Most of the NYSE's programs' heavy lifting will be done by Unix, with Linux doing peripheral tasks like data communications. The Unix is IBM's AIX, of course; the particular Linux distro in use was not disclosed.
Windows may still own the business desktop for a while, but *NIX has the credibility when it comes to serious reliability and stability requirements. For fans of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), it's particularly refreshing to see that bastion of capitalism, the NYSE, choosing Unix and Linux -- often derided as anti-capitalist operating systems -- for such mission-critical use.
IBGE
Oh wait, I posted the article... no fair. ;-)
How long before they move it China?
And yet another "When will the huge savings we were promised ever materialize?" story is born.
I'm a Unix/Linux fan, but at least the last time I used it 6 years ago, AIX was garbage.
The “Big Iron” you so disparagingly speak of is in itself very modern. It’s just a difference in processing power. You can’t run large systems such as Equifax, GE Financial and Choicepoint on Unix servers. It’s economy of scale. You actually need less people to run a large mainframe than a bunch of small boxes. Of course that’s a cultural decision also. Instead of a bunch of Gen-X,Y,Z booger-pickers talking on cell phones to their homies and text messaging during meetings you have a few old farts like me.
It sounds like they can still keep their COBOL and JCL, though.
When our lab moves operations to Linux-based solutions, we find that the applications run anywhere from 1.5x - 5x faster on the same platform. We’ve never (to the best of my knowledge) found an app that is slower. Linux (Unix) also tends to be far more reliable after the (inevitable) initial bugs are worked out of the system.
I wonder how much royalties M$ is intending to attempt to extort from the NYSE now? Somehow, I have a sneaking suspicion that IBM and NYSE are ready for anything MS thinks it has up its sleeve.
This announcement will to a great deal to calm the fears that some small operators have in the wake of MS “patents are being violated by Linux” foolishness this month.