[Info-vax] BASIC compiler in the hobbyist distribution

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Sunday, 31 May 2015 16:17:23 UTC+1, seasoned_geek  wrote:
> On Saturday, May 30, 2015 at 4:01:00 PM UTC-5, johnwa... at yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > 
> > The Proliant will also be qualified to run a couple of business
> > class Linuxes (the Packard Bell? Why?) 
> > 
> > Think about how the *systems* compare:
> > . Resilient (Proliant) vs cheap (consumer)
> > .. e.g. redundant PSU vs single PSU, ECC memory vs non-ECC, etc
> > . Serviceable (Proliant) vs disposable (consumer)
> > . Expandable (Proliant) vs bounded (consumer)
> > . Documented (Proliant) vs 'good luck with that, mate' (consumer)
> > . Expected lifetime of years (Proliant) vs months (consumer)
> > . Multiple OS multiple version support (Proliant) vs you get what
> > you're given and that's it (consumer)
> > 
> 
> You know, it never ceases to amaze me just how short of a memory people have. It was not all that long ago Amazon made the nightly news for roughly a week due to a massive outage where they had to replace so many thousands of servers it exceeded their suppliers capacity to provide them.
> 
> Most of the other "cloud" providers have had similar outages where hundreds or thousands of these supposedly enterprise quality servers committed harry-kari in a Jonestown like fashion.
> 
> Quit drinking the KOOL-AID

I don't know whose servers you think AWS/EC2/etc use but I do hope you
don't think it's Proliant. 

You'd be a lot closer if you were thinking Amazon talk direct to white
box builders like Foxconn who will, given sufficient volume, build
whatever the customer wants. 

You may even have noticed the recent HP-Foxconn deal, which HP seem
to think  will allow them to make money in the ultra low margin ultra
high volume world of cloud server sales. (I think they're mad to even
think about competing with Foxconn directly, but I don't get out much).

Unbadged whitebox and Proliant 'enterprise' are at different ends of
the server hardware spectrum, because they address different sets of
requirements, frequently conