[vox] One more reason to prefer Linux...

[Jeff Newmiller]

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, Richard S. Crawford wrote:

> And behold, Micah Cowan flailed at a keyboard and did expound:
> 
> > The exception to this could be if a faulty video driver hung. But of
> > course, if this happened to Windows, you wouldn't be able to get a task
> > manager, either. :-)
> 
> Yes, this is true.  I hadn't thought of that.  But even if my Linux box
> had a faulty video driver, I'd still be able to SSH into it to examine the
> situation pretty easily.

As someone who has had to cope with exactly such problems in Linux, I can
assure you that you are wrong.

Bugs in ANY kernel code can bring your trusty Linux box to a screeching
halt... completely.

The stability of any computer OS is tightly linked with the stability of
the privileged code.  Windows just happens to have lots of code that runs
in level 0 privilege that was developed in proprietary software houses
with a small number of eyeballs looking at it.  But not all Linux kernel
code gets the same number of eyeballs, either... some devices are just too
new, too complicated, or too rare to garner such attention.

Sysadmins for both OSes agree that if you have something that ain't broke,
don't fix it... and Linux admins who want something that is broke to be
fixed bad enough, can roll up their sleeves.

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