If you are going to use the X86 platform, do not use Solaris. It is far too slow on that platform and you will be disappointed.
OTOH if you want to use the SPARC platform, you have a choice of Linux or Solaris. I'd go for Solaris if it was SPARC platform, but then I'm biased. If I was asked to implement the project though, I'd probably select Linux on X86 because what you are asking for does not require a high end machine. Go for something with a manufacturer who keeps replacement parts in case of breakdown, rather than a one-off with a weird CPU socket or RAM that no one keeps. Someone at work bought an SGI X86 running Linux because they wanted a reliable box. You can also look at Dell or IBM if you want a support contract. The Sun hardware is generally more reliable than the "average" intel hardware but again you get what you pay for. (When I was working at digital there were different prices for computers depending on how much heatsoak testing the customer was prepared to pay for.) We use SPARC-64 boxen at work running Solaris 7 for engineering simulations. We also have a Linux box (1.2 GHz pentium) that simulates faster for one engineer. The difference I have noticed is on simulations (Modelsim), the SPARC boxen runs pretty much the same speed irrespective of how many engineers are on it, whereas the Intel unit is fast for only one user. With two users it bogs down completely and is slower than the SPARC. That I presume is showing up the lack of SMP ability on the Intel. For Web apps it really doesn't matter. And in both cases you can create farms and failover configurations. Cheers, Jill. -- Jill Rowling, Snr Des. Eng. & Unix System Administrator Eng. Systems Dept, Aristocrat Technologies Australia Level 2, 55 Mentmore Ave Rosebery NSW 2018 Phone: (02) 9697-4484 Fax: (02) 9663-1412 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------- CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE ---------------------- This email is intended only to be read or used by the addressee. The information contained in this e-mail message may be confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, interference with, distribution, disclosure or copying of this material is unauthorised and prohibited. Confidentiality attached to this communication is not waived or lost by reason of the mistaken delivery to you. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and notify us by return e-mail or telephone Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited on +61 2 9413 6300. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
