Hi,

the messages I get in this conversation seem to be a little in disorder.

--- Schnipp ---
Hardware: I buy hardware for applications. For a critical system I 
wouldn't chose the OS because a ethernet or SCSI board is not 
supported by NetBSD, I would just buy another one. 
Software: if it's really needed and only available for linux of course I 
would install a linux system for it, but this should be really marginal (I=
 
don't know of a program available only for linux). For the average 
commercial soft I'd use solaris instead.
--- Schnapp ---

I have the Netgear GA620, it is the same driver for the 3Com and 
Acenic Gigabit adapters. Drivers are available for linux and 
OpenBSD, I don=B4t know of a NetBSD driver or another card to be 
uavailable for NetBSD. I think the GB card should work in the server 
for 5 to 10 years, a good reason to buy one. The same is to be said 
for my old SmartCache IV and the IPC Raid controllers. The file 
server serves mainly workstations with office applications and in 
future will serve NC=B4s, so Linux was a smart choice I think (the 
router works under NetBSD).

As for software, I know of many need to use VMWare, available for 
Linux and NT - only one choice for me.

I can recommend HPUX on PA Risc, Unixware on Intel, no 
experience on Solaris on Intel, works fine on Sparc.

--- Schnipp ---
PS: another thing I forgot to add: my linux clients have problems with 
the solaris NFS server, sometime they just hang, sometime the local 
cache gets corrupt. The ethernet driver is a bit flacky for these 
boards (SMC) but this shoudl't prevent NFS from recovering.
--- Schnapp ---

I have heard of problems with Solaris NFS, thought they were solved 
with latest kernel versions, but as I don=B4t have this problem around I 
haven=B4t followed it.

mike