Why I use Linux 9876

Sounds like they need a new support team then. Let me know where that shop is and I'll find a replacement service team that can do a better job.

There was a time when Windows needed to be rebooted every six months or so but reformatting and reinstalling is just dumb these days. It really screws the uptime statistics. It's possible that their users keep getting the machines infected with malware, and reformatting and reinstalling will fix that. But that's mainly a management problem not really a technical one. Malware, even on Windows, is mostly preventable if you have the users trained and the support people are on the ball.

Windows server systems can pretty easily deliver 99.99% uptime and with care they can deliver another .009% too. Seven nines reliability out of the box is the next target for Windows and Linux-BSD.

Five years ago I was running a handful of NT4 servers. The only unscheduled downtime in five years was when the UPS battery failed. It's a pity that Windows still needs to reboot when some of the patches are installed, that's pretty much the only downtime my servers had.

It's horses for courses. I run both Windows and Linux. Linux has now reached the point I predicted a few years back, it's possible to build and run a Linux system with almost no specialist knowledge. I run SuSE and Ubuntu boxes, both excellent systems. I also run Windows.

-- Bernard Peek London, UK. DBA, Manager, Trainer & Author.