Hi Zelik,

Actually, we have been running Linux on various hardware makes and the
robustness of Linux and the applications running under it are of near HP
3000 quality.  Unlike the HP 3000 hardware, the Linux hardware is not on an
UPS, so when the power goes down, the box goes down.

Other than power failures, we have had one Linux system abort in 21 months
on DELL hardware, none on HP e-PCs running Linux, and none on "home-brew"
hardware running Linux.

In all fairness, the same event that caused the DELL Linux box to crash
caused MPE/iX to come to a grinding halt (MPE/iX didn't fail, but spooling
was shut down, system logging was shut down, all jobs spontaneously
aborted, etc., and it took almost an hour to return the system to an
operable state).

The more time I spend with Intel (or AMD) hardware running Windows (NT 4.0,
2000, or XP) or Linux (various Red Hat versions), the more convinced I am
that how frequently the box crashes is related to the operating system and,
in the case of Windows, whether the box is a single-application box or a
multiple-application box, not the hardware itself.  My personal observation
is that if you want a Windows box to stay up for long periods of time, run
ONLY ONE APPLICATION per box.  This restriction doesn't apply to Linux.

That said, is Windows XP more crash-resistant than other Windows
versions?  Well, for a workstation OS, yes.  It is also much faster for
"large memory" applications, and there are far fewer undesirable
interactions between applications.  Would I want to run an MPE/iX emulator
on top of Windows XP?  No. (by the way, most network and security people
I've talked to tend to believe that the "XP" of Windows XP stands for eXtra
Painful)  Face it, your emulator won't be any more stable than the OS it
runs on, and that makes the clear choice for the foundation OS to be Linux
rather than Windows.

Would running an MPE/iX emulator on Intel/AMD hardware rather than on HP
9000 hardware concern me?  Not much.  Heck, at the cost of Intel/AMD
hardware, I could keep several exact duplicate "spares" handy - and that
isn't an option with today's HP 3000 or HP 9000.

John



At 2002-11-14 04:04 PM, Schwartzman, Zelik wrote:
>John
>
>My only comment is one that I have stated many times over and over.  I would
>be really hard pressed to run a mission critical application on a machine
>that when it craps out you shut it off and turn it back on again.  Imagine
>running a full blown MRP process on a PC for 5 hours then the system locks
>up and you have to power down ?????? Good luck.  Remember Billy Gates when
>he demonstrated his new Windows version on national TV and it locked up....
>Hence my vote is to write an emulator on a much more stable platform.  Even
>though I have real sour feelings about what HP has done to the 3000, an
>HP-UX box is a whole lot more reliable than a PC. But then again HP-UX is
>not the most friendliest of systems...case in point "wq!" (double-u-Q-BANG)
>:)   :)    :{
>
>Hey here's a novel idea....put the emulator on an IBM OS390 or maybe a SUN
>box.  Now your talking stability  PS Sun blows HP-UX away
>
>Zelik
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: John Korb [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 2:16 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Which MPE on the Emulator
>
>
>Each day that there is not an MPE/iX emulator running on Intel hardware
>reduces the likely hood of our running MPE/iX on such an emulator and
>increases the likely hood of us migrating to Linux.
>
>Implied in the above is that the emulator shouldn't require HP 9000
>hardware or the HP-UX operating system.  I can't see an emulator running on
>other than Intel hardware being a success.  The comment "The same points HP
>used to justify killing MPE apply to HP-UX, so now is the time to start
>moving off of the proprietary HP-UX OS and onto Linux".  Effectively, in
>killing MPE HP has severely wounded HP-UX and added considerable doubt
>about its future.
>
>That said, the applications we currently have running make use of MPE/iX
>7.0 features.  Running on a prior version of MPE/iX isn't an option.  From
>my perspective, building an emulator for anything other than 7.5 (or, at a
>stretch, 7.0) is no better than no emulator at all.
>
>John