Linux/IBM Reality Check
Linux systems are not immune from bad software. The same bad-driver defense we use for crashing Microsoft Windows systems applies to the Linux world in the form of bad Java-friendly application servers (from IBM). Here in the W2 cubicles and at the meeting tables, I keep hearing hard-core Java lovers reluctantly report that they have to reboot a Linux box because of a “memory leak” or because a Java exception log file grows out of control and takes up 99.9% of disk space. They also admit that they installed a “service patch” (from IBM) that introduces new bugs.
So, in defense of the legions of Linux server super-users out there, we all know that when you leave a Linux server alone you will “never” have to reboot it. But when you give it what Robert X. Cringely calls “Big Blues,” you get the call to reboot—too often.
Based on my year long informal survey, the opinion here is that you need Java on Linux when you are trying to manage a large group of developers and have better chances of hiring more. Once you leave Java behind, you enter the relative exoticism of Perl/Python/Ruby people. Managers who are not that intimate with IT technology just can’t deal with hacking through these Linux hinterlands. Anyone who can eat a corn beef sandwich can spell IBM—and with IBM you get Java for “free.”