[radekm na sco.com: SCO Flash - uvaha o Linuxu]

[Jan Kasprzak]

[Cc: radekm na sco.com]

	Nevim, jestli to treba v linux na linux.cz neni off-topic, a mohlo
by se to zvrhnout ve flame war, ale zkusim odpovedet. Pokud nemate naladu
na debatu o kvalite/srovnavani OS, klidne tento mail smazte.

: > Linux the issue is very sensitive as
: >linux supporters tend to get very emotional if you say anything negative
: >about it which will get you nowhere.

	Ano, toto je myslim jediny problem, ktery Linux (nebo spis jeho
propagatori) ma. A jeste podrazdenejsich reakci se dockate, kdyz zverejnite
o Linuxu neco, co neni pravda.

: >SCO's UNIX is a commercial UNIX which means:
: >1) There is a company behind it with a vision and a future

	Plati i o Linuxu (myslim tim RedHat Software, Caldera, SuSE atd.).
Jen nevim, co si mam predstavit pod tou vizi. Tu mozna SCO ma a vyse uvedene
tri spolecnosti ne :-) Fakt nevim, co to je.

: >2) The quality of the product can be guaranteed.

	Ditto Linux.

: >3) SCO is ISO Certified

	Ktere ISO je tim mysleno? Pokud nejake ze serie ISO 9000, tak to
je o vyrobe a ne o systemu samotnem. Pokud nejaky POSIX nebo UNIX 98,
tak to Linux taky splnuje, i kdyz nema certifikat. Tedy FTLinux mel
certifikaci tusim na POSIX.1 nebo UNIX 95 (Single UNIX spec), ale
asi to na jejich oblibe nijak zvlast nepridalo, protoze jsem o nich
uz dlouho neslysel...

: >4) SCO can guarantee Support availability

	Vyse zminene spolecnosti take, nemluve o Compaqu a Hewlett-Packardu,
kteri v posledni dobe take zacali nabizet oficialni podporu Linuxu, a take
IBM a SGI, kteri tuto podporu ohlasili.

: >5) SCO's products are tested and certified with commercial hardware
: >platforms like
: >       Compaq >        Unisys
: >        IBM
: >        HP
: >        Fujitsu
: >        ICL
: >        ACER
: >        Tulip
: >        etc. etc. etc.

	Tested urcite taky (pridam Sun, Digital, Corel Computer, Cobalt
Microservers, atd.; a Fujitsu AP1000+, kdyz uz je Fujitsu zmineno; vsechno
je to hardware, na kterem SCO nikdy nepobezi kvuli portabilite). Certified
asi ne, ale to je jen papir, ktery nemusi nic znamenat.

: >With these companies SCO has commercial agreements which involve
: >agreements about future support of each others products.
: >
: >6) Similar agreements exists with Software vendors (long list) Again
: >these are commercial agreements.
: >
: >The importance of commercial agreements is that they guarantee a
: >long-term relationship between SCO and it's partners which in turn gives
: >the users of the products the confidence that investments which are made
: >for a longer term are secure.

	Je otazka, kolik procent potencialnich zakazniku potrebuje software
starsi nez tak pet let (coz je podle meho priblizne doba, po kterou lze
kriticke aplikace provozovat na neupgradovanem HW a OS).
: >
: >SCO's Products are year 2000 compliant. Again here the importance of
: >partnerships comes up again As many software vendors need to make fixes
: >to their products, it is of vital importance that the new versions of
: >those products will still run on the same o.s.

	Linux je samozrejme take Y2K compliant.

: >Because of the relationship with other industry leaders SCO is capable
: >of developing new software and supporting new hardware in a timely
: >fashion. And SCO will have early access to new technology.

	Jasne. Za zminku stoji treba podpora TV tuneru, zvukovych karet,
nebo paralelnich diskovych zarizeni (ZIP, SyQuest a podobne).
Nebo treba vztah vyrobce seriovych karet Cyclades k Linuxu: v jejich dokumentaci
se vzdycky uvadi Linux mezi podporovanymi systemy na prvnim miste jako
doporucovany system a nekde vzadu je take zminka o SCO.

: >What about Linux ?
: >
: >Linux is an Open Source Product developed by students and hobbyists from
: >around the world.
: >This basically means that Linux is a study object without a controlled
: >design structure.

	Kdo se nekdy pokousel protlacit nejaky patch do zdrojovych
textu jadra, urcite mi da za pravdu, ze vyvoj a design Linuxu je velmi silne
kontrolovan. Dulezite je, ze dobre veci maji narok se do systemu dostat,
zatimco u SCO ani nevim, jak bych napriklad implementoval tak mocnou directory
cache, jako ma Linux 2.2.

