Paul Murphy

(LinuxWorld) — This article compares the Microsoft client/server architecture to the Unix approach in terms of systems decisions facing a university faculty. To put this in context, imagine that you are being interviewed for a job as the faculty's systems manager. The chairman of the selection committee asks you to come in to discuss whether the faculty would be better served if it went all-Linux instead of staying all-Microsoft. Notice that you're not being asked the traditional "which is cheaper?" question. Most people have little trouble figuring out that free is cheaper than not-free. What the committee members seek is something to help them reach a judgment about you and maybe some validation as to what they were thinking when they put you on their short list.... (more)

Weighing the pros & cons of IBM's mainframe Linux, Part 2

(LinuxWorld) -- Part 1 in this series showed: The high-end z900 lists for around $5 million to start Offers a maximum of 64 gigabytes of real memory and 16 CPUs running at 770-MHz Is designed for high-speed batch processing, not interactive user support. There seem to be no clearly defined, third party, audited benchmarks giving the price performance ratio of the zSeries relative to conven... (more)

Open-source vs. Microsoft tools for business-app implementation, Part 2

(LinuxWorld) — So far I've not received much feedback on the key business issues in the first Cocoon article, although quite a lot of comment has come in on two cost related issues: the impact Microsoft licensing has on hardware choices and the need to use BizTalk. No one questioned the notion that you'd put all of the applications on the same box on the Unix side, but several peopl... (more)

Readers react to 'Weighing the pros & cons of IBM's mainframe Linux'

Good news about UTS The article contains a reference to Amdahl's mid-1980s UTS product and asked if anyone knew what happened to it since. Seems it's alive and well: Dear Mr. Murphy, UTS is very much alive and kicking. Check out our Web page at: http://www.utsglobal.com We are not a part of Amdahl and haven't been for about two years. UTS is still very much in use, check out our customer ... (more)

Why you should take a Mac user to lunch

(LinuxWorld) -- Here's a blinding insight for you: Moore's Law applies only to hardware, not to the total cost of systems. What sparked this recognition of the glaringly obvious was a review of Apple's new Xserve (a dual-processor 1U blade server) and some thinking about what that thing is likely to mean for the Linux marketplace. Although the actual numbers are bit fuzzy, it seems that Su... (more)