[geeks] A Real OS? (was: Re: my capitalization.. etc.)

[Kurt Huhn]

> Hm. I'm going to step out on a limb here and make idle conjecture. My
> assumption is if NetBSD had as much name recognition and grassroots buzz
> as linux did, Sun and similar would be backing it instead (or, heck,
> even in addition). I find Linux pretty silly as an OS. I also find it
> ill-suited to enterprise environments. I think Linux just finds itself
> in a convenient position of there being a definite backlash from
> Microsoft and closed source software. It makes it convenient for Sun to
> market linux and IBM to market linux -- but I'm sure they'd be just as
> happy with one of the free BSD flavors if people knew about them.
> 
> perhaps I should go start a bsd propaganda campaign. hm.
> 

Ah, but the penguin is soooo cute!  I think a lot of people don't
undertand the little red daemon - and even if they did.  It's kind of an
inside joke among the geeks of the world, and regular folks just don't
get it.

I mostly agree.  I think that if the same number of developers were
working on BSD as Linux, then yes BSD would be much more of a viable OS
for everything.  The problem I see, and I don't know why it exists, is
that stuff simply simply isn't available for BSD that is for Linux (and
vice versa) except under Linux binary compatability mode.

However, having used Linux in enterprise environments, I do think that
it's well-suited for particular tasks.  It takes a little work - you
can't just install the OS in default mode and slam it into production
without work, but the same is true of any OS.

If I had my druthers, Solaris/Sparc would be my choice for servers, it's
a tossup for workstations (Solaris/Sparc, Linux, Mac OS X), firewalls
and load balancers would be BSD, I like the idea of SGI systems as
database servers but a fast Sun is equally attractive, fileservers would
be NetApp, and the rest get's figured out as needed.  That's for work -
since the powers-that-be need crap like cost-justifications, ROI,
marketing material to give to potential customers, industry "standards"
to adhere to, etc.

If it was *my* company, it might be a different story.
-- 
Kurt
kurt at k-huhn.com