A good journaling filesystem, like ReiserFS or some of the others that are
being ported to Linux (IBM's JFS, SGI XFS, etc) will solve most of these
problems.
ReiserFS looks like it is ready for production use, but the others aren't
quit there yet. I've used JFS on IBM's RS-6000 systems and it works quite
well. When it is used in conjunction with virtual filesystems, you can
actually move an entire filesystem from one machine to another and it is
transparent to the user. There are similar VFS projects for Linux that
look like they will be ready for serious use sometime within the next
year. Many of these kinds of tools have been available on commercial
versions of Unix for quite a while. Once they are available under Linux,
many more businesses will consider using Linux for mission-critical
applications.
Jeff
p.s. I'm trying to install ReiserFS on a new Mandrake 7.0 system this
weekend. After I'm done, I'll let you know if I still hold the same "ready
for production use" opinion.
At 07:45 AM 5/27/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Here's my "two cents worth":
>
>One of the main reasons I can't really recommend Linux to my
>customers as a solution is because of Linux's inability to gracefully
>recover from not being shut down properly.
>
>I would like to see someone set up a distribution that, when shut
>off without the "shutdown" command (as in a power failure, or user
>stupidity), will recover reasonably.
>
>I have on too many occasions seen Linux machines shut off
>improperly and never run again until the OS is re-installed.
>
>I admit, sometimes, it will do it. But sometimes isn't good enough.
>
>As much as I dislike Windows, I can always count on Windows
>coming back from this kind of situation. It will complain, run
>scandisk, and come back up. You might have some application
>files corrupted, but at least the OS will run.
>
>You can put a zillion features into it, with the greatest installers,
>but, in my opinion, you won't be viable until this hurdle is jumped.
>
>I really don't know enough about the inner workings of the OS to
>know why it's like this, but there must be some way to fix it.
>Perhaps a journaling file system? I really don't know the answer,
>but somebody must.
>
>Bruce Endries
>Bruce Endries Consulting
>(607) 433-2677