: >This can make it hard to find and resolve problems as the actual code
: >is maintained by thousands of people.

	... a proto se oprava chyby F00F v procesorech Pentium objevila
v Linuxu drive nez v SCO (prominte mi sarkasmus). Nebo abychom nebyli
u hardwarovych chyb, muzeme zminit ping-of-death. Doba opravy cca 6 hodin
od zverejneni existence chyby. U SCO si nejsem jisty, ale jiste se doba
pocitala na tydny. Casto jsou spolu s popisem nove objevene chyby primo
zverejnovany postupy, jak chybu opravit v Linuxu. Ve SCO to vzhledem
k nedostupnosti zdrojovych textu neni mozne.

: >Since no-one really owns Linux nobody can be held responsible for the
: >functioning of the product which therefore does not give you any
: >warranty about the quality of the product.

	SCO nebo Microsoft samozrejme taky nemuzete cinit za nic takoveho
odpovednym. Prectete si prislusne licence k produktum. Co se pocita je,
jak rychle jsou chyby opraveny, ne jestli je pak koho zalovat (to stejne
neni ani u komercnich firem).
: >
: >Many applications that run on Linux (databases etc) Use a SCO binary
: >emulator. This means that people use a product which was designed for
: or
: >ported to SCO and run it on Linux using this emulator. This emulator
: >again is not a SCO product and can therefore not be supported by SCO
: or
: >the application vendor.
: >The SCO products are under constant development which can cause
: >situations where incompatibility arises between the actual SCO product
: >and the emulator running on Linux.

	Uz davno jsem emulator SCO nepouzil a myslim, ze emulovane
aplikace SCO se pouzivaji pod Linuxem cim dal tim mene. Databaze jsou
pod Linuxem nativni, office baliky taky.

: >For the support of Linux people are depended on the Linux Community
: >which gives no guarantee that a solution can be found or within what
: >time frame such a solution will be found.
: >Even commercial Linux Support organizations can not rely on a guaranteed
: >backup channel like a developer team etc. The quality of their support
: >is 100% depending on the knowledge level of the people that work for
: >them. They have no Guaranteed back-up.

	To je v podstate pravda, ale zase: co se pocita je, jak to funguje.
A v Linuxu tento support funguje rychleji, nez ve SCO. Dokonce by se dal
tvrdit opak vyse zmineneho:

	U SCO je zakaznik odkazan na sveho dodavatele,
ktery musi kontaktovat distributora SCO, ktery ma (mozna) kontakt na vyvojovy
tym. V Linuxu muze autora konkretni casti systemu kontaktovat kazdy.

: >As solutions that are offered to problems can come from all sorts of
: >sources around the world, and those solutions will most of the time not
: >be "readable" by the average users one will never know what exactly is
: >being installed on a system. This can imply serious security risks
: >including the sensitivity for viruses.

	Tak tohle je uplne mimo. Virus pod Linuxem jsem jeste nevidel
(ano pod SCO, abychom byli ferovi). Prumerny uzivatel nepotrebuje
vedet, jak se aplikuje patch na zdrojove texty /bin/ls. Prumerny
uzivatel (presneji administrator) musi pouze vedet, ze ma spustit
jako superuzivatel nejaky takovyto prikaz:

# rpm -Uvh ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/updates/5.2/i386/fileutils-<verze>.rpm

A jsme u systemu baliku. System RPM je samozrejme daleko propracovanejsi
nez system baliku u SCO, je plne dokumentovany a umoznuje rozumne fungujici
upgrade systemu.

: >Summarizing:
: >
: >Linux:
: >1) No or little support from Hardware Vendors

	Urcite ne "no", spise "support from some HW Vendors".

: >2) No or little support from Software Vendors

	Zase ne "no", ale "some".

: >3) No one is responsible in case of damage or support

	Support si lze zaplatit. Zodpovedny (zalovatelny) neni nikdo ani u SCO.

: >4) No guaranteed 100% Support

	Neni pravda, jen je potreba mit ten support zaplaceny.

: >5) No warranties that drivers will be available for future hardware.

	Hmm, pro SCO nejsou drivery ani pro nektery soucasny hardware :-)

: >6) Sensitive to Viruses and other non-secure software.

	Viry neexistuji. Pokud chce nekdo udelat ze SCO rozumny system,
stejne musi pulku systemu vykopat a nahradit necim stabilnejsim, lepsim,
bezpecnejsim (BIND4->BIND8, MMDF->Qmail, telnet->ssh, http server (je-li
pod SCO jaky)->Apache).

