Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Linux or Unix: Making the right decision
> ,----[ Qoute ]
> | So, Windows is no longer cutting the mustard and you need a more scalable,
> | reliable and higher performing environment...
> |
> | Having used Unix and Linux in a corporate environment, I can tell
> | you choosing between the two operating systems is never an easy task.
It's also usually not black and white. These days most clients are
choosing a "blend" of Linux and UNIX. Enterprise databases, high
reliability, and high security servers are usually kept on UNIX, in the
back. Market share by revenue is going down because the cost and
capacity of UNIX servers is going down. A single UNIX server often
does the work of 8-10 servers of the previous generation, thanks to
virtualization and LPARs. These days all of the major UNIX vendors
offer some form of "partitioning" and virtualization. Much of this
technology was actually created by IBM as part of their VM/CMS system,
and has been incorporated into newer versions of both Linux and UNIX.
Linux is often the "new wineskin for new wine". Newer applications are
being implemented in a component based architecture using SOA, GLOBUS
Clustering, or CORBA clustering (J2EE). Applications are designed to
be deployed across blade servers. Ironically, even the blades are
often configured as virtual machines, eliminating dependencies on
hardware and enabling rapid deployment/redeployment of systems on any
blade regardless of it's hardware configuration.
The biggest advantage of deployment of new projects on Linux is that
it's possible to do the development on a laptop, either a virtual
machine under VMWare for Windows, or Linux "native" mode, allowing
workers to work in hotels, airplanes, client locations, and home
offices, without having to wait to be connected to the "big server".
When the UNIX provided services are standardized, it's even possible to
use Linux as the primary. For example, if the UNIX server will be
running DB2 or Oracle, the Linux version can be used for development.
> | The decision usually comes down to money and what people are most
> | comfortable with. We will get more into the details in subsequent
> | articles in our series.
It also comes to experience, trust, and safety. Many people have no
problem using Linux as a front-end, the "customer display area", but
don't really want to use it as the company "bank vault".
> `----
> http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid39_gci1220437,00.html
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