[rescue] OT: Linux and USB on Intel

[N. Miller]

On Sun, 20 Apr 2003 12:56:55 -0700, "David Passmore"
<dpassmor at sneakers.org> said:

> The fact remains that several companies are migrating from big iron to
> x86 boxes running Linux, and there are documented cases I could give you URLs
> for, if you like. I could also relate my personal experiences with this
> phenomenon. Though I have no figures to prove it at the moment, it is my
> conjecture and experience that Linux is eroding other UNIXes, *not*
> Windows, and that it is in fact killing the only real hope we have of ridding the
> world of Windows and x86, making Dave McGuire's worst nightmare come true
> (even though he doesn't seem to see it the same way that I do).

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.  
Open source and custom Linux shops cater to these companies, 
providing performance tuning in ways that Sun would not.  And still 
the e-commerce companies spend less on their infrastructure.

This phenomenon has been exacerbated by companies such as 
Oracle deciding to do primary development on Linux rather than 
Solaris.  Big e-commerce co's happily jump at using Oracle's 
betas on Linux knowing they will have more say-so in final product 
features.

There's probably a graduate thesis in a discussion of the 
relationship between commoditization of the server room and 
the drive to out-source product/IT support overseas.

=Nadine=

(As an aside, if you are a Linux systems administrator with
a strong understanding of Linux internals and development, 
and the ability to communicate with Linux developers, 
Amazon is still looking for Unix System Engineers in Seattle.  
They want a Linux SA with an understanding of development, 
not a Linux developer with an understanding of systems 
administration.  Currently this is an operations job (i.e. on-
call), but they are trying to evolve the situation so it is
more like the rest of Amazon where ops and higher tier
support are separate.)
-- 
  N. Miller
  vraptor at promessage.com