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Date:      Wed, 30 Jun 1999 08:57:12 -0400
From:      Dutch Collins <dutch@charm.net>
To:        freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   A second thought about TP & Unix
Message-ID:  <377A1428.4145F218@charm.net>

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Keep in mind I have not read the BSD kernel, yet. This is half rant.

One must keep in mind that most Transaction Processing (TP) is done by
'the big OSs'- VMS and IBM AS machines. Is FreeBSD or Inc. (BSDI) doing
anything to break into this market? Here is food for thought. I heard
that USPS (I was there - retired software engr. now) went to Linux.

Well, that is a leap because most of the work is done by imbedded OS 
and/or a bunch of different OSs with PDP-11s and RSX-11 doing the work
on a lot of machines. I don't want to get on a rant here (sorry to 
Dennis Miller) - but reentrant kernel problems used to kill the time
it takes to process a bar-code. Time in milliseconds and in microseconds 
in the case of multi processors means everything. I just do not see 
either NT or Linux doing a very good job in TP. Well, Linux has the Open 
Source Code and someone will get to redesign the kernel. Microsoft 
is not going to give anyone but microsoft source code. Now,where is 
FreeBSD in this kind of political fight?

If the kernel is fully reentrant and events are interrupt driven, not
polled, then why is it (freeBSD) floating in limbo? Marketing. In the 
above example, Linux won and FreeBSD didn't for that reason. Ok, I am 
out of steam on this. Remember, a bad product will win over a good 
product if the marketing plan is better and faster.

If I was to operate an e-commerce site I would not trust NT to work well
or cheaply. So, I my have been vague with the above example but time
is money. It always boils down to who can move the most bits the fastest
and cheapest. If you want to move bits then chose the OS with care, not
"I believe".

=dutch

Sorry can't tell about the way reentrant problems were fixed. They
will sue me (kill?)
-- 
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