Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Red Hat Software Inc. (Nasdq-RHAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Eric Wells who wrote (1076)	9/8/1999 5:28:00 PM
From: Mitch Blevins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1794

My question regarding databases and other applications that are compatible with Linux is really geared toward having a better understanding on how the CIO will look at Linux from a purchase decision. The CIO may have a much different viewpoint than a software developer. The CIO may view some aspects of NT as being advantageous to Linux - namely the fact that NT has a tightly integrated web server, databases that can run on top of it - not to mention a lot of other compatible applications. You bring up valid questions, and I think it would be worthwhile to examine the CIO viewpoint. I think many CIOs might view the issues much as you are presenting them, but only because they still need to learn about what is offered with Linux. Hopefully, these CIOs will be reading and educating themselves to make the right decisions in the future. Most every Linux distribution also provides a tightly integrated web-server by default (Apache). Several databases are also included that interface with this web-server, which are provided with the system and include unlimited client licenses. All of these databases will speak with any SQL-using application, and many such applications are also provided with the distribution (also with unlimited client licenses). In addition, several other web-servers are provided which might be better at special-purpose webserving that has unusual usage patters. An example would be Roxen, which is tuned to handle a high number of static-page requests without loading the server very much. Apache/SQL/Perl is the standard for compatibility for web based applications, so you have no problems using it out of the box with any of them. This is in contrast to NT which requires additional products to be installed separately to get SQL and Perl, and even then only with high rates for client licenses. Really, the only reason to use NT for a server application is because you might be unaware of the alternatives available, unless you are using clients that are specifically tied to Microsoftisms which limit compatibility and portability. JMHO, -Mitch