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<title>Comparison of Server-Based Operating Systems LG #39</title>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<h1><font color="maroon">Comparison of Server-Based Operating Systems</font></h1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:sean@funwithdirt.com">Sean Bullington</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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The world of computers has shifted in recent years.
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8088s have given way to 64-bit out-of-order executing
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multiprocessor systems, monochrome green displays have improved to 32-bit
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true color, and even mainframes have almost disappeared in favor of
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workstation clusters and client-server based systems. In the modern day
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business world, the market for server-based operating systems is extremely
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competitive and very lucrative for the businesses involved. Companies
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such as Sun Microsystems and Microsoft battle constantly to gain ground
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in the race to provide a better operating
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system to sell to their customers. Microsoft's Windows NT and
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Sun's SunOS/Solaris operating systems are extremely full-featured,
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usually well supported and fairly efficient in terms of their usage
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and implementation. However, one of the biggest challenges facing these
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commercial operating systems today is not whether Microsoft will edge
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out Sun or vice-versa, but whether non-commercial operating systems, such as
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Linux or the BSD distributions, will prove strong enough to edge out the
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bigger corporations. Both Linux and the BSD variants run on many different
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architectures, have growing application and technical support options,
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are increasingly efficient, and best of all, are freely available.
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<p>
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One of the main concerns when considering a server for running your
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business is whether or not the operating system has vendor support
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for the applications you need and use. Both Sun and Microsoft excel in
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having major vendors supporting their platforms due to their longevity in
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the server market and their mass amounts of market share. Linux and BSD
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however, are slowly and steadily gaining ground against the giants. As the
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free UNIX systems become more well-known and widespread, vendors such as
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Netscape, Hewlett Packard and others are investing time
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and money in providing applications and hardware adapted for these
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systems.
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<p>
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The portability among these varying systems is improving as well
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and is a major consideration in their race against each
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other. For example, if you run Solaris on a SPARC, you can buy a product
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called SoftWindows (http//www.insignia.com/SoftWindows/) which allows a SunOS
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user to emulate Microsoft's Windows 95 in a window on the desktop,
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running virtually all the Windows applications. The rest of the
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UNIX world also has emulators such as DOSEMU for DOS applications,
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and WABI or WINE for Windows-based emulations. NT falls short in this
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respect, lacking well-developed emulators, and it does
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not easily support the same shell-scripting languages (other than Perl)
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that can be quickly shared across most UNIX platforms. While this may
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not seem to hinder NT currently, as Linux and BSD grow up in
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the corporate market it will become a larger factor. Companies looking
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to switch from SunOS might find it easier to go with a free operating
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system which is compatible with their current one, saving the cost of
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upgrading virtually 100% of their hardware and software.
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<p>
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Software support for your operating system is unquestionably a
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useful benefit, but what happens if the software for your system is
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incredibly complex and requires various configuration changes to your
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operating system? Simply having the product available for a system is
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not enough; the issue of technical support is extremely important in
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today's market. Commercial operating systems are
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well-supported--they
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have no choice. If a company wants to market an OS today, it
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must provide timely end-user support to the customer
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with a problem. Both Microsoft and Sun have corporate support options which
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involve people working diligently on your problem until it has either
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been fixed or a workaround has been established. Of course, there are
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exceptions to this rule and not every problem found is immediately fixed,
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especially in Microsoft's case. The point is that support is guaranteed
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(usually) to be there when you have questions. This has been one of the
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major drawbacks in the free-OS world.
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<p>
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The main method of support for both Linux and BSD is not one on which
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most corporations would be willing to rely on. Support
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for Linux and BSD is usually done through either newsgroups or various
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sources of information on the World Wide Web. No one is required to
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answer a question posted to a newsgroup, and indeed while most people who
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organize the individual distributions of each OS will provide support,
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there is no requirement that they do so. If the system goes down,
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often it is strictly up to the end-user to dig around and find
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what information he can to solve the problem. For instance, if a Linux
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user were to call up Patrick Volkerding (the man behind the Slackware
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Linux distribution) and tell him he better solve their problems or they
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will speak to his manager, the user will most likely hear a <click>
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on the other end of the phone line as he hangs up. An interesting note,
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however, is that many of the people responsible for the distributions
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will be more than happy to answer questions. Theo de Raadt, the man
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behind the OpenBSD distribution, welcomes questions, and often
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answers (and sometimes argues) questions posted to newsgroups. Good
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luck in getting Bill Gates to involve himself in a 50-message thread over
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the ease of installing security patches to Windows NT. The bottom line,
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however, is that technical support is one of the biggest considerations
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large companies have when choosing an OS, and while the free-OS
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world may be catching up, it still has a long way to go.
