“The issue with Linux is scalability, crucial in enterprise
systems. Release 2.4 of the kernel, which Linus Torvalds’ has just
delivered, adds symmetric multiprocessing capabilities to increase
scalability. The release was promised for December but has arrived
a month late. In terms of large systems delivery, that is
phenomenally close to schedule; contrast, for instance, delivery
against schedule of Windows 2000.”
“The new kernel still has to be tested to prove its
performance and that could easily take a year. However, with IBM
backing it to the tune of $5 billion over the next 4 years and
adding 1500 developers’ efforts to those of a worldwide army of
enthusiasts, there’s little doubt Linux will get there in the
end. Moreover, Big Blue has announced Linux as the first
operating system to run on its just-released zSeries 64-bit
mainframes, ahead of its own proprietary z/OS (the former MVS). Ten
years ago, a move like that would have been unthinkable.”
“Reliability has never really been an issue with Linux. With
half the world’s nerds enthusiastically working on it, that should
come as no surprise. Periodic reliability tests on different
flavours of UNIX have consistently confirmed Linux as a front-
runner. MVS of course was ultra-reliable too but took a few decades
to get there. In 1969, IBM declared its earlier incarnation,
OS/360, to be “stable” on the grounds that successive releases
contained no more bugs than previous ones. In fact, OS/360 was
declared stable at 1000 bugs per release. Does that remind you of
some other contender for enterprise credibility today?”