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NOTICE: This version of the NSF Unidata web site (archive.unidata.ucar.edu) is no longer being updated.
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To learn about what's going on, see About the Archive Site.
I didn't think that my general statements about Linux and Solaris would be used as an endorsement of a commercial NOAAPORT system. From what I've heard, the Planetary Data systems is a great system and I wasn't trying in any way to degrade the PDI system because it runs on Linux. I only mentioned our two systems because someone had mentioned PDI as a NOAAPORT vendor and I wanted to make sure Unisys was mentioned as well. Actually, I was trying to plug both... The reliability issue depends on the application. On that note, I think Linux is just as reliable as Solaris but I've had reliability issues with both. But these reliability issues seem to affect different applications in different ways. For example: my web server. We first set up the web server as a Solaris x86 system and ran Apache. During the 13 months this system was up, there was only one reboot and that was for a power outage in the facility the system was located. During the 18 months since we moved the web server to Linux (RH 6.0 and then 6.2), we've had over a dozen system crashes. These have related to known bugs in the kernel relating to NFS and bad sector IO. Upgrading the kernel has helped but it hasn't totally solved the crashes. Also, we've had some serious problems with IDE disk contention. On Solaris, high disk loads seem to be handled better. I've pounded a couple of Solaris x86 systems with NFS IO with little or no disk contention problems. With Linux, we've had contention problems where a 1MB tar file can take 2 seconds to untar and then 10 seconds later, it can take over 30 seconds. We may be expecting too much out of IDE systems. In early versions of Linux (6.0 was a good example) swapping applications was much slower than what I saw from Solaris. This was only an issue at high CPU utilization and its been less of an issue with recent Linux releases. On the other hand, I've had 3 GIF generators running using RH 6.0 for over a year with no problems or need for reboot. They crank out GIFs with no problems. The only hang-up is when the web server computer crashes but I can recover from this in Linux. I like the array of system tools with Linux and its extensive error logging (syslog). But then maybe I just don't know how to get similar logging with Solaris. Overall, I've been quite happy with Linux and use it for development and we use it internally in many areas. I'm just saying that no OS is perfect and each has its plusses as well as minuses. I'm not saying that our Unisys NOAAPORT system is better because we run Solaris. ________________________________________________________ Daniel Vietor Mail: devo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Unisys Corp Title: Engineer/Meteorologist 221 Gale Lane Phone: 610-925-5206 Kennett Square PA 19348 Fax: 610-925-5215 > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:owner-ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Stonie R. Cooper > Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2001 9:21 AM > To: ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: RE: debate over Linux and Solaris > > > It would be easy to fall into the trap of the recent flame > bait on the "debate over Linux and Solaris" issue, especially > given that a NOAAPort competitor of ours espouses that Linux > is slower than Solaris, unreliable, buggy....
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