Which OS?

[Cypher]

It would never happen, but can you imagine if IBM contributed AIX's LPARs and Solaris' lightweight threads into Linux? :drool:

:Wow1: Hehe.. I am with you on that one, but as you said, I don't think that one will ever happen.

 

[off-roader]

Windows!!

Windows for me. I tried to be a Mac guy when I was in school but at that time I was poor and my friends could give me copies of windows programs I couldn't afford (Office, Photoshop, CorelDraw, etc.) so I went with a Windows based system. I can now purchase my software so I'm not a thief in that regard any longer.

As for Unix/Linux, just not technical/detailed/patient enough (nor do I ever want to be) for those OS's. Yes, Wintel probably crashes often but that's what I have ghosting software for.

FWIW, I sell Unix software for a living so I know what's involved to use & maintain a Unix system. It's not as easy for some as you would like to say it is.

 

[Cypher]

Windows for me. I tried to be a Mac guy when I was in school but at that time I was poor and my friends could give me copies of windows programs I couldn't afford (Office, Photoshop, CorelDraw, etc.) so I went with a Windows based system. I can now purchase my software so I'm not a thief in that regard any longer.

As for Unix/Linux, just not technical/detailed/patient enough (nor do I ever want to be) for those OS's. Yes, Wintel probably crashes often but that's what I have ghosting software for.

FWIW, I sell Unix software for a living so I know what's involved to use & maintain a Unix system. It's not as easy for some as you would like to say it is.

Nothing wrong with that... To each his own!

The thing I like about UNIX and Linux is once you get it set up it will pretty much take care of itself until you start to monkey around with configs or settings. I first got into using Linux at home becuse it was free along with the fact that it was what was used in the Computer Science labs in college. Then I started enjoying the freedom and power to what ever I wanted with it (again for free). Now I just think it is fun, but it is also a part of my job to understand it with respect to Information Security.

 

[Root Moose]

FWIW, I sell Unix software for a living so I know what's involved to use & maintain a Unix system. It's not as easy for some as you would like to say it is.

Sure, it's really easy. Buy a Mac!

I jest... or do I

 

[chrismc]

I went with Mac, Windows, and Linux. Mac most of the time. My iBook lives in my messenger bag and goes everywhere with me. My "nav computer" is an HP TC1000 tablet with XP on it, as the map software selection for Mac is pretty slim and the tablet is really convenient for navigation. I use a Linux laptop when I'm doing wireless network auditing or need a mobile server (events and such).

At work, I manage about a dozen Linux servers, about 30 Windows servers, and pretty recently have built 3 OpenSolaris fibre-channel storage servers (ZFS is amazing) with about 48TB each. At home I have a Windows Server 2008 workstation, a Power Mac, and an Ubuntu server. I'll be adding an OpenSolaris storage server (5TB initially) soon for media. Technically, I have two more Linux boxen- a Tivo and a Linksys router.

 

[Pskhaat]

There ya' go someone who uses the correct plural form of box = boxen! ZFS is cool, but give me SCSI/SAS anytime over the fibre bottleneck.

 

[AndrewP]

If you are serious about running any navigation software on the road, a Windows based platform is what you want. XP is probably best for the Netbooks, and Vista has issues but can be made to work. The next generatio of all of the Topographic programs say they will support Mac in the "next" generation, but they support Windows now.

 

[chrismc]

There ya' go someone who uses the correct plural form of box = boxen! ZFS is cool, but give me SCSI/SAS anytime over the fibre bottleneck.

Completely off-topic, but the storage servers we use actually use SATA drives. They have multiple SATA RAID controllers, with a stack of drives hanging off of each. We get better performance letting ZFS see the drives directly than using ANY hardware RAID. The key is setting up the raidz2 pools appropriately so that the writes are balanced across the controllers. With the COMSTAR setup, the FC HBA in the box makes the entire box look like one FC drive, but with the performance of 48 spindles. As long as the storage box has sufficient resources, you can easily get the full throughput of 8GB FC (no bottleneck). Also key is matching the zfs volume blocksize to the blocksize you will be formatting with on the FC initiator server. We use this system primarily for backups and archiving large files, so we use a 64k blocksize.

The current servers we use are the Aberdeen Stirling X881, with a few customizations.

You create ZFS volumes, then map the ZFS vols to LUNs that are mapped to a server using the ACL you specify. For the geeks out there, here's an example of one of our older, smaller setups (with critical details altered):

# pkg install SUNWstmf

# zpool create storagepool \
	raidz2 c5t0d0 c5t0d1 c5t1d0 c5t1d1 c6t0d0 c6t0d1 c6t1d0 c6t1d1 \
	raidz2 c5t0d2 c5t0d3 c5t1d2 c5t1d3 c6t0d2 c6t0d3 c6t1d2 c6t1d3 \
	raidz2 c5t0d4 c5t0d5 c5t1d4 c5t1d5 c6t0d4 c6t0d5 c6t1d4 c6t1d5 \
	raidz2 c5t0d6 c5t0d7 c5t1d6 c5t1d7 c6t0d6 c6t0d7 c6t1d6 c6t1d7

# zpool status

  pool: storagepool
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        storagepool  ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d1  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d1  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d1  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d1  ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d2  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d3  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d2  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d3  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d2  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d3  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d2  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d3  ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d5  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d5  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d5  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d4  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d5  ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d6  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d7  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d6  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t1d7  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d6  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t0d7  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d6  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c6t1d7  ONLINE       0     0     0
            
# zfs create -V 500G -b 64k storagepool/vol_1
# zfs create -V 500G -b 64k storagepool/vol_2
# zfs create -V 500G -b 64k storagepool/vol_...

