[rescue] This Just In: HP to buy Compaq

[Paul Sladen]

On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, Chad Fernandez wrote:
> Joshua D Boyd wrote:
> > >
> > > What other Unix is designed specifically for Intel x86 processors?
> > 
> > Linux for one.
>
> But Linux isn't Unix.

No, but a clean-room rewrite is often a good idea, and deals with many
problems of license cruft.

> In addition Linux isn't quite as bomb proof, and scalable as unix, or
> something like that....

Please be /very/ careful about whether you are refering to:

  a)  The kernel, scalable enough to run on your Palm Pilot, and your S/390.
      Please don't bring up the issue of efficeny;  Solaris doesn't run on
      a Palm, and NetBSD (a Real-Unix(TM) that does) doesn't `scale' to SMP.

  b)  The OS:  GNU's Not Unix.   Exactly what it says, a clean-room rewrite
      (again) of Unix fundmentals.  This the same suite of utilities that
      you have to install before you can do anything useful on all the
      Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, SCO and the BSDs.  What about the legendary GCC
      compiler that you use for compilation on all the above OS's and which
      is the standard Playstation II dev-suite.

      Dare I say *Emacs*, GZip;  Or ask how many times a day you type
      `less', into to your `bash' shell?   Oh, and you really expect to be
      able to use Sol9 X without ever touching GNOME?

  c)  The Contributed Utilities.  I wonder if the non-commerically supported 
      copies of Apache, Bind, Sendmail, or Perl, are the same versions that
      I run on my Debian/GNU/Linux/Sparc machines as you run on your boxen?

After reading the above, I'm very interested to know why GNU/Linux is so
much worse than an alternative, when (as can be seen from the above) all
you've done is swap out the kernel and C library.

The point you may have missed is that x86 /hardware/ is generally shite.

> Plus, from what I have heard, a lot of business steer clear of Linux
> because of support issues.

Suits steer away from GNU/Linux, because that's what the Microsoft
Marketroids told them to do.  Try the following on a couple of interesting
networks some time;  And see just how many of those Fileservers actually
turn out to be Linux boxes running Samba: 

  $ nmap -O 172.16.42.42/24

(GPL from: www.insecure.org/nmap/).

> (Here say)  Granted Linux is getting better.

Um, so this is the same combination-OS that has shipped with OpenBSD's
OpenSSL/OpenSSH as standard for several *years*.  You might like to re-check
your Sol8 package list to see whether `SSH' support is in there?  If you
want it NOW, and don't want to wait for Solaris9 then I suggest you pick up
either one of the following Operating Systems:

  Debian     www.debian.org
  OpenBSD    www.openbsd.org

Both of which have security teams that walk all over Sun and Redmond in both
initial audit, attention to detail /and/ time to fix.

-*- -*- -*-

All the above is fairly irrevalent, the reasons for Using GNU[/Linux] are
about freedom, and if you don't care or understand them, then perhaps
something else might be the best thing for until you find your Freedoms
further impinged.  Free Software is a way of thinking, learn about it:

  www.gnu.org/philosophy/

Paul Sladen


PS.  Chuck that copy of Redhat into the trash well you're at it, too!