> I'm studying for my Cisco CCIE certification. As a network administrator
> I haven't stayed up with the progress of Linux in the Internet world, but
80%
> of the routing/switching market for the Internet is Cisco.
You may also want to look at the backbone technologies - Cisco is
but another player when it comes to high bandwidth. Perhaps you should tuck
some ATM experience in there somewhere....
Is that 80% a Cisco number - or from someone like Gartner? Cisco
has long been the champ of "gilded reality"...
> Up until the last year or so, Solaris was also considered to have about
70-80%
> of the Server market share as well. I really want to strategically place
myself in the Internet community.
Then you're about 2 years late on the Linux boat...
> I know NT very well and have some hands on with Digital Unix and Solaris.
> However, it's much easier to take two of my x86 boxes and my two Alphas
and
> build a Linux farm, thus pushing Linux to the max by getting hands on
experience.
> My only concern is the seriousness of Linux in the Commerce/Business world
of the Internet.
Linux has been projected to ship on one million servers this year.
That's from vendors, not from geeks in their basements. That number is
expected to hit 25 million in 2 years. (from Red Hat / Gartner)
> Are companies like Broadcast.com, CDNow, iD, etc. going to seriously
consider Linux as an option?
I cannot say, but Netscape, Oracle, IBM, & Intel have all backed Red
Hat with $$$$$ There is not a single Fortune 2000 company that has NOT
purchased a Linux product from LinuxMall.com! OK - how much of that is
aimed at the enterprise is a dubious question, but figures like that ought
to point to a trend in your eyes.
There is also the micro-kernel world - the winner of last years
Best-of-Show @ Interop Las Vegas was a LINUX BASED router....... they had a
little 20x20 booth with attendance that dwarfed the likes of Cisco, FORE,
3COM, etc...
> Or is it the poor mans server OS?
Wealth has little to do with inherent intelligence in many cases....
Load & use linux - you'll be convinced of it's
capability/flexibility. I have an NT/Solaris background, and I've learned
much from the Linux community, particularly in forums such as this.
If you doubt the reality of linux perhaps you'd best point your
browser to slashdot.org or linuxtoday.com and see what's going on out there
"in the real world". In fact, IBM just announced both hardware AND software
support for Linux as of yesterday. You will also find links to Linux
certified servers (IA and Alpha) at compaq.com - are those name heavy enough
to convince you? The fact that Linux is in the news - heavily in the news -
on a daily basis should give you a clue as to the future of the OS in the
enterprise. Even if it weren't free many would still stand by it...
/soapbox
Don
