In message <B0000170285@redwood.etool.com>, Drew Mouton writes:
>Anyway, now I've got to swap in these quad-proc PPros (redundant power, 
>My understanding is that SMP under the Lin 2.0x kernel is still 
>experimental; also, I feel like I only have mediocre UN*x admin skills - 
>that's not my main bag - but what exp I have IS with Linux. Meanwhile, 
>I'm hearing that NetBSD has been really tweaked as a web-server (and that 
>Yahoo is running NetBSD - is this true?).

No, they run FreeBSD.  They're similar but different.  NetBSD runs on more
kinds of computers, FreeBSD often has performance tweaks sooner.

>Ultimately, I'm aiming for the capabilities - and most importantly the 
>_scalability_ of a bigass ISP (even though we don't do mass-market 
>stuff), but next-to-nil admin time.

Well, you're familiar with Linux, so SVR4 (or Solaris) will be more familiar
to you than, say, NetBSD, but I wouldn't bother spending money on it.

>So...someone be willing to share some thoughts?

My advice:  Keep using Linux for now, since it's what you know.  You may
want to get a single box running NetBSD to experiment on.  If you want
support, I am currently dabbling in offering support for NetBSD, as well
as consulting/training/etc., or you could look at BSDI's BSD/OS, which is
Yet Another BSD-derived Unix.

I wouldn't worry about SMP.  For the most part, just running Unix gives you
as much performance as you really need, and the "hard" stuff you can often
manage by splitting tasks among machines.

Last I heard, NetBSD doesn't have SMP (but it's coming out soon, we hear),
BSD/OS's new SMP-capable version (which I expect will be *very* nice) just
started shipping this week, and FreeBSD and Linux have at least some kind
of multiprocessor support.

I would *not* recommend Solaris.  If you want a commercial Unix, go with
BSDI.  (Disclaimer:  I used to work there.  I may be biased.)

-s