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[Captain America]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

Linux is cheap, robust, performant

Hmm, it's really not robust. At uni we use redhat in the Computing Science department, and it's shit. Computers are constantly going down, and It's usually for no good reason.

[Hugh_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Neil

I have to say in my experience of working with the oil majors they all use Solaris if they aren't using Windows based servers. The only time I've seen some flavour of Linux in use is on workstations.

Linux has its place (it's great for web hosting for example - this web site is hosted on a dedicated Red Hat Linux server) but I wouldn't want to have something like Oracle or SAP running on a bunch of Linux boxes.

BP and ConocoPhillips are two examples of majors using Linux clusters for seismic data processing and reservoir simulation.......many of the major geophysical data processing centres (Fugro, CGG) have already moved this way also. The company I work with, Apache, is also currently evaluating Linux with a view to phasing out Solaris in the near-term.

Perhaps this isnt the direction industry is taking for Oracle/SAP, but in the geoscience and reservoir engineering sphere, where volumes of data and requirements for processing power are orders of magnitude greater, Linux-based systems are steadily taking over.

[Hugh_Jazz]

Originally Posted by Stripey

Linux is not robust, it is written by beardy basement-dwelling hobbyists with no idea about the real world. When you move to linux for production servers, all it takes is 1 nerd on the other site of the world to commit a piece of flawed code to the source tree and suddenly you can't do business anymore, or worse, and there is nobody to hold responsible. Yes it is cheap, and you get what you pay for.

Anyway, from the point of view of getting a certification worth putting on your CV, with the intention of earning money, anything to do with linux is a waste of time.

Just had a quick look on one of the UK's biggest job sites for Linux vs Solaris jobs:

Linux - 703 jobs
Solaris - 235 jobs

If getting Linux certified meant i had 3 times the chance of getting a job, I'd hardly call it a waste of time.

[doom donkey]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

BP and ConocoPhillips are two examples of majors using Linux clusters for seismic data processing and reservoir simulation.......many of the major geophysical data processing centres (Fugro, CGG) have already moved this way also. The company I work with, Apache, is also currently evaluating Linux with a view to phasing out Solaris in the near-term.

Perhaps this isnt the direction industry is taking for Oracle/SAP, but in the geoscience and reservoir engineering sphere, where volumes of data and requirements for processing power are orders of magnitude greater, Linux-based systems are steadily taking over.

Got to agree with this, I work for a company that provides seismic data processing/imaging, petrophysics ect. software (probably the company that provides the sw that Hugh Jazz is talking about, think BP are using our stuff at the moment) and we are moving to drop Solaris support soon as the major oil companies are moving away from Solaris to linux/windows.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

BP and ConocoPhillips are two examples of majors using Linux clusters for seismic data processing and reservoir simulation.......many of the major geophysical data processing centres (Fugro, CGG) have already moved this way also. The company I work with, Apache, is also currently evaluating Linux with a view to phasing out Solaris in the near-term.

That's a fairly niche use of Linux though (it's Red Hat as well if memory serves?) - especially in the case of BP, who I can assure you won't be moving away from Solaris anytime soon.

[Stripey]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

Just had a quick look on one of the UK's biggest job sites for Linux vs Solaris jobs:

Linux - 703 jobs
Solaris - 235 jobs

If getting Linux certified meant i had 3 times the chance of getting a job, I'd hardly call it a waste of time.

Having a cheap linux certifcation is going to get you a cheap job, if you want to actually get paid well solaris and other high-end unix skills are the way to go.

You should also remember that there's more to the world than just the oil industry. The finance and telecomms sectors for example rely heavily on Sun systems etc for most of their critical infrastructure, and this isn't going to change any time soon.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by The Kernel Loaf

Here's hoping you aren't responsible for the pointless abomination that is Moodle.

*coughs and walks away whistling*

[Lester Burnham]

Originally Posted by Hugh_Jazz

BP and ConocoPhillips are two examples of majors using Linux clusters for seismic data processing and reservoir simulation.......many of the major geophysical data processing centres (Fugro, CGG) have already moved this way also. The company I work with, Apache, is also currently evaluating Linux with a view to phasing out Solaris in the near-term.

Perhaps this isnt the direction industry is taking for Oracle/SAP, but in the geoscience and reservoir engineering sphere, where volumes of data and requirements for processing power are orders of magnitude greater, Linux-based systems are steadily taking over.

You can also add Maersk into that pool and I'm pretty sure Shell do to. Again for Seismic data processing.

I did a baby linux course. Good times

Like it said above though... it's still a niche industry.