Okay-
I understand that you don't like IRIX, that's good, I'm not a
particular fan of HP-UX, but my reasons for not liking it are technical,
not becasue it makes me feel oogy when I log in. I really dislike it
becasue there is no concept of shadowed passwd files, and the "trusted"
system implements some things that I don't love, either, not to mention
that it uses a different system call to retrieve the passwd entry, thereby
"breaking" a few apps that need to run on some of the HP systems I use.
Those are what I would look for in reasons that you don't care for IRIX,
not saying you're wrong, you have your opinion, and that's a good thing.
I see one reason in the filesystem layout, but IMHO, that is the
admin's responsibility, and yes, you can dictate that in IRIX, you just
have to know the inst args to do the install as you want it. Much like
getting the hang of fdisk or other tools, just one more thing to learn, and
personally, I think that's fun. If you wnat a toe to toe comparison of
IRIX and Linux, for what you do and the parts you use, Linux probably wins,
but there are many parts and pieces of IRIX I will take over Linux any day
of the week, inst being one, and xfs being another. Aside form that, I'm
used to 4DWM, even though a lot of people at SGI don't even like it. I
also like anumber of other parts, but as I said, you'll have different
wants than I do.
I do just have one more small bit to add, and I'll step down for a
bit, and this isn't pointed to anyone in particular, but it happens to me
without fail. Everytime I get into a heated discussion on a list, and it
gets down to whose system I am working on, and what I like, some wizened
old admin/programmer will (without fail) throw out the "it's not there for
you, it's there because the users are, and so are you...." line. I can't
force my users to something they can't/ won't use, so sometimes I am
saddled with systems I don't love as much as something else. So, at any
rate, I see your arguments, and I see Jeremy's as well, and I'm not trying
to make the peace here, I just want to clarify what's being said. I don't
think I've succeeded, but it was worth a try, too bad it got lost in my
ramblings...
Thanks,
mbutler
On Wed, Nov 21, 2001 at 09:16:18AM -0600, Jeremy Shawley wrote:
> Can you give some reasons why you will be happy when they will be
> gone? I hope you can come up with something better than "It doesn't
> run linux". If you are going to say things like this, please make some
> justifications.
Believe it or not, it's not that it doesn't run Linux that's my problem.
It's that wonderful oganically grown filesystem layout that IRIX seems
to love so dearly. Every system is different, but every time I log on
to an IRIX box, I get this queasy feeling that "something is wrong with
the force."
> At anyrate, just have the decency to give some justification to your
> argument, as far as we know, you are just a really bad sysadmin and
> don't know how to admin the systems.
You know. I don't really need to give you more reason that personal
preference. That's what's wonderful about operating systems and being
putting on the BOFH hat every once and a while. You are correct that
you can assume no more than you know from the comment, especially if you
reference no other emails to this list posted by yours truely. If you
want to assume that I'm a bad admin, then go ahead. If you want to
assume that I have lice, eat goldfish, and live under your bed, than I'm
your boogie-man.
IMHO, IRIX is a pain in the ass, and I'll be happy when I no longer have
to deal with it. Qualifier for that statement, because I'm a BOFH.