Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 14:41:29 +0000 From: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com> To: bjc23@hermes.cam.ac.uk Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD vs Linux Message-ID: <3559B119.FFB05C05@uk.radan.com> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980513110325.241E-100000@bjc23.trin.cam.ac.uk>
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Ben Cohen
wrote:
>
> I seem to remember that Hotmail was bought by Microsoft and that they
> tried to use NT and that it couldn't cope with the strain so they had to
> use FreeBSD or something...is that right?
>
You're
right, but
it was
(is)
Solaris.
The
following
was posted
in
-advocacy
a couple
of weeks
ago, but
it's so
enteraining
it bears
repeating.
Enjoy :-)
This
concerns
Microsoft's
purchase
of one of
the "free
email"
providers
(HotMail).
They give
you a free
account,
then fill
your inbox
with
advertising
(there
ain't no
such thing
as a free
lunch).
Anyway, I
thought
you'd be
interested
in this
email
making
its' way
around the
company:
-------------
Begin
Forwarded
Message
-------------
Date: Fri,
24 Apr
1998
09:46:42
-0500
(CDT)
Subject:
Solaris
calls
Hotmail
shots for
Microsoft
Great
article
about
Microsoft
being
forced to
use
Solaris
for
scalability
after
failing
with NT.
Great
quote from
the
director
of
architechure
at
Microsoft
Network:
"We looked
at all the
on-line
mail
services
and
Hotmail
was far
and away
the
best. It
has the
most
proven and
scalable
architecture."
-----(snip)-----
Solaris
calls
Hotmail
shots for
Microsoft
Microsoft
has
decided to
get the
hots for
Sun and is
using
Solaris to
run its
acclaimed
Hotmail
web-based
e-mail
service
instead of
NT.
The
software
giant has
attempted
to
exchange
the
Sun/Solaris
infrastructure
of Hotmail
with NT
since
buying it
in
December
1997.
However,
the
demands of
supporting
10 million
users
reportedly
proved
too great
for NT,
and
Solaris
was
reinstated.
In a
leaked
report,
sources
close to
Hotmail
said:
"... its
whole mail
server
infrastructure
is
Solaris.
NT
couldn't
handle it.
On the web
server,
they're
running MP
Pentiums
and Apache
on
FreeBSD.
They're
moving to
Solaris
for
threads.
The
engineering
team did
its best
to run
NT - and
failed.
The
issue's
being
escalated."
Hotmail is
running
Apache's
/1.2.1 web
server
which is
not
available
for NT due
to
technical
difficulties.
A
statement
on
Apache's
website
states:
"The road
to Windows
NT has not
been a
pretty
one.
Several
attempts
have been
made, both
by Apache
Group
members
and
outside
folks, but
due to a
lack of
stability
and a
clear
consensus
on how to
manage a
true
cross-platform
development
project,
NT is not
yet a
standard
platform
supported
by
Apache."
Microsoft
is
currently
recruiting
engineers
for
Hotmail,
but NT
specialists
need not
apply.
Hotmail's
website
lists
vacancies
for an
operations
software
engineer
and a QA
engineer -
and the
common
requirement
is for
Unix
experience.
Judy
Gibbons,
director
of the
Microsoft
Network,
was
unaware of
the
hardware
behind
Hotmail,
but said:
"We looked
at all the
on-line
mail
services
and
Hotmail
was far
and away
the best.
It has the
most
proven
and
scalable
architecture."
First
appeared
in Network
News,
22-April -
1998
-------------
End
Forwarded
Message
-------------
>
> Ben.
>
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