Inside the narrow arena in which Mark Russinovich compared Windows NT and Linux, his observations were correct. NT is technically and practically superior to Linux in many areas, but the converse is also true. NT has superior SMP capabilities and also superior tightly coupled clustering capabilities. However, NT is inferior in loosely coupled clustering. The dirt-cheap prices of PCs today threaten to drive thin clients, SMP servers, and tight clusters into a very small niche. If so, who wins?
Linux isn’t ready to take on NT in all areas, but Linux improves on a daily basis. Microsoft’s traditional approach to dealing with the competition won’t work with Linux: Microsoft can’t bully Linux out of the market, nor can Microsoft defeat it in a commercial sense. In all areas, NT must increase its technical lead or catch up to Linux. I’m not sure that Microsoft is up to the task. Microsoft needs to reinvent itself in ways that are counter to its corporate culture. Regardless, Linux isn’t going to supplant NT overnight. The fight will be a long one, and inevitably all of us will win.

--David H. Lynch Jr.

David H. Lynch Jr. 8/9/1999 11:37:56 AM

A lot of Linux advocates need to calm down, and I’m probably one of them! In Mark Russinovich’s “Linux and the Enterprise” (April), the author compared NT to Linux at the kernel level, then used his results to imagine which OS is better for his definition of enterprise computing. But NT and Linux aren’t just kernels. If they were, nobody would use them. The total combination of kernels, libraries, and applications is what makes customers use computers.
Perhaps if Mark had written the article for just the Linux kernel mailing list, he would have found a less zealous and more technically capable audience already familiar with the topics he discussed. Furthermore, any weaknesses he uncovered would be fixed immediately.
Seeing all the interest in Linux, why don’t you start another Linux magazine or at least add a regular column to Windows NT Magazine? In the real world, a lot of companies have both NT and Linux (or some other flavor of UNIX), so I imagine interoperability would be of great interest to your readers.

--V.C. in Alameda, CA

V.C. in Alameda, CA 8/9/1999 11:36:21 AM