[rescue] OT: Linux and USB on Intel

[N. Miller]

On Mon, 21 Apr 2003 16:53:40 -0400 (EDT), "r. 'bear' stricklin"
<red at bears.org> said:
> On Mon, 21 Apr 2003, N. Miller wrote:
> 
> > While I don't really have an opinion on the rest of Dave's comments,
> > I do have to agree with this point.  Solaris jobs are few and far
> > between for this very reason.  Companies like Amazon have come to
> > realize that there is no point in paying large sums for E10K's w/high
> > dollar support contracts when they can switch over to x86 and
> > simply keep their own spare parts depot on site for less overhead.
> 
> Wait a minute, I worked for Amazon.com during the E10k time. I was
> actually one of the E10k sysadmins, for that matter. There was no x86
> system large enough, at that time, to do that job. There still really
> isn't, taking into account the growth of data they would've experienced.
> 
> The pressure to dump the E10k (which ran the CRM/ERP data warehouse) was
> totally political, and they dumped it for an HP Superdome shortly after I
> left. Not for linux.
> 
> Linux came in, as I understand it, from my spies who still work there,
> when the Superdome crashed and burned and left the site down for 48
> hours.
> Then it came up for about 8 and was down for another 30 or some such. HP
> would've been finished at Amazon, except they stepped up to give (at no
> cost) all the x86 hardware they needed to convert to linux... which you
> may have read still hasn't taken over the datacenter. I imagine that's
> still largely Tru64 and Solaris, just like it was when I was there,
> except
> likely some EOL replacements and new projects implemented on HP-UX.
> 
> >From your postscript it sounds like you have some inside knowledge, and I
> admit things have probably changed a lot in the three years since I was
> there. I'm not too proud to stand corrected.

A good friend of mine (mr. squirrel.com) still works there--probably you
know him, and he you.  I don't know all the politics of the situation.
I'm operating from the fact that my friend never mentioned the interim
steps that you talk about (which is not to say that it didn't happen), 
and that in every interview that I have had in the last 12 mo. w/them, 
every single person has said that the migration to Linux is complete 
except for some internal systems (well, OK, the HR peeps did not 
say that :-).  They are eating the Linux Oracle beta dog food.

Given what I have read about Google's set up and other large 
companuy's, I still say that Solaris is losing to the commodity 
theory of computing.  Not to mention that fresh grads with
several years of Linux SA experience from college are a great
deal cheaper than folks like me with nearly 10 yrs. of experience
and little of that in Linux production support.

=Nadine=
-- 
  N. Miller
  vraptor at promessage.com