James wrote:
1. Workstations:
Hands down PC's beat out UNIX workstations on price/performance; see my previous posts
My argument is that performance depends on applications. Some OS favors certain kind of apps while penalizes others. Give me an application context and we can do some concrete tests, then we can talk.
2. Servers:
File, print, web, and database servers for small to mid size business Linux + high-end PC is all they need. Regarding threading, my multi-threaded database import utility (in Java) can insert more records into an Oracle database on a 2-way NT box than a 4-way sparc that I later had to install it on; using native threaded JVM's.
When I am talking about threading, I am not talking about who can insert more records. I am talking about what's the thread context switching time. Do you have any concrete numbers on how fast NT can do thread context switching vs. Solaris on a comparable processor? Does NT support both user level threads and kernel threads? I know that Solaris supports both, and when you invoke Solaris thread library, and thread library calls gets translated into system calls and are handled inside the kernel and they have special hardware to handle context switch. I am not sure how NT implements it, it would be interesting to see measurement results.
3. Windows 2000
That 40-50 million lines of code you quoted was for ALL their office suite products included, not the core OS.
I swear that 40-50M lines of code are all OS core codes. I have reliable source on this one.
Can you tell me why Windows 2000 which should be released later this year, if it ever will, is still 32 bits? Do you understand the problems running a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit processors, 64 bit I/O bus? Solaris might be proprietary, but they are 64 bit running on 64 bit processors, 64 bit I/O bus. I don't believe for one second that a 32 bit OS running on a 64 bit processor will give you price/performance better than a 64 bit OS running on a native 64 bit processor. |
