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<TITLE>The Future of Linux: Prepared Question I</TITLE>
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<LINK REV="made" HREF="mailto:newt@pobox.com">
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<!-- Copyright (c) 1998 Greg Roelofs. -->
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<IMG WIDTH=165 HEIGHT=76 BORDER=0
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ALIGN="right" SRC="./gx/roelofs/linux-dont-fear.jpg" ALT="[Don't Fear the Penguins.]"></A>
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<H1 ALIGN="center"> The Future of Linux </H1>
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<H3 ALIGN="center"> 14 July 1998 </H3>
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<BR CLEAR="all">
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<HR>
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<P>
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<H3> Prepared Question #1 </H3>
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<CENTER>
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<FONT COLOR="#aa0000">
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<I>Is Linux superior, comparable, or inferior to commercial operating
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systems?</I><BR>
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</FONT>
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<FONT COLOR="#006600">[or something like that]</FONT>
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</CENTER>
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI><B>Jeremy Allison</B> (Samba): I think he was one of the panelists who
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made the comment that ``Linux <I>is</I> a commercial OS''; his answer
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amounted to choice #1:
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<UL>
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<LI>Linux is very standards-compliant (e.g., Posix); a good approach
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is to develop first on Linux, then port to proprietary Unixen.
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For example, Samba has three separate pieces of code to deal
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with some aspect of file-system stuff; Linux supports all three
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interfaces, so they just choose the one that runs the fastest.
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<LI>He did give a wishlist of improvements he'd like to see, though:
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64-bit file-system support (``for those 20 GB Exchange
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databases''); access control list (ACL) support; asynchronous I/O
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support; NFS file-locking and improved performance
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<FONT COLOR="#006600">[<I>amen to <B>that</B></I>]</FONT>; and a
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thread model like Solaris has.
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<LI>He noted that Linux has <I>current</I> support for more platforms
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than any other OS: x86, SPARC, Alpha, PowerPC, 68k, etc.
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<LI>Bugs are fixed the fastest, especially security fixes.
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<LI>There's been a Linux ``iBCS'' module to support SCO Unix binaries
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for a couple of years; at this year's Usenix, SCO announced
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(and/or demoed) a module to run Linux apps.
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</UL>
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<P>
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<LI><B>Larry Augustin</B> (VA Research): His answer was ``yes'':
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<UL>
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<LI>Linux is not (yet) as far along as Solaris in supporting 64-way
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symmetric multi-processing (SMP). <FONT COLOR="#006600">[<I>I
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thought that the SPARC-based <A HREF=
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"http://cap.anu.edu.au/cap/projects/linux/">Fujitsu AP1000+</A> on
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which David S. Miller reported success last year was a big SMP box,
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but as <A HREF="mailto:ejr@cise.ufl.edu">Jason Riedy</A> pointed
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out, it's a distributed-memory multi-computer similar to the
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Connection Machine CM5.</I>]</FONT>
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<LI>In his slides of <A HREF=
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"http://www.redhat.com/redhat/datapro.html">user ratings</A>
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(<A HREF="http://www.gartner.com/public/static/datapro/main.html"
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>Datapro</A> survey, which was mentioned several times
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during the evening), Linux was not only the overall winner in a
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field of half a dozen OSes (Windows NT placed last), it also won
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in all but two categories--and only Digital Unix was rated higher
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in those two (availability and performance). The other categories
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included reliability, technical support, price, etc.
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</UL>
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<P>
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<LI><B>Robert Hart</B> (Red Hat):
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<UL>
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<LI>Linux <I>is</I> a commercial operating system. It is sold and
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supported commercially (Red Hat, Caldera and others); it is used
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commercially; its only difference is that the source code is
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freely available.
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<LI>Key ``commercial OS'' features like a journaling file system and
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database access that bypasses the file system layer are coming
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very soon.
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<LI>Many of Red Hat's users (more with every release) have never
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installed an OS, which means Red Hat has to ``reverse engineer''
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their hardware configuration.
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<LI>Why is Linux not ubiquitous? It's still not suitable for everyone
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(he mentioned his ``75-year-old mum''), and although there are
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good office applications for Linux, there aren't any killer ones
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yet. (There were follow-ups to the suitability comment by some of
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the other panelists.)
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</UL>
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<P>
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<LI><B>Sunil Saxena</B> (Intel): He presented some slides that amounted to
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a ``yes'' response as well:
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<UL>
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<LI>Strengths: Linux is becoming the OS of choice of ISPs; on 32-bit
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Intel systems, Linux has broader device-driver support than any
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other Unix (e.g., SCO, Solaris/x86, etc.); its <A HREF=
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"http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</A> model means that
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updates, patches and bug-fixes happen in ``Internet time.''
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<LI>Weaknesses: SMP support and scalability is still evolving
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(although he noted that <A HREF="mailto:lnz@dandelion.com">Leonard
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Zubkoff</A> did a successful two-day port to the brand-new,
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<A HREF="http://www.varesearch.com/products/vs4100.html">four-way
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Pentium II Xeon system</A> that Intel
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and VA Research showed off); good server management is missing
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(e.g., using a remote serial line or modem to update things,
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including the BIOS); drivers for high-end hardware tend to be
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lacking; and large-memory support (say, multi-gigabyte range) isn't
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there.
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<LI>Making it better: he said (and repeated several times throughout
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the evening) that Intel really wants to help and do more to support
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Linux, and in particular they see the following as likely areas of
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collaboration:
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<UL>
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<LI>more than 4-way SMP (serious scalability, at least 16 to 32
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processors)
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<LI>drivers for high-end platforms
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<LI>direct server control and management
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<LI>support for PII features such as 36-bit addressing (up to
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64 GB of RAM), enhanced system calls and save/restore,
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MMX instructions, the page attribute table, and on-chip
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performance monitors
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</UL>
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</UL>
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<P>
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<LI><B>Linus Torvalds</B>: He started off with a comment to the effect,
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``What can I say? I came to listen to the others.''
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<UL>
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<LI>He noted that Linux originally was a one-person OS; it was never
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intended to be useful to others. He also pointed out that it has
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just shown up on the <A HREF="http://www.top500.org/">list of the
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<!-- German; US = http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/top500.html -->
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world's most powerful supercomputers</A> (in a cluster design); he
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thought it made #316. <FONT COLOR="#006600">[<I>actually #315 in
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the June 1998 list--see <A HREF=
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"http://cnls.lanl.gov/avalon/top500.html">this press release</A>
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for details</I>]</FONT> At the other end of the spectrum, it's
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being <A HREF="http://www.trgnet.com/Palm/News/linux.htm">ported to
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Palm Pilots</A>. ``I don't see that <FONT COLOR="#006600">[<I>its
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broad portability and usefulness</I>]</FONT> ending any time
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soon.''
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<LI>He responded to a couple of Sunil's comments:
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<UL>
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<LI>36-bit addressing on Intel: ``We've been doing that on
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Alpha for a while.''
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<LI>Page Attribute Table: he didn't know about Intel's
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implementation but said that he'd suggested it to an Intel
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engineer a few years ago; ``I don't know if they did it
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right, but if so, I'll be happy to use it.''
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</UL>
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</UL>
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<P>
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</UL>
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<P>
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<HR>
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Click here to return to the <A HREF="roelofs.html">main <I>Future of
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Linux</I> page</A>.<BR>
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<HR>
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<I>Last modified 19 July 1998 by
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<A HREF="mailto:newt@pobox.com">newt@pobox.com</A> , you betcha.</I>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE="-1">
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Copyright © 1998 Greg Roelofs.
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</FONT>
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