of data they would've experienced.

The pressure to dump the E10k (which ran the CRM/ERP data warehouse) was
totally political, and they dumped it for an HP Superdome shortly after I
left. Not for linux.

Linux came in, as I understand it, from my spies who still work there,
when the Superdome crashed and burned and left the site down for 48 hours.
Then it came up for about 8 and was down for another 30 or some such. HP
would've been finished at Amazon, except they stepped up to give (at no
cost) all the x86 hardware they needed to convert to linux... which you
may have read still hasn't taken over the datacenter. I imagine that's
still largely Tru64 and Solaris, just like it was when I was there, except
likely some EOL replacements and new projects implemented on HP-UX.

>From your postscript it sounds like you have some inside knowledge, and I
admit things have probably changed a lot in the three years since I was
there. I'm not too proud to stand corrected.

ok
bear