[OpenIndiana-discuss] I figured this deserved a separate thread

[Paul Johnston]

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From: Tom Kranz [mailto:tom at siliconbunny.com] 
Sent: 05 November 2010 10:28
To: Discussion list for OpenIndiana
Subject: Re: [OpenIndiana-discuss] I figured this deserved a separate
thread

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Gary Driggs wrote:
> I'd be curious to learn how many admins feel this is an important
feature since my server OS upgrade cycles tend to coincide with hardware
upgrades & in that case it's more work to try to preserve an exact
replica of the old system it's replacing  -- except, perhaps, in the
case of a physical to virtual conversion.
It's hugely important in production server environments. SPARC kit in
particular has a lot longer 'in service' life than x86 - 5 years is
about average, longer for the higher end kit. Case in point - I am
currently in the middle of de-commissioning an E10k. It's been live
since they first came out, it's been running mission critical stuff,
and Solaris has been upgraded multiple times. Being able to do that
massively lowers the TCO of the installation, which is a big chunk of
why SPARC (or any RISC solutio) can be cheaper to deploy than x86
despite the initially higher up-front costs.


Please don't take this as trying to cause a flame war :-)

I've never really understood this, is it because of something inherent
in SPARC (RISC) or just they are built better?
If you get well made x86 gear will it last as long?
Or off course is it that the software works better on SPARC as it is
designed for it and the x86 version is inferior?
Paul