"The demented systems manager of the company that I work for, refuses..." most consultants show more judgment when referring to their client.

If this "demented" manager has as much power as you say he does, he should have kicked your butt out a long time ago.

Maybe, but I am just trying to make this a successful project.

You don't like consultants, well I don't like them too much either

You�ll are implementing an ERP and the said ERP vendor certifies SCO UNixware ? Ouch !!!

IBM las bet its house on Linux, and many a big companies have begun running Linus on their mainframe gear

Well, the ERP package, QAD does support UnixWare. Progress, the database, is dropping support next year.

And the IT Manager still wants to go this route <sigh>

He never wanted to hear all of our attempts to go into Linux

For the list:
J.P. Morgan Chase
Goldman Sachs
Merrill Lynch
Deutsche Bank

jfe:
Your "technical" approach will not succeed. He can find (and show to his boss) articles that Linux is "dangerous". Microsoft, others will feed him ...
In my "first live" I sold computers. I remember that all hardware and software contracts hat a language something like this: "..this software (hardware), like any other, has/may have "bugs" .. we try to fix it.. however, no guaranties..."

Find this paragraph and send it to your boss...
Good luck.

BTW, the SCO attack is NOT helping you:

...."SCO is nothing beside the threat that the Open Source developers face from software patents, a fight that we are losing badly," Perens warned.

He singled-out IBM, a Linux stalwart and the primary subject of SCO's action, for pursuing a "pro-software patent agenda". The company is renowned for maintaining a massive patent library.

"None of our company partners other than Red Hat have even given us any assurance that we are safe from their own patents... I'd sleep a lot better if I could see something on paper that spells out just what sort of armistice we have."

http://www.cbronline.com/todaysnews/...256d7f0018bbbe

...SCO Group Inc is preparing to invoice customers running or developing with Linux, while broadening its copyright net to include manufacturers of embedded systems...
http://www.cbronline.com/latestnews/...256d7f0018bb99

To a very real extent, that depends entirely on your support requirements.

My firm (Fortune 500) has support from Sun and HP and IMB and EMC and the like that blow away anything, and I do mean anything, you can get from Red Hat or any other Linux vendor. When you are talking about six or seven figures of loss for an hour of downtime, this changes the equiation somewhat.

Linux, like most other things, should be used where it fits the best into your network/application structure.

I find the original poster's client who is going with Unixware over linux to be the most ironic thing I've read all week.



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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

I remember reading something about ERP software in 70% not giving back a defineable ROI...

Are you including IBM as a Linux vendor that doesnt provide comparable support?? I thought all the major banks and such were moving a lot of stuff to Linux as mentioned above. IBM is really pushing it from what I can see. I think your best bet would be to get an IBM salesperson in there to push a Linux solution.

Somewhat, but not enough to keep modern thinking CIO's from adopting Linux in production at a very fast rate.


Oracle (can't remember if they're in the Fortune 500 or not ) claims to be 100% Linux. I know for a fact that they use Linux exclusively for their ASP offering which counts financial institutions among its clients. Obviously, they think it's ready for prime time and are betting heavily on it.

In a former life I was responsible for one of the top 5 Sun shops in California. I can assure you that their support was nothing to write home about (and I had direct phone numbers up to the SVP level).

Hardware & software suppliers will only ever contractually commit to a RESPONSE time, not a RESOLUTION time. I don't care if you're talking IBM or Honest Bob's Dog Poop Linux Distribution.

You will find many examples of Fortune 500 companies using Linux in production in the article I listed above. Check Information Week's website as well for more.

For tasks requiring 4 or fewer processors, you can't Linux on price/performance. Many Linux admins boast uptimes > 1 year on their boxes.

That would be me

And yes we are going full steam ahead on this project. He will have the Dell server ready and converted to Unixware for us to test by the 20th, and Go Live is the 31st.

This is operation Titanic or Kamikaze

<sigh>



[This message has been edited by jfe (edited 08-13-2003).]

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that Linux is far from an end-all solution to all things. Like many things, it has it's place, and the trick is to know when to deploy it, but with the proper expectations.

Although I'm getting further and further away from the hands-on side of the business, it strikes me that uptime of a particular box is nothing to write home about--in fact, uptime of a year suggests to me that the admin has been rather lax about security and performance patch application (although clearly this depends upon the environment in which the box sits).

One of the nice things about Linux (and why the stuff I've run on it in the past never had silly "uptime wars") is that I can afford to get me a nice cluster of n + 1/2/x machines, such that I can pull them offline to patch without disrupting the app and service that is being provided.

The short version: if the box has an uptime of a year, and has been rooted for 300 days, is the uptime really that impressive ?



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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

Virtually all linux pathches and upgrades can be installed without rebooting the entire machine. As a matter of fact, the only time you do need to reboot is if you're installing a new kernel. Most kernel exploits require local access to the box and are beyond the realm of the script-kiddies.

But not Jane in accounting. Or any other disgrunted or malice-motivated employee.

To be perfectly blunt, I would lose my head (and job) if I tried to pass off a local exploit as "no big deal" to our security auditors. Internal threat vectors are worse than external threat vectors in many cases--you have to let your employees work, after all.....

*shrugs*

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

yes, as you say, most challenges come from inside one way or another...