Tech chat - an occasional blog about stuff I find interesting

Is there anyone seriously suggesting these days that a non-Open Source Linux is worth having? I ask this as someone who has tracked the whole 'Open Systems' (remember that tag line?) debate since the late 1980s, UNIX International, Open Software Foundation and all the rest... There is plainly proprietary UNIX out there that is excellent/has its good points/the supplier made me buy it because he has all those pics of the trip to the dodgy club in Tijuana, etc. But beyond legacy, there just can't be any non-Linux fresh projects starting. And if there are, you're mad, so stop. Please.

But then I still dip into this very funny book now and again, so what do I know...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/UNIX-haters-Handbook-Simson/dp/1568842031/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211976610&sr=8-1

As per my delving into the reality of today's server OS, and without giving away specific results, here is a fun exercise for the reader: of these eleven features, what ranking do you think the real-life IT professionals who took part on our online survey applied to them?

security hardening
performance
scalability
virtualisation
high reliability/failover
systems management
interoperability
account management framework
drive encryption
identity management and aggregation
legacy compatibility

Some of these, I have to admit, I wouldn't even see as necessarily part of an ideal (Platonic) good server OS anyway... Where do applications and network features start and end in some of this?

More anon.

One of the things that leaps out of the research - more details next week as promised - is that virtualisation seems to be more honoured in the breach than the observance; possibly like green IT, more an issue for journalists and suppliers than real live sites? Agree/disagree?

Hi all: ZDNet UK recently carried out a poll of you our readers to gauge opinion and experiences around issues to do with the server OS question. I am collating and trying to understand this data and its significance, and think some comment from the community on here would really help!
Next week (27.05.08) I will be publishing on the regular editorial part of the site a feature article detailing the findings of the survey. In addition, I chaired a very stimulating panel discussion on the results with representatives of Red Hat, Novell and VMware, which will also be available.
My plan is to frame this content with a highly interactive blog here that will delve into much greater depth into the issues flagged up in our research.
Without giving too much away - I want you to read the feature and watch the discussion! - I can tell you now that the three things that came out for me on the research is the parlous state of non-Linux UNIX, a shall we say unexpected attitude to virtualisation among this dataset, and a confirmation for me that server technology is still a long way off being 'plug and play'.
Please feel free to comment - do you for instance think research in this area is valid or will not tell us anything we don't already know?
Looking forward to unpacking some of this stuff here over the next few weeks... though Euro 2008 *may* be a minor distraction...
Cheers, Gary

PS It says on my profile - which I am amending - that I am a consultant; be assured I am nowt so grand, am just a plain hack!