A Sys Admin’s Guide to the Server OS of Your Dreams

“If you were to design your dream enterprise server OS from
scratch, what would it be like? Without knowing exactly what it
would be used for it’s hard to get too specific, but in general
terms you’d probably want an OS with the following attributes, in
no particular order:

“1. Free (as in beer): Why pay for it if you don’t have to?

” 2. Open source: Why not choose to have access to the source
code? You may wish to adapt it, or inspect it — but even if you
don’t, others probably will. What’s more, you can benefit from
their work.

“3. Runs on a wide range of hardware: The wider the choice of
hardware you can use, the better. That way you can configure a
system that exactly meets your needs, taking advantage of any
components you want.

“4. Runs as wide a range of software as possible: It doesn’t
make sense to have it any other way.

“5. Secure: No one wants to run a system that makes it easy for
hackers.

“So how do the enterprise OSes that are currently available
match up to this shopping list of ideals?”

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