Charles Shannon Hendrix said:

>I cannot get xfs or fast 3D graphics support in a NetBSD box.  Even the
>sound support is not as nice.  I also cannot get high-end server support,
>can't run on IBM mainframes, etc.

This is support that came about because commercial UNIX companies want
the approval of Linux users.

>I for one want to see people like IBM make good on their promises to
>boost Linux kernel strength, make SMP better, make some good hardware
>for Linux... that sort of thing.

IBM is doing value added. They aren't touching the kernel core. I worked
a contract at IBM last year. You hear a lot of talk about Linux there, but
you don't see much of it. Mostly AIX and Windoze. plus the mainframe stuff.

They had a "special" Redhat distribution for internal use that included a
Citrix client and Lotus Notes plus Wine.

>They and others talk a lot... but that's about it.  The real work of
>Linux is still being done by the same people as always.

Exactly. If you want something in the kernel you have to convince Linus,
Alan Cox, etc.

>Well, I found 800 series machines, nice little purple server towers,
>for just a few hundred on ebay.  1000A/2000A systems (like 16 64-bit
>PCI slots, a SCSI drive backplane, etc) for less.  They are big and
>relatively slow CPUs, but they run like clockwork.

Yeah, I've been looking at these. There are a lot of resellers of used
Alpha systems out there.

>Yeah, but have you looked at a "real" Sun?  Tell me that isn't a PC
>with a SPARC CPU in it.  Those Blade systems are still better than a PC,
>but they are bloody awful compared to the U2 systems and earlier.

And I don't like IDE drives all that much. At least the Sun Enterprise
servers are still pretty sturdy.

>Even with NetBSD, such bugs exist, including a particularly nasty one in
>1.5.2 which I have seen 4 times recently bring my system down.  It seems
>it's on track to be fixed in 1.5.3.

I've been chasing 1.5.3_ALPHA on both sparc and intel with good results.
I just finished "make build' on a sparc 1. Damn that takes a long time. :-)



-- 
Rick Kelly  rmk@rmkhome.com  www.rmkhome.com