From chemistry-request.,at,.ccl.net Thu Mar 25 12:25:24 2004 Received: from osgood.cc.nd.edu (osgood.cc.nd.edu [129.74.250.227]) by server.ccl.net (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id i2PHPNjs016740 for ; Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:25:23 -0500 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by osgood.cc.nd.edu (Switch-3.1.4/Switch-3.1.0) with ESMTP id i2PHSHrN016724; Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:28:17 -0500 (EST) Received: from laptop.ccl.net (laptop.ccl.net [129.74.52.62]) by webmail.nd.edu (IMP) with HTTP for ; Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:28:17 -0500 Message-ID: <1080235697.406316b194fc5$at$webmail.nd.edu> Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:28:17 -0500 From: Jan K Labanowski To: chemistry$at$ccl.net Cc: jlabanow$at$nd.edu Subject: Which Linux to use in a research/educational envioronment? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: Internet Messaging Program (IMP) 3.2.2 X-Originating-IP: 129.74.52.62 X-ND-MTA-Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:28:19 -0500 (EST) X-ND-Virus-Scan: engine v4.3.20; dat v4343 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=7.0 tests=none autolearn=no version=2.61 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.61 (1.212.2.1-2003-12-09-exp) on servernd.ccl.net Dear CCL, With Linux getting more popular and becoming a commercial entity one, has to make a decision what to install on his/her desktop. The situation is even more complicated, if you need to install Linux on hundreds of desktops. The critical points from my perspective are: 1) Which flavor/vendor of Linux will be supported by the vendors of application software. As much, as I may like Debian, many commercial packages will not work with it (e.g., due to file system differences). 2) What is the deployment cost (in a broad sense, "the real cost of ownership"): a) how much you need to pay for the license (for example some "Enterprise" Linux distributions)? b) how solid is a linux distribution and how much time you need to install it and make it work? c) How much maintainance is required? i) The "Enterprise" (and pricy) Linuces promise stability, easy upgrade and patching paths, and Administration tools, which make maintainance easier for large installed base. They also promise continuity and backward compatibility for older packages installed on your computer. ii) The "development" (and free) Linuces will require frequent patches, release upgrades, etc. You will most likely face glibc compatibility problems for many packages when you upgrade, have constant problems with kernel versions (e.g., for device drivers, which require recompilation for specific kernel), etc., etc... 3) Portability... Related to the above. If you compile your software on one Linux, can you expect it to run on many other Linux boxes, or only on a specific flavor of Linux. There are obviously more issues. I will summarize the answers and will make sure that I protect the sources (for corporate respondees, this may be important). Thanks in advance Jan -- Jan K. Labanowski, Ph.D. Tel. (574) 631-4565 Science Computing Facility FAX (574) 631-9293 University of Notre Dame 225 Nieuwland Science Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556-5670