“Motorola Inc. last week said it could obtain 99.999% uptime for
Linux-based servers. But according to analysts, this doesn’t
mean Linux is ready to tread in Unix’s footsteps as a server for
mission-critical applications.”
“The servers have hot-standby backup CPUs, and Motorola has
ported some of its high availability software from AIX, IBM’s
version of Unix, to Linux. The company has also modified the Linux
kernel to support hot-swap Peripheral Component Interconnect and
intends to offer these modifications to the open-source
community.”
” ‘It’s fairly brave to claim five nines for Linux,’ said Tony
Iams, a senior analyst at D. H. Brown Associates Inc. in Port
Chester, N.Y. But Iams also said five-nines claims have often been
poorly backed up and are sometimes little more than marketing
ploys.”