Choosing linux over Solaris
little_help
over Solaris (Sparc and x86). I know the basic differences such as
portability, etc. It seems most it tied to the app and scalability -
Sparc being more scalable than a linux server. Are there any other
considerations? Thanks.
ji...@specsol.spam.sux.com
Depends on what you are using it for as there is a huge difference
between say a engineering workstation and something that is processing
millions of dollars of transactions and has to do it 24/7/365.
Some items that may or may not be important in a given situation:
hardware support
software support
warrenty terms
commercial applications
software development tools
company standardization policies
staff skill levels
support and availability other devices, e.g. tape libraries, huge arrays, etc.
remote administration
--
Jim Pennino
Remove .spam.sux to reply.
Dagon
>I would like to get opinions on when it is appropriate to choose linux
>over Solaris (Sparc and x86).
Umm, when it fits your needs better? This is such a general question that
only general answers will be available.
>I know the basic differences such as portability, etc. It seems most it
>tied to the app and scalability - Sparc being more scalable than a linux
>server.
The era of one-box scaling is long gone except for very specialized
applications. If scale matters at all, you should plan on running n-tier
systems with many machines at each layer. This doesn't eliminate the desire
for more capable individual machines, but changes the tradeoffs between cost,
size, energy/cooling required, and speed (and for that, iops are often more
important than mips).
Hell, for many new apps, you shouldn't even be asking this question, you
should be asking which virtualized cloud system is best for you.
>Are there any other considerations? Thanks.
Compatibility with other systems and libraries you want to use, ease of
hiring developers, availability of hosting support (virts and real), ease of
getting of development/test systems, amount of help available from vendor
or internet sources.
Speaking as someone who had a sparc pizza box both at work and at home for
years, followed by DEC alphas, today I'd only choose sparc/solaris over
x86/linux (or x86/bsd!) if I had some very specific hardware or application
requirement that mandated it.
--
Mark Rafn da...@dagon.net <http://www.dagon.net/>
Jeff Haferman
>
> Speaking as someone who had a sparc pizza box both at work and at home for
> years, followed by DEC alphas, today I'd only choose sparc/solaris over
> x86/linux (or x86/bsd!) if I had some very specific hardware or application
> requirement that mandated it.
An example *might* be ZFS...
mtfe...@netmapsonscape.net
Oracle...
Mike
Jeff Haferman
Also, I just installed OpenSolaris on an Ultra 24, and it seems much
snappier (running JDS = gnome) than the Linux distros that I'm used to
(Ubuntu, RHEL, Centos, Fedora)....
Doug Freyburger
> Jeff Haferman <jeff.h...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dagon <da...@dagon.net> wrote:
>
>>> Speaking as someone who had a sparc pizza box both at work and at home for
>>> years, followed by DEC alphas, today I'd only choose sparc/solaris over
>>> x86/linux (or x86/bsd!) if I had some very specific hardware or application
>>> requirement that mandated it.
You may have some CAD package or whatever that is not
available on Linux. Fewer and fewer packages are only
available on Solaris.
>> An example *might* be ZFS...
That's not an application. It's infrastructure. What
it does can be emulated using many other tools. If I
were to build a new Solaris box I'd use ZFS but it would
not be the determining factor.
> Oracle...
I do remote support of production Oracle in several data
centers for several clients. Tastes great, less filling.
Consider that Oracle's main development base is now Oracle
Unbreakable Linux with Solaris as an early port of new
versions.
The reasons I may chose Solaris over Linux tend to be
infrastructure related. No matter the claims SAN storage
works better on Solaris than Linux. The Emulex drivers
blow in Linux on how they scan the bus for new devices
and set up persistent binding.
The reasons I may chose Linux over Solaris tend to be
modularity related. The boxes are smaller so they can
be added and removed from clusters. Linux hosts can be
retasked more easily.
inv...@domain.invalid
> Also, I just installed OpenSolaris on an Ultra 24, and it seems much
> snappier (running JDS = gnome) than the Linux distros that I'm used to
> (Ubuntu, RHEL, Centos, Fedora)....
Those distros are notoriously slow. Try Slackware, Arch, Crux, or Gentoo for
a more accurate baseline of what a good performing Linux can do. FWIW the
performance of SUSE is also intolerable.