water cooler :: OS chart dealie

At work we have HPUX and RH Linux compute and file servers for CAD/CAM . XP for office and communacations.  At home I have DSL Linux and Windows 98.

Linux/ hpux compute and file servers runs mission critical apps. The apps can be ported to usofts but nobody is stupid enough todo that. These systems runs 24/7. Typically up for 6 months or more before a scheduled downtime for maintenance. once in awhile when isolated server crashed its due to board failure. Due to the OS realibitily and accoutability requirements usoft is out of the question.

Windows XP is used for emailing, calendar, netmeeting and office apps (excel, powerpoint, words). Engineering community can live without it (well not entirely true) but business and admins cant. Due to wide apps availibility and wide general users acceptance *nix is out of the question.

At home I have Windows 98 for games, audio apps such as Fruity Loop Midi sequencer, noteworthy composer for music composing, software drivers for musical instruments connectivity, office apps,  Cakewalk, Finale, voyetra, sibelius. Due to games and music apps requirement, *nix is out of the question. Why win98 and not XP? becoz I dont need to upgrade and spend the money.

At home I use DSL Linux for browsing, file server, web server, ssh server, vnc, light editing, enjoying dvd,mp3 , cd burning, bit torrenting, icq, irc.
why Linux and not Win 98/XP? I got sick of adware, spyware installing itself, modify my browser homepage location;  on my computer when browsing notorious websites ie hackers, warez etc.  also I have a long list of ways to hang windows and unfortunately the list keep increasing everyday. XP claimed to be multithread OS, but try ejecting your dvd while viewing it, multithread MY FOOT!! I still am trying to figure out how to hang DSL Linux

Why DSL Linux and not <insert your fav distro here>? becoz its small and I load toram on laptop to reduce chances of hardware failure due to harsh mobility.  I only run frugal becoz I dont like leaving traces; I only backup/restore what I want. Mydsl extensions is godsend



OS used: vax vms, ibm 0s/390, cp/m, palmos, usoft ce, ME, * 98, * 95, 311, dos, 2k, nt4, symbian, drdos, * linux, hpux, solaris, aix, sunos.

my os philosophy is simple: " It's stupid to run single thread OS on hardware capable of multi threads." and "It's stupid for apps developers not to develop apps on multi thread OS"

unfortunately a lot of people thought XP, NT4, W2K are multi-thread. To me, a multi-thread OS only crashes the apps NOT the computer. *nix are true multi-thread OS, the computer never hangs despite how poorly written is the apps.

I think you are misunderstanding the idea behing multithreading.

Multithreading allows for efficient use of multiple processors (afaik).

But the reason the whole OS goes down when an app crashes in Win32 based OSes is because they are microkernel bases OSes.

Every "process" that is running "docks" to the kernel, effectively becoming part of the kernel, until it is finished.

Linux (and possibly BSD, not sure about that though) are monolythic kernels. All processes are run independent to the kernel, so it's near impossible to take down the whole OS when Firefox suddenly decides to cry "fubar!". It's a much saner way to handle things.

It's also the old-fashioned way, but, obviously, it is still much more stable than the "new" way. A case of "why did they try to reinvent the wheel?", if you ask me.



-J.P.