Here at Monash University in Australia, we use both Solaris and Linux. Solaris is used for most mission critical services, but most of the time we use it because we need the grunty Sun hardware that it comes with it. Linux is being used more and more within the IT department. We've found it especially good for 'farms' of machines (eg web proxies, mail, etc). It's also being used as a 'black box' at remote locations - offers web proxy, DNS, SMTP, etc for people with flaky connections. The two Linux-related projects I'm working with involves two services - web proxy and mail exchanger. The original implementor of the web proxy farm (setup some time ago) chose Redhat for the machines. A couple of years on, and they work - but need quite a lot of hand-holding. The mail exchanger stuff I'm currently working on now involves Debian and Postfix on a bunch of extremely tasty boxes (Intel Hudson servers - RAID cages, hot-swappable power supplies, that sort of thing). Although not in production yet, they've stood up to everything I can throw at them. As far as Linux is concerned, its been very pro-Redhat around here for a while (probably because its the most common) but people are starting to realise that Debian just works and pretty much takes care of itself. Debian is my personal favourite mostly because of the ease of maintenance. I have three Debian workstations on my desk, each with uptimes of over a month, and the only time I've had to reboot is to install a new kernel - never for any other upgrade. It also runs my personal web and mail server. I've also set up Debian for my family (who know nothing outside Windows, and not even that very well) to use as a masquerading gateway. They live over 500km away from me so I only get to visit twice a year. Last time I was there it had been up for over a year, and apparently that was only because someone pulled the wrong plug out of the wall. Debian just works. And if I ever get around to trying Debian Sparc, maybe I can get rid of Solaris on those Sun boxes ;) Regards, Rob.
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