SCO Unix

[kteicher]

Hi, our company is switching from an AS/400 type of computer to a UNIX based PC system.[nbsp][nbsp]I get to buy a server for this.[nbsp][nbsp]I know nothing about this.[nbsp][nbsp]Does any Intel Processor PC work for UNIX, or is there more to us.[nbsp][nbsp]Any insight, help, or references to resources would be appreciated.[nbsp][nbsp]I went to the IBM web site and they talk about UNIX with the RS6000, but not with the Netfinity series.[nbsp][nbsp]What gives!

Thanks,

Keith

[sheila]

Heh, heh. Completely took out my comments about Linux. (I had suggested a visit to www.linux.org (http://www.linux.org) among other things.)

Maybe you could get more info from the SCO people on what type of computers would fit your needs.

Here is their web site:
http://www.sco.com/
[This message has been edited by sheila (edited 08-24-99)]

[emonson]

As a user of both SCO and Linux at work, I would have to say you should probably go with Linux if you are going to make a long term committment.[nbsp][nbsp]SCO has two main OSs: OpenServer Release 5 and Unixware 7.[nbsp][nbsp]Both run on Intel hardware, and scale fairly well.

Unixware 7, from what I understand is one impressive OS, but I have my doubts about it competing with Linux, simply because SCO is charging so much for it.[nbsp][nbsp]There are quite a few way-cool tools in Unixware, such as a web-based management interface (that is better than ANYTHING I have seen).[nbsp][nbsp]Worth at least a look.

We have OpenServer, and IMHO, it is weak.[nbsp][nbsp]The functionality that you get with Linux (especially in contributed programs) just doesn't exist on OpenServer 5.[nbsp][nbsp]For example, the terminal emulation is so bad that when you hit the backspace key, it erases the previous character, but on the screen it looks like the cursor moved back one space (but didn't delete anything).[nbsp][nbsp]How confusing.[nbsp][nbsp]Seems like a small little problem, but we have 1000 users and it is a major factor.[nbsp][nbsp]

Linux simply won't put you through that.[nbsp][nbsp]Bugs are fixed much faster on Linux.[nbsp][nbsp]It's *MUCH* easier to get help on the internet.[nbsp][nbsp]And the software base for Linux (at least on the server side) is impressive, and getting more impressive every day.

There are a few issues though.[nbsp][nbsp]SCO seems to have better SMP support, if you use multiple processors.[nbsp][nbsp]But I have not had a single problem with Linux SMP.[nbsp][nbsp]Over the summer, I installed our first full-time Linux server where I work.[nbsp][nbsp]A Dell 4300 w/ dual-PIII-500, 1GB RAM, 27GB RAID5, redundant everything.[nbsp][nbsp]5 different web servers, a 2GB / 10,000,000 record MySQL database (10,000+ records added / hour), perl scripts to processes hourly 100MB network capture info, and custom applications to keep track of 1400 network devices and their status.[nbsp][nbsp]After installation, it had 45 days uptime until somebody accidentally cut the power.[nbsp][nbsp]

SCO, while not quite as reliable as Linux, can be considered reasonably stable.[nbsp][nbsp]We have SCO crashes that require a reboot from time to time, but other than that, uptime's been better than 99.9%.[nbsp][nbsp]So you can sleep well at night. :)

Personally, I would probably recommend Linux.[nbsp][nbsp]But Unixware is still probably worth a look.[nbsp][nbsp]Don't even consider OpenServer.



Erik
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