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

[Karsten M. Self]

on Thu, Mar 03, 2005 at 01:33:17PM -0800, Don Werve (donw at agentsix.net) wrote:
> Jeff Newmiller wrote:
> >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.
> 
> This is true, but Linux gives you USABLE LOGS to figure out where the 
> problem is when it crashes.  Windows' logging system is woefully 
> inadequate by comparison, and the inability to reference the source when 
> troubleshooting makes life even more difficult.  It's not just that 
> Linux has a more simple core system, but that it simply provides more 
> information to the user, period.

I'll expand on that a tad:

  - GNU/Linux logs tend to be both verbose and comprehensive.  Save
    kernel panics (system dies before issue can write), there's almost
    always something to work with.

  - GNU/Linux logs are *infinitely* more searchable and scannable, via
    text tools, than 'Doze.  Give me grep, awk, and less *any* day over
    that godforsaken "event viewer".

  - man.  Particularly on a distro such as Debian, which requires, by
    *policy*, that *every* system executable have a corresponding
    manpage.  While reality doesn't _quite_ live up ideal, odds are
    damned good you can figure out what a given process is.  The
    $50/15min hired gun sorting out a Win2K server at a recent gig was,
    it turned out, doing the same damned thing I was trying to sort out
    processes:  Googling them.  Excect he used MSIE.  As Administrator.
    Gah!

  - trees.  Filesystems.  Processes.  See, one *really* neat aspect of
    fork() *processes have parents*.  And you can work out what called
    what.  At least some of the time.  No such relationship (AFAIU) in
    legacy MS Windows.  If all else fails, you can blame it on init ;-)


Total agreement though:  GNU/Linux offers orders of magitude (sic) more
transparency to the user/admin.


Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
    Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a
    series of ones and zeros
    - Slashdot sig.
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