: >7) There is no ROAD MAP

	Tohle nevim co je. Pokud tomu dobre rozumim, lze to naformulovat
take takto:

	SCO je stejne jako kazdy jiny komercni software - vyvojari jsou
tlaceni terminem release a tim se do systemu dostanou chyby. Kdyz se v
Linuxu zpozdi uvedeni nove stabilni verze kernelu o par mesicu, nic
se nestane.

	Anebo je to o te vyse diskutovane "vizi". Kdy SCO zacne vyvijet
neco tak revolucniho, jako je GNOME (namisto dost hruzneho CDE)?

: >SCO's Unix Products:
: >1) Full support from Hardware Vendors

	Support from some HW Vendors (nebo jste videli SCO na SGI Visual
Workstation?, nebo na UltraSparcu?)

: >2) Full support from Software Vendors

	Support from some Software Vendors.

: >3) SCO carries responsibility for its products

	Na SCO si stejne nic nevezmete a nevysoudite. Myslim, ze licence
jsou v tomto smeru postaveny dobre.

: >4) Guaranteed support possibilities

	Ditto Linux.

: >5) Support via several channels backed up by SCO

	Linux ma podporu od tvurcu distribuci, na ktere jsou navazani
jejich prodejci a v posledni dobe i prodejci HW (Compaq, HP, ...).

: >6) Availability of product maintenance  (SES)

	Tohle nevim. Redhat software podporuje sve produkty zpet az do verze
4.0 (v soucasne dobe). Kolik je to let, nevim.

: >7) Proven Technology with high uptimes etc.

	"Proven Technology" s velkymi pismeny? Bohuzel nevim, co si pod tim
mam predstavit. Ale o dlouhych uptimech se snad nebudeme bavit - Linux by
vyhral.

: >8) Availability of FREE unix for educational and non-commercial use

	Linux: Availability of FREE (=Open Source) unix for educational,
non-commercial _AND_ commercial use. To FREE u SCO je diskutabilni.
Muzu vzit na univerzite kus kodu ze SCO UNIXu a pouzit ho ve sve aplikaci?
Nemuzu. Nahradil bych FREE za zero-price (nebo mozna near-zero price)
v pripade SCO.

: >9) A clear ROAD MAP for future developments (Merced etc)

	Obavam se, ze nektere procesory Linux podporuje daleko
drive, nez SCO. A ze SCO bude mit _tezke_ problemy pri prechodu na
64-bitovou platformu, na ktere nikdy nebylo. Linux ma problemy
s 64-bitovymi architekturami a ruznymi endianitami davno vyresene.
Ostatne tipnul bych si, ze treba na procesorech firmy Transmeta
bude Linux behat drive nez SCO.

: >It is important to note that even though Linux is not suitable for
: >commercial purposes it has contributed significantly to the UNIX
: >community as a study source for a lot of people. This has also
: >contributed to Unix being popular as an operating system. SCO supports
: >this by means of it's on FREE UNIX initiative and the announced support
: >for Linux binaries.

	Pod FREE se tady rozumi neco jineho. Rikejme zero-price.
Podpora pro Linuxove binarky? Snad neprestava ta 100% podpora od vyrobcu
softwaru stacit?

: >The above is more of a commercial reasoning. There are also plenty of
: >practical reasons why people should use SCO instead of Linux. The most
: >important one is:
: >
: >SCO is EASY to install to administer and to use it does not require much
: >knowledge as oppose to Linux.

	Myslim, ze neco tak propracovaneho, jako je Linuxconf, jeste
dlouho SCO mit nebude - stejne rozhrani pro textovou konzolu, pro
WWW i pro X11. Ale priznejme, ze sysadmsh byval kdysi docela revolucni
a tehdy ho nikdo jiny nemel. To byly casy, kdy SCO byval nejlepsi UNIX
na iX86.

	O jednoduchosti instalace muzeme vest debaty, ale myslim,
ze instalacni program v cestine SCO jeste nema (jestli se pletu, opravte me).
RedHat Linux ma ceskou instalaci uz druhou verzi, v Debian Linuxu se toto
pokud vim pripravuje.

	Abych to shrnul - citovany clanek neni nic jineho nez sireni FUD
(fear, uncertainity and doubt). Obsahuje spousty polopravd (abych to
vyjadril eufemismem) a zrejme je zoufalou snahou vyrobce zachranit, co se da.
Tomu by odpovidala i zminka o emulaci Linuxu a aktivity SCO v oblasti
Open Driver Interface.

	Budeme se muset snazit (my = uzivatele Linuxu), aby na podobne clanky
byly zverejnovany nase vysvetlujici odpovedi a nejlepe aby byly vice videt
nase clanky o Linuxu.

	S uctou,

-Jan "Yenya" Kasprzak

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\ Jan "Yenya" Kasprzak <kas at fi.muni.cz>       http://www.fi.muni.cz/~kas/
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