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Sun to Use Intel Chips in Some Servers
PhysOrg.com ^ | 01/22/2007 | Jordan Robertson

Posted on 01/22/2007 11:02:02 AM PST by zeugma

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Quite Interesting
1 posted on 01/22/2007 11:02:03 AM PST by zeugma
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To: zeugma
I am a UNIX software developer doing digital signal processing. I like the Solaris OS. I like it better than Linux... but from a business point of view, Sun needs to drop Solaris and transition to Linux.
2 posted on 01/22/2007 11:09:26 AM PST by avacado
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To: zeugma

Sun is still around?


3 posted on 01/22/2007 11:16:11 AM PST by MarkeyD (The tree of liberty must from time to time be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.)
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To: avacado
I am a UNIX software developer doing digital signal processing. I like the Solaris OS. I like it better than Linux... but from a business point of view, Sun needs to drop Solaris and transition to Linux.

You have a point, but I'd like to think there is a place for both OSes. Solaris 10 has some excellent features not really available in Linux.

Sun is going to have a real problem though as their low-end boxes are having their lunch eaten by  Dell, HP and others. The problem with that, is that while the migration from Linux to Sun isn't huge, it's still something that places a roadblock in the way of using the bigger iron available in the larger Sun servers.

Our shop is moving towards moving a lot of our web applications to Linux VMware containers running on HP blades from Solaris servers.

4 posted on 01/22/2007 11:46:57 AM PST by zeugma (If the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.)
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To: zeugma
You make good points and I do miss Solaris at times. We process massive amounts of digital data so we have over 1000 clusters with some 80 nodes per cluster. Maintaining a make system for two different OSes was a nightmare. We have transitioned off of Solaris and onto Linux only.

If Sun wants to compete, then they need to go head-on and build Linux systems.
5 posted on 01/22/2007 11:55:53 AM PST by avacado
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To: zeugma

Random PC question - I just figured I'd post in on a IT themed thread.

I just removed a instance of keylogging spyware from my computer this weekend and this question occured to me. Would it make any difference to save passwords in some obscure file tucked away somewhere and then cut & paste log ins and PWs, instead of typing them, when using my financial sites?


6 posted on 01/22/2007 12:19:33 PM PST by Sax
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To: Sax

I just removed a instance of keylogging spyware from my computer this weekend and this question occured to me. Would it make any difference to save passwords in some obscure file tucked away somewhere and then cut & paste log ins and PWs, instead of typing them, when using my financial sites?


7 posted on 01/22/2007 12:22:59 PM PST by zeugma (If the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.)
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To: Sax
Sorry, fat fingers screwed that last response. 

 

I just removed a instance of keylogging spyware from my computer this weekend and this question occured to me. Would it make any difference to save passwords in some obscure file tucked away somewhere and then cut & paste log ins and PWs, instead of typing them, when using my financial sites?

I doubt it would help much. I'd be extra-careful on that PC with spyware unless you wiped the disk and reloaded the OS. The only sure way to clean a trojaned PC is to load from trusted media from scratch.

8 posted on 01/22/2007 12:23:50 PM PST by zeugma (If the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.)
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To: avacado
"If Sun wants to compete, then they need to go head-on and build Linux systems."

There is no such thing as a "Linux system".

Almost any x86 server can run most standard Linux distributions. Similarly, almost any x86 server can run Microsoft Windows.

So any of these Sun Intel Xeon systems can run Linux, Windows, BSD, Solaris, VMware, and other operating systems.

Just like Sun's AMD Opteron based systems can run Linux, Windows, BSD, Solaris, VMware, and other operating systems.

Just like Sun's Intel Xeon servers from four years ago (V60 and V65) could run Linux, Windows, BSD, Solaris, and other operating systems.

Just like Sun's Intel server from five years ago (LX50) could run Linux, Solaris, and other operating systems.

And Sun sells SPARC servers which can run Linux and Solaris.

And IBM sells POWER5 systems which can run Linux and AIX.

And HP sells Intel Itanium systems which can run Linux, HP-UX, OpenVMS, and Windows.

9 posted on 01/22/2007 8:20:30 PM PST by magellan
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My company just took delivery of 6 new HP servers. 4 HP DL365s and 2 DL 385s. They came with dual AMD Opterons. I can't wait to start playing with them!

