Dan, I read with disappointment the recent PC Magazine review of web servers (http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/pipreviews/0,9836,193175,00.html). I am an IT consultant who has worked with Linux since 1994. I have seen it go from strength to strength, improve, mature, and become easier to install. I feel like some of the "grades" given to the only Linux contender in the review, Red Hat Linux, were undeserved, particularly Development - 3/5 and Performance - 2/5. You mention poor SMP / scaling performance and mention how a future release will address the issue. Well known patches exist _now_ for already known and already documented issues relating to performance at this level, such as a multi-threaded TCP/IP stack. Were these considered? Why not? Why was Red Hat Linux 6.1 used for the review, when Red Hat Linux 6.2 has already been out for a while now? Red Hat 6.1 is already _old_. Also, why was there not even a _mention_ of the PHP server side scripting language, which makes ASP look really sick by comparison?! You speak of paying for commercial quality support for RH Linux as if it is almost a negative - "One other factor to consider is that although the OS itself is almost free, organizations will still need to pay for technical support.". Two points: 1. There is so much support out there from the Linux community a a whole, including from your local friendly Linux Users Group (LUG), there is so much documentation out there on the Internet for Linux, Apache, PHP, Perl, Zope, etc.... most people I know who run and maintain and set up Linux web servers don't ever need paying support. 2. It's a _good_ thing that companies like Red Hat have provided commercial quality support to those who do need (or _want_) it - like your reviewers. Please demonstrate Linux as it should be demonstrated. Please don't use old software, and don't just do the "lets put Linux on a Microsoft playing field" thing. Linux has inherent features that users of some other operating systems would just dream of - no joke. Yours sincerely, David Sainty.. IT Consultant, IFIX Computer Solutions.. [EMAIL PROTECTED] +61-2-9887-4445 -- SLUG - Sydney Linux Users Group Mailing List - http://www.slug.org.au To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe in the text