# zfs list
NAME                         USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
storagepool                 3.91T  12.1T  40.4K  /storagepool
storagepool/vol_1       500G  12.6T  35.9K  -
storagepool/vol_2       500G  12.6T  35.9K  -
storagepool/vol_...       500G  12.6T  35.9K  -


# sbdadm create-lu /dev/zvol/rdsk/storagepool/vol_1
# sbdadm create-lu /dev/zvol/rdsk/storagepool/vol_2
# sbdadm create-lu /dev/zvol/rdsk/storagepool/vol_...

# sbdadm list-lu

Found 8 LU(s)

              GUID                    DATA SIZE           SOURCE
--------------------------------  -------------------  ----------------
600144f0c4a30e000000492b2c190001      536870846464     /dev/zvol/rdsk/storagepool/vol_1
600144f0c4a30e000000492b2c1c0002      536870846464     /dev/zvol/rdsk/storagepool/vol_2
600144f0c4a30e000000492b2c1d0003      536870846464     /dev/zvol/rdsk/storagepool/vol_...

Create a host group.
# stmfadm create-hg ServerName

Specify the ports for the host group, adding the WWNs or IQNs as members.
# stmfadm add-hg-member -g ServerName  wwn.500508B200C6B512

Allow the host group to access the LUN
# stmfadm add-view -h ServerName -n 1 600144f0c4a30e000000492b2c190001
# stmfadm add-view -h ServerName -n 2 600144f0c4a30e000000492b2c1c0002
# stmfadm add-view -h ServerName -n ... 600144f0c4a30e000000492b2c1d0003

 

[nickt]

Bunch of geeks!

While we're off-topic, here's my ZFS server I built for home.

:ylsmoke:

It's interesting to see OSX and Windows variants are split equally. I was expecting more of a Windows bias. I suspect hackery

Nick.

 

[Scott Brady]

oooooh, nearly a dead heat!

I am not surprised though. Macs rock.

 

[gjackson]

I suspect hackery

I agree. Check out the math:

:Wow1:


cheers

 

[Outdoorsben]

I deal with all OS's on a regular basis and hands down Windows is the clear winner. I would love to say linux but the lack of programs really hinder it, outside of running a virtual box or WINE.

 

[Root Moose]

I deal with all OS's on a regular basis and hands down Windows is the clear winner. I would love to say linux but the lack of programs really hinder it, outside of running a virtual box or WINE.

Which programs? Are you speaking in the general sense or GPS specifically?

The only way I can see that being used as an argument is if you need exact functionality that is only available on Windows (or Mac depending).

Feature lock in, say something like VB scripting in Office... Sure, Windows for that. Photoshop, sure Win or Mac for that. I wouldn't even bother looking at Linux if you are a professional designer that needs PS to be compatible with the rest of the world.

If you haven't gotten to the point where you need specific features of a program like the above it is still fair game which one you run at that point IMO. I wouldn't say there is a "clear winner" in the general sense

You buy/get an OS to run programs, not because you need Windows/Mac/Linux. For GPS it seems Windows is the best tool for the job, certainly the best selection of tools. I have a copy of MacGPS Pro for the Mac but I'm not terribly keen on it. On Linux I've used gpsdrive but like all Linux software the "user experience" leaves a lot to be desired - the mechanism to have all your topos "on-line" is a PITA for example.

Hardware is cheap/small these days. I don't have a problem with buying an extra PC just to run GPS software and do only that so it remains stable.

We have no problems spending money on our trucks and equipment and as far as I can see the PC is just another piece of equipment. Best tool for the job when it makes sense. Mind you, I have the advantage of working in the industry so I collect hardware like dust bunnies it seems, maority not out of pocket (tailings).

$0.02

 

[Outdoorsben]

You buy/get an OS to run programs, not because you need Windows/Mac/Linux.

Hardware is cheap/small these days. I don't have a problem with buying an extra PC just to run GPS software and do only that so it remains stable.

We have no problems spending money on our trucks and equipment and as far as I can see the PC is just another piece of equipment. Best tool for the job when it makes sense. Mind you, I have the advantage of working in the industry so I collect hardware like dust bunnies it seems, maority not out of pocket (tailings).

$0.02

I agree that we buy an OS for programs and there shouldn't be any question that windows has FAR more programs for it then Macs and Linux. Just more variety.

I also agree about the seperate PC. I bought an HP Mini just to keep in the Jeep and run my Topo 7.

 

[Cypher]

HAHAHA!! Yea there is some funky math going on with that poll. That my be correct in some other dimension, but last I checked .50 + .50 + .119 = 1.119 haha.