Screaming Penguin

developerWorks has a nice article about porting from Solaris to Linux. There are pros and cons of course, the tool needs to fit the job, etc, but personally, I generally prefer Linux for several key reasons. 1. Cost - Solaris is good, and Sun hardware is great, but it is way overpriced. You can literally setup a cluster of 5 Intel/Linux machines with more memory and CPU power for the same price as a single SPARC/Solaris machine. 2. Support - Solaris support is ok, but again expensive and when it comes right down to it open source support is BETTER than any commercially available. I have used Solaris support, I have used MS support, I have used IBM support, I have used Compaq support, etc, etc, etc,, when the guy who WROTE the software emails you back an hour later, trust me, its BETTER. And if he doesnt respond, 10 other people will on mailing lists if your answer isnt already archived. Also, if you want you can purchase commerical support for Linux. 3. Security - open is better by far than proprietary. I know there are many aspects to this and it is hotly debated, but from my personal experience (and common sense if you analyze it) open is much better. Making something totally known and understood yet unbreakable based on its superior design is far better than something nobody is supposed to know the details of and basiing security on that obscurity. 4. Open Source Community and Licensing - you are much better off with a real open source license AND lets face it, you run Sendmail, ISC BIND, ISC DHCP, Apache, OpenSSH, etc, etc, etc whether you are using Linux OR Solaris. So if you use open source software it only makes sense to use an open source operating system and help with the overall process. The linked developerWorks article has a few more abstract reasons such as "stability", "flexibility", etc, but the overall impression is the same. The article also gets into issues involved, resources to consult and much more. Especially now, in the days of no more Solaris Intel (maybe) this article is pertinent. And even if you use Solaris on Sun hardware, you should still conside the best solution for your own situation the next time upgrade time comes around (ie next time you want to add some memory to one Sun box and the price tag is 4-8K, just for the memory!, why not get 4-8 complete Intel/Linux machines!) Check the article via the link. ---------->   Solaris to Linux porting guide: developerWorks