Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2001 15:31:23 +0100 From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> To: "Valence Logrus" <valence@symboliq.org> Cc: <advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Hotmail _still_ runs FreeBSD! Message-ID: <030701c18575$2ca87570$0a00000a@atkielski.com> References: <20011215041054.H40531-100000@arctic.icelab.net>
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That would correlate with what I read as well. Apparently Hotmail has used Solaris for a long time, but with a highly customized MTA for their mail system. I doubt that any off-the-shelf mail system can handle 60 million accounts with no scaling issues, and Microsoft Exchange Server certainly could not (MS tried and failed to replace the custom system with MXS), even though MXS is a fine e-mail system in itself. The continuing use of Solaris probably does not represent superiority of Solaris or UNIX so much as it shows that a customized solution is needed, and customizing Microsoft Exchange Server is not an option, even for MS, as it is too complicated to modify for just one use. Of course, with open-source software that is much simpler in design, it's far easier to modify it to do whatever you want. By now, Hotmail's e-mail software has probably evolved (or mutated!) quite a bit from whatever base was first used to develop it. And the choice of Solaris as a UNIX flavor probably just reflects the state of the market at the time Hotmail first started its development. By now they probably have a lot of dependencies on Solaris idiosyncrasy in their custom code, so they are locked in. I suspect that if Hotmail did want to migrate off Solaris, FreeBSD would be a very obvious choice for an open-source replacement, and it would be far easier than trying to migrate to Windows. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Valence Logrus" <valence@symboliq.org> To: "Trish Lynch" <trish@bsdunix.net> Cc: "Chris Coleman" <chrisc@vmunix.com>; "Haikal Saadh" <wyldephyre2@yahoo.com>; <advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2001 12:12 Subject: Re: Hotmail _still_ runs FreeBSD! > Hotmail definately uses Solaris on the back end, they just renewed > $5.5Million+ worth of support contracts with us (Sun). Those bastards call > in with the most rediculous crap all the time... > > > -Real Geeks Like Their Women Rack Mounted > > On Thu, 13 Dec 2001, Trish Lynch wrote: > > » On Thu, 13 Dec 2001, Chris Coleman wrote: > » > » > > > » > > How do you know Solaris isn;t the UNIX they were talking about? > » > > » > Um, the article specifically mentions FreeBSD at least twice. :-) I do > » > believe they had Solaris, so I am not disputing that. > » > > » > » I meant Microsoft, I know plenty of people at Hotmail, and last I heard, > » Solaris was on the back end, and Win2k on the front. > » > » > » > » -- > » Trish Lynch trish@bsdunix.net > » FreeBSD The Power to Serve > » Ecartis Core Team trish@listmistress.org > » http://www.freebsd.org > » > » > » > » To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > » with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message > » > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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