Hi Gary, On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 06:00:34AM -0500, Gary Lee Phillips wrote: > As has already been pointed out, the diversity of the Alpha hardware and > machine code instruction set is a significant security advantage especially > for a firewall, mail host, or web server where attacks are more likely to > occur. This can help accrue benefits to Linux as a whole. As the active > market share of Linux installations continues to increase, which seems > likely to happen, hackers will turn more focus toward "breaking" Linux > security. The existence of diverse hardware with the same operating system > and management tools is a major advantage against this problem, and I for > one will hate to see the Alpha go. What can take its place? Now that Apple > has moved to Intel style processors, there seems to be no alternative line > of evolution left.
Well, sparc still exists; and ARM seems to be stepping up as the major contender for non-x86 CPUs[1] as the "embedded" label is applied to ever-beefier systems. But in terms of the market, Alpha already lost years ago when Compaq vivisected that part of DEC... -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [1] Which doesn't imply non-Intel! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