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<p>
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A third major comparison between server-based operating systems would
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be how efficient and customizable the system is to an end-user's
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needs. Differences in this comparison range from extremely high-level
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(various fonts and colors or virtual desktops) to very low-level (kernel
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customization, configuration and efficiency). Commercial operating systems
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tend to be much easier to install, walking you through what needs to be
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installed and how it will be done. Again, this is a requirement when
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you are charging money for your software. Making an
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easier to use product has great appeal and is one of the largest marketing
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strategies in use today in the computer industry. Both Microsoft and
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Sun have attempted to make their installations visually pleasant and
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almost ``hold-your-hand'' simple. The commercial systems
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also release patches and minor updates to keep their systems usable,
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for example of NT's service packs or Solaris'
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update clusters. By charging for their software, the vendors usually feel
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some degree of responsibility for fixing and updating their products to
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keep them usable. Sometimes this is free, and other times the
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software company will change the version or name of its OS and charge
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customers to upgrade.
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<p>
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The world of the free operating systems works somewhat differently. Many
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times the installation is so confusing and non-intuitive that 95%
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of the people who use computers today would not be able or willing to
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muddle through it. The systems are getting to be more user-friendly,
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and distributions such as Slackware and Red Hat offer a semi-graphical
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install which is more intuitive than Open BSD, which goes so far as
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to require the user to know how many cylinders his hard drive has on
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it. While this might not be that difficult for a user who is familiar
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with all the components of his system, a small business owner in need
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of a simple server might be scared away. The usability issue goes back
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to the fact that because the developers of these distributions receive
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no monetary gain for each installation, they can make it as easy or as
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difficult as they desire, which is completely understandable. The same
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reasoning applies to patches and updates. Ironically, patches and updates
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are generally faster to appear when problems arise in these free operating
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systems because of the nature of support for Linux and BSD. Because the
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source code to these operating systems is free, many users take it upon
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themselves to code bug-fixes and produce patches. Updates to low-level
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software such as the Linux kernel come out frequently, offering better
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support and many bug fixes over previous versions. This results in faster
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problem solving and even in the availability of patches which are so
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obscure that larger vendors such as Microsoft or Sun would not devote the
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time and resources to providing. Sun has even started to recognize the
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benefits of enthusiasts and hobbyists using their operating system and
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has started offering Solaris for free (the user pays just the media and
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shipping/handling fees--see http://www.sun.com/solaris/freesolaris.html).
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<p>
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Operating systems control how we work, what we work on, and how
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our businesses are run. As business competition heats up, financial
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considerations in upgrading and replacing computer equipment can become
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vital to a company's continued success. Commercial operating systems
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are tested products which come from a company that will
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provide support for their product. Most commercial operating systems
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also provide better software support, as software vendors are willing to
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develop their products for an environment they know will be well-used
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and thus profitable. Non-Commercial operating systems offer a number
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of positive reasons to choose them over a commercial OS, but they still
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have a couple of key drawbacks. Scarce software support and non-reliable
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technical support often provide managers with enough reason to choose
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a commercial operating system over a free one. While many companies
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are using free operating systems and are very successful at it, most
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are not willing to stake their business on whether or not their system
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administrator can figure out why their server is down by looking through
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a comp.os newsgroup. Just don't be surprised if you come to work one
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day to find that your company has decided to go with FreeBSD and
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<b>qmail</b>
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to run their new mail system rather than upgrading to Windows
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NT and shelling out the cash for Exchange Server.
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<p>
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<h3>Resources</h3>
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<p>
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Linux.
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<p>
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Slackware - www.slackware.org (commercial or free download)<br>
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Red hat - www.redhat.com (commercial or free download)<br>
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Suse - www.suse.com (commercial)<br>
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Debian - www.debian.org (free)<br>
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Caldera OpenLinux - www.calderasystems.com (commercial)<br>
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Other Misc. Linux Distributions -
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ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/distributions<br>
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<br>
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BSD.<br>
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Open BSD - www.openbsd.org (free)<br>
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FreeBSD - www.freebsd.org (free)<br>
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NetBSD - www.netbsd.org (free)<br>
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BSDi - www.bsdi.com (commercial)<br>
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<br>
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Sun Microsystems.<br>
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Solaris/SunOS - www.sun.com/solaris (commercial, free for non-commercial
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use)<br>
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<br>
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Microsoft.<br>
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Windows NT - www.microsoft.com/ntserver (commercial)<br>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1999, Sean Bullington <BR>
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Published in Issue 39 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 1999</H5></center>
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