Re: OS-X vs. Windows

On Tue, 11 Dec 2001, James Rich wrote:
>
> > Why not run FreeBSD instead of Linux?  That's what OSX is based on,
> > FreeBSD.  It's every bit as free as Linux, and IMHO it runs faster and
> > more stable...
>
> Free of charge, yes - protecting freedom, I don't believe so.  But this
> isn't a license debate list so I'll stop right there.

Protecting freedom?  The BSD license lets you do whatever you want with
the code, as long as you give credit to the programmer.  It encourages
freedom.   I could point out the problems with the GPL, and why it's
anti-capitalist and anti-free enterprise, but this isn't really the right
forum for this -- and at any rate, neither of us would say anything that
hasn't been said 10,000 times.

> As for running faster/more stable I think that is debatable.  Lies,
> d*** lies, and benchmarks...

Thats what the "IMHO" part was about.   It's my opinion.  You're welcome
to your own.  However, it's also the opinion of Yahoo, Google, IMDB, and
others of the largest web sites in the world.

The reason I'm suggesting FreeBSD here is that OS X was referred to, and
OS X is directly related to FreeBSD.  I think people should try both
FreeBSD and Linux and use whichever they like better.

> But benchmarks make me think of something:  does anyone have any idea how
> iSeries, linux, and *BSD stack up when run on similarly priced hardware?
> My boss is getting a new iSeries for about $20,000 (not including
> software).  If I bought a linux/*bsd capable machine for $20,000 how would
> they compare?  Both machines would have to run DB2 for any kind of proper
> comparison.  Has anyone done such a test?  I'm not really interested in
> TCO but rather raw speed :)

To me, the iSeries serves a completely different role than Linux/BSD
machines, and therefore I've never tried to compare them directly.  I
realize that IBM has tried to market the iSeries as a web server, but
to me that's not where it's strengths lie.   (And no, I don't want to
argue about that again.)

I think your benchmarks would be radically different depending on what
you were actually benchmarking for.  Database I/O would almost definitely
favor the iSeries.  Network I/O would certainly go towards one of the
other platforms.