At 06:55 AM 12/26/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I was just wondering........
>
>How does Linux stack up against BeOS?
>
>I mean't in the terms of let's say a server or a http server.
>
>Is is possible to adminsiter BeOS as a good server of any kind?!
Now? No. In the future? Definitely.
There are a couple of different issues:
Applications:
It is very easy to port UNIX apps over to Be, so eventually, people wanting
to use it as a server for whatever will be able to. Also, the programming
interface is *really* nice, so before long, some GUI implementations of
http, ftp, NFS, samba and other servers should be avilable, making system
admin a snap. But for now, the apps aren't there yet.
Security:
Currently, Be is only a single user OS. The engineers tell us that the
foundation for a multiuser enviornment is already in the OS, but they have
chosen to hold off on it for awhile, probably due to debugging and
programming issues.
Also, there is no empasis on network security that I know of. If there
truly isn't any security in it like UNIX, this automatically means that it
is unsuitable for a server to the outside world.
Drivers:
Very limited at this point. Each release brings more. R4 is the first
version I can run on my dual processor machine because SCSI support is
finally here.
Networking:
It's networking is immature, but sure to improve. At the moment, I would
guess that linux has the faster networking by a mile.
Performance:
It screams. It totally puts linux to shame in terms of raw speed. There
are several reasons for this:
a) a 64 bit journaling filesystem which behaves like a database when
searched or queried
b) an application and windowing structure that are tuned for performance
and take over most of the functionality of an application, leaving it to do
it's intended purpose
c) a kernel that was written on multiprocessor systems and takes advantage
of more recent advances in multithreading theory and application.
d) an application support layer that allows even non multithreaded
applications to be threaded by the kernel.
There are many other reasons. The short answer is that its a new OS,
unconcerned with legacy issues and therefore built on the newest OS
technologies for the most recent archetectures.
The downside of that is that it's not mature yet and needs apps. I believe
the apps will come because its such a fine OS that people will want to
write for it just because (sound familiar?). It is not open source, but it
is extremely well documented for programmers.
I don't believe it will supplant linux for many reasons. Linux is not just
about performance and speed. It's about Free Software. Linux is a far
more mature OS with thousands of apps to make it suitable for many types of
jobs.
I still suggest you try Be, though. Look at the supported hardware
carefully first.
lunaslide * PGP key->pgpkeys.mit.edu port 11371
* * * * * *
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* * * -Larry Wall * *
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