War : Unix vs Linux

hi guys

heard about the Project Looking Glass by Sun Microsystems

wwws.sun.com/software/looking_glass/

The way I see it, one can't really say that solaris is better than linux in system management or the opposite, they both come with tools of similar functionality and interface for every important aspect of administration. Of course many more administration tools are developed using Linux as reference OS but most of them will compile and work finely on Solaris or any unix.

Concerning security, it seems that SUN's official binary patches for Solaris delay much longer than patches from all major Linux distributions. That doesn't bother me personally since I do not administer that many computers and I have the luxury of time to monitor and patch everything manually, but it is definetelly a security issue for a large company/organization. Concerning firewall/packet mangling, Solaris uses Ip Filter (previously used by OpenBSD) and linux uses NetFilter/IPtables. Both offer the same superb functionality, though Iptables uses slightly more obscure syntax for the rulesets, but is also under heavier development. Solaris also comes with SunScreen firewall, which I haven't used but I've heard good words about it. Anyway my conclusion about security is that if there is somebody that will take the time to monitor and update the server on a tactical basis, security will not be an issue in any of the two OS. Otherwise, if you would only rely on OS's automatically update procedures (which isn't the best option), I hate to admit (I am a slackware heretic :}) that Redhat/Fedora/Debian have the best response time and auto-update procedures. SUN's patching system is formidable as well, they just don't release patches soon enough (sometimes more than 10 days after the publication of a security advisory!).

One final note, though you didn't express any concern about performance or compatibility, on normal 32-bit x86 cpus, Solaris is comparitivelly inefficient in performance and has quite bad hardware and software support. If you intend to use such a machine for your server, then prefer Linux or a BSD by all means! If you can use a sparc though, then Solaris will kick ass :}

PS. Nitix this seems a very cool enviroment!! I hope SUN releases an early beta some time soon

Between Solaris and Linux I would say take Linux.. you'll save yourself some money as well.. Just make sure whoever does the implementation knows what they're doing..

I recommend you build yourself a Red Hat / Debian / Slackware box and check things out.

The other advantage is that you can easily have testbed systems other than your production machines.. which may be too expensive if you're setting up a SPARC box.