Mark

10 posted on 01/22/2007 8:25:54 PM PST by MarkL (When Kaylee says "No power in the `verse can stop me," it's cute. When River says it, it's scary!)
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To: zeugma
"Our shop is moving towards moving a lot of our web applications to Linux VMware containers running on HP blades from Solaris servers."

Similar to my previous comment, there is no such thing as a "Solaris server".

There are 815 systems (740 x86/x64 systems, and 75 SPARC systems) which can run Solaris.

The vast majority of these 815 systems are not built by Sun.

11 posted on 01/22/2007 8:27:47 PM PST by magellan
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To: MarkL
My company just took delivery of 6 new HP servers. 4 HP DL365s and 2 DL 385s. They came with dual AMD Opterons. I can't wait to start playing with them!

To run Windows or Linux? We have a few of these - we have all HP servers, but these were our first that were AMD based. Previously all were Intel.

We ran into some problems related to the AMD PowerNow!/Cool'n'Quiet technology (which slows the cores independently of each other based on need, to save power).

Check out the AMD web site for the latest dual core "drivers". A change that the AMD installer makes (adding /usepmtimer to boot.ini for Windows 2003/XP) solved our problem.

When the AMD slows one of the cores, you basically have two (or more) CPUs running at different clock rates and that can screw up things that depend on the CPU clock for timing. It's mostly a problem for gaming, but we had problems with software that kept performance counters for statistics.

12 posted on 01/22/2007 8:34:06 PM PST by Mannaggia l'America
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To: magellan
"If Sun wants to compete, then they need to go head-on and build Linux systems."

"There is no such thing as a "Linux system".

Excuse me but I know what I am talking about. I'm a digital signal process developer writing parallel software to run on 1000s of nodes. Our clusters are Linux systems. That is how they are referred to. When we run on Solaris, we call that Solaris systems.

We deal in more than just a "server."

...

13 posted on 01/23/2007 5:05:47 AM PST by avacado
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To: avacado

out of curiousity, which distribution(s) of linux do you use?


14 posted on 01/23/2007 5:16:13 AM PST by chilepepper (The map is not the territory -- Alfred Korzybski)
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To: chilepepper
We use quite of few of the Linux distributions. We change as distributions change. We have on our clusters: Redhat, SUSE, and now Centos.
15 posted on 01/23/2007 5:27:24 AM PST by avacado
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To: avacado

If Sun dropped Solaris to concentrate on Linux there would be nothing to differentiate them from RedHat.

As their hardware transitions more towards the generic, Solaris is really the only thing that keeps them from becoming one of the crowd.


16 posted on 01/23/2007 5:44:57 AM PST by VeniVidiVici (Celebrate Monocacy!)
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To: VeniVidiVici
"If Sun dropped Solaris to concentrate on Linux there would be nothing to differentiate them from RedHat."

No one is interested in Solaris anymore. Look at Sun's stock price... it's in the toliet. Sun should have jumped on Linux a long time ago.

17 posted on 01/23/2007 5:48:13 AM PST by avacado
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To: avacado

Sun committed Apple hari-kiri: they demanded a premium for their hardware and software while the rest of the market raced by them.

Becoming a Linux only dealer is not the way to profitability.

Personally I think all the big players are going to consolidate on Intel/AMD eventually. As the multi-core market takes-off the proprietary chips that continue to be made, and sold at a premium, won't be in demand.


18 posted on 01/23/2007 5:55:08 AM PST by VeniVidiVici (Celebrate Monocacy!)
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To: chilepepper
out of curiousity, which distribution(s) of linux do you use?

I know you asked avacado this question, but I'd like to jump into the fray! :-)

I'm a Unix sysadmin and our shop was almost exclusively Solaris, but has branched out to linux as well. We're using Redhat Linux Enterprise. I've used it for DNS servers that I migrated from Solaris... it was easy and pretty seemless! I like Redhat!

19 posted on 01/23/2007 5:59:18 AM PST by rochester_veteran (born and raised in rachacha!)
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To: VeniVidiVici
"Sun committed Apple hari-kiri: they demanded a premium for their hardware and software while the rest of the market raced by them. "

They certainly did. And I never understood why they just let it happen. I still don't understand. We process massive amounts of seismic data and need 1000s upon 1000s of nodes and there is no way that Sun (hardware/OS) is cost effective.

Sun's business model is a mystery to me.

20 posted on 01/23/2007 6:06:35 AM PST by avacado
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