Date:         Tue, 16 Feb 1999 14:52:03 -0500
Reply-To:     Michael Sullivan <sullivan@OPENMARKET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Michael Sullivan <sullivan@OPENMARKET.COM>
Subject:      Re: LINUX will double gerry's speed
In-Reply-To:  <001001be59d2$a5e2c8e0$4775b9d1@coyote.Andromedia.com>
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

Dear List,


Ron has a VERY good point. It won't do if the setup/maintenance of any
mail system is any more difficult than it already is. What needs to be
done is to totally automate the operation/maintenance/updating/etc. of
the mail server. If this can be done with NT (and get good
performance/reliability) and it is cheap then sure, NT is fine. However
if it cannot, and if it can be done more easily in Linux (and get good
performance/reliability) and it is cheap (which it is) then, fine, Linux
should be considered.


The key point here is that it is not enough to talk about
performance/reliability/scalability/Bill-bashing without someone taking
the bull by the horns, "owning" the solution, and then
implementing/documenting it so that anyone (even a brain dead moron)
could host our mail server.


All I was trying to interject was <underline>that throwing hardware at
the problem is not necessarily the only way nor the better way to get
better performance/reliability</underline>.


And if no one is willing to step up to the plate and create a
"brain-dead-simple" Linux solution for our needs then all bets are off --
we are stuck with NT 'cause that't what everyone already knows. A proof
of concept would all that would be required for now. Any takers?


Cheers,

MJS




At 09:34 AM 2/16/99 -0800, Ron Lussier wrote:

>>>>

<excerpt><bold><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><bigger>Though I have a
very high opinion of Michael, I have to partially disagree with him on
this issue.

</bigger></fontfamily></bold>

<bold><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><bigger>In my opinion, we should
use the operating system with which David Marshall is most familiar.
While I agree that NT is fairly unstable, we've (mostly) solved the
problem on vanagon.com by having a scheduled job reboot the machine at
3am every two days.  (Microsoft admits that NT needs this, and I for one
hope they get broken up.  End of editorial.)

</bigger></fontfamily></bold>

<bold><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><bigger>If David Marshall is most
comfortable with NT, then we should use NT.  If he's comfortable with
Linux, then we should use that.  One thing that we *should* keep in mind
is that we own ListServ for NT, and ListServ *is* more robust than
MajorDomo.

</bigger></fontfamily></bold>

<bold><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><bigger>Coyote

</bigger></fontfamily></bold></excerpt><<<<<<<<




<bold>

Michael J. Sullivan

</bold><italic>Director of Catalog Design

Open Market, Inc.

</italic>

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