[ILUG] Linux not good enough......

[Conor Wynne]

On Fri, 2004-05-07 at 20:55, Dave O Connor wrote:
> Niall O Broin said on Fri, May 07, 2004 at 08:52:09PM +0100:
> > On Friday 7 May 2004, doc+ilug at redbrick.dcu.ie (Dave O Connor) wrote:
> > 
> > >olearypj at rte.ie said on Fri, May 07, 2004 at 06:42:43PM +0100:
> > >> BTW, I can't believe that i'm able to write this email without having to
> > reboot 
> > >> this nt4 pc for the 14th time today!!!!!
> > >> 
> > >It bugs me when people say this. Please update to a current operating system
> > >version, and start comparing like with like.
> > 
> > I see where you're coming from here but nonetheless, many people are stuck
> > with using old versions of operating systems and are in my view justifiably
> > annoyed with those which crash regularly. Regular crashing, flaky hardware
> > aside, has NEVER been an attribute of any released version of Linux I have
> > used.
> > 
> And, to be perfectly honest, with regard to hard crashes on the server side,
> it's been about 50/50 for me, hardware issues aside.

You will have to expand on that one. :--0
I work in support, so I see most of the problems with various kernels/OS
(mainly linux & some windows)

Yes there have been (some) serious bugs (linux), but they were all
quickly addressed. The infamous tg3 bug(s), kswapd, ext3 corruption,
reiser probs, nfs probs (top of my head). 

In all of the above examples, prompt kernel upgrading, along with driver
changes from defaults in some cases - aic7xxx_mod, megaraid2 (remember
that one Niall) - sorted them out. (Assuming no h/w issues and sillyness
like making over two terabyte physical luns)

Now, lets take windows2k+ (server side). Drivers causing lockups,
software doing likewise, constant viruses and worms causing havoc, etc.,
etc. With linux the issues were _very_ promptly fixed. With windows it
has been much slower. Sometimes very ssllooww (vendor interaction
issues)

How important your data is, is up to your organisation to decide. If its
non essential, like a proxy or whatever, then you can live fine without
a support contract from your vendor.

If its mission critical, then you need one. 

> 
> 	- DoC

Conor