Re: GPL'ing Solaris won't save SUN

From: Christopher Browne (cbbrowne_at_acm.org)
Date: 08/26/04 

Date: 26 Aug 2004 15:52:36 GMT

The world rejoiced as Casper H.S. Dik <Casper.Dik@Sun.COM> wrote:
> Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@acm.org> writes:
>
>>My employer is in the process of deep-sixing the Sun/Solaris hardware
>>in favor of IBM/AIX because of reliability issues. They'd have to do
>>something pretty tremendous to tempt us back.
>
> Hardware or software reliability issues?

Can't tell, conclusively.

Kernel panics resulting from memory getting scribbled on
inappropriately have been the "canonical" problem. The memory has
been replaced, repetitively. CPUs and carriers have been replaced, ad
nauseum.

About all that's left that's "original stock" is the case.

For all of the replacement hardware to have the same problems points
to either:

 a) The kernel being messed up, and that has been updated, or

 b) There being some more fundamental design flaw such that the
    systems _can't_ be stable.

    SMP cache coherency bugs would be the characteristic sort of thing
    that could be impossible to fix and nearly impossible to diagnose. 

-- 
(format nil "~S@~S" "cbbrowne" "ntlug.org")
http://cbbrowne.com/info/sgml.html
Save the whales. Collect the whole set.

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