On Fri, Sep 25, 1998 at 08:57:17AM -0400, Susan Duncan wrote:
> > > occasionally had a 'application not responding' on it, but that's it.
> >
> > Doesn't this strike you as odd?
>
> Yes and no.. it really depends on what you are running, now doesn't it. The
> next version of the program is supposed to handle memory better. I get the
> same thing with Word, but not if I bring the same large file into htmlpro.
> It's not always the operating system, but the programs that run on it.
This is what I don't get: to me, this indicates that the operating
system is *broken*. Not performing badly, not having trouble with
applications, but flat-out BROKEN. While I'm aware that this is
par for the course in the world of Windows et.al., I'm still astonished
that people actually accept this as normal behavior.
> I'm sure it is.. I've got an ultra SPARC on its knees right now as I load
> another 50,000 records into its database (Cuadra STAR).
See, this also strikes me as odd. Only 50K records? Then at least one,
and possibly more of several things are happening:
1. The OS is mis-tuned or mis-installed.
2. The database is mis-tuned or mis-installed.
3. The database is a complete pig which chows down all
available system resources at a rate far in excess of
the functionality that it delivers. (My vote goes here)
Again, *only* 50K records? Why even bother with a database? It's just
not worth it. Sheesh, if just loading the data brings the system to
its knees, that oughta be a pretty big indicator that something about
the approach isn't right.
> I'm not arguing that unix handles resources better than NT does. NT is a
> pig on resources and I'd be the first one to admit it. It's just an easier
> box to maintain for non-techies and with the price of hardware being what it
> is, it's cheaper to throw memory at it than to teach someone how to install
> and run Solaris.
It's a myth that NT is easier for non-techies. I've watched "certified"
NT "experts" tear their hair out trying to do things that garden-variety
Unix/Linux systems do out-of-the-box.
Also, given that the source code for several Unix systems
is fully available (e.g. BSDI) and that it's available for all
Linux systems, that's a HUGE advantage for the Unix/Linux crowd.
It is always possible -- if one must -- to refer to the exact
code that implements a particular function or program. That's
the authoritative and final information on how it works.
Contrast with NT where no source code is available and the
entire system is a black box, often with missing or incorrect
documentation.
Does dealing with the OS at the source code level take expertise?
Sure -- not as much as those brainwashed by Microsoft would
have you believe, but it does involve a learning curve. However,
at least it's *possible*, as opposed to the NT world, where
it's impossible and likely to stay that way. (You don't think
Microsoft would be so stupid as to actually publish that hairball,
do you?)
It's also an apple-and-oranges comparison, as many people have pointed
out in articles over the past few months: when you install, say,
Red Hat Linux, you now have a box that's completely ready to provide
standard Internet services (ftp, telnet, web, mail, etc.) in
a fully standards-compliant manner. When you finish installing NT,
you aren't even close to that -- you've now got to install the
layers of applications that you actually need. *And*, thanks to
some fundamental design errors in NT, you have to work hard to
keep those applications from stepping all over each other (config files
and the like). And once you get past *that*, now you have to deal with
the very poor resource management in NT which makes it difficult for
all of these applications to co-execute efficiently.
As far as I can see, the only OS that's still easy for non-techies
to install is MacOS. The level of expertise needed for NT is right in
the ballpark needed for Unix/Linux; so if you're going to have the
spend the time learning how to deal with an OS, you might as well
spend it learning the OS that built the Internet and that will
be with us well into the future, instead of one that represents
a recycling of the bad ideas from Windows, VMS, and other failures.
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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