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Date:      Thu, 20 Sep 2001 18:25:55 +0200
From:      Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be>
To:        Alex Dyas <adyas@twowaytv.com>, <chat@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD and Intel Solaris
Message-ID:  <p05100323b7cfc738a32a@[194.78.144.27]>
In-Reply-To: <20010920125718.E43775-100000@r2d2.twowaytv.co.uk>
References:  <20010920125718.E43775-100000@r2d2.twowaytv.co.uk>

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At 1:08 PM +0100 9/20/01, Alex Dyas wrote:

>  however, i'm just not convinced that Solaris on Intel is a mature enough
>  technology to be basing a lot of stock in.  from my experience, FreeBSD has a
>  far more established user base, and probably has much better hardware
>  compatibility.  also support is very good, something i'm not sure is true for
>  solaris-intel.
>
>  anyone here have any Solaris on Intel experience, good or bad?

	Sun is involved with Solaris on Intel but not committed, whereas 
it is committed to Solaris on SPARC (think about it -- the chicken is 
involved in making breakfast, but the pig is committed).

	This is basically a "play" environment for Solaris, to allow 
people to familiarize themselves with it, and then convince them to 
upgrade to a "real" Solaris machine on SPARC.


	Familiarity with the OS gets you so far.  But when support for 
all sorts of standard (and not-so-standard) hardware isn't there, 
patches are either non-existent or way, way, way behind their SPARC 
equivalents, and Linux or FreeBSD can handle probably ten times the 
load of Solaris on that same machine (from my own personal 
experience, based on taking down an old Solaris/x86 box as an 
anonymous ftp server and rebuilding it first with Linux and then 
later with FreeBSD), I really don't think that there is much of a 
real comparison to be made.

>  I'm trying to be objective here.  I need a good argument.  It may 
>even be that
>  FreeBSD isn't suited on this particular occasion.

	Depends on the purpose of the machines.  If this is to create 
simple X terminals sitting on people's desks, then Solaris/x86 may be 
a good choice -- the load probably won't be high, and the operating 
environment will be familiar.  However, if the plan is to run "real" 
services on those machines, I would challenge you to find a 
Solaris/x86 configuration that could come anywhere remotely close to 
performing as well as Linux or FreeBSD on that same machine.

	However, the only real way to know is to try it.  So, give it a 
shot, and let us know how things work out -- if FreeBSD isn't the 
best choice for your particular application, let us know why and 
where FreeBSD falls down, and maybe this can be fixed in the near 
future.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad.knowles@skynet.be>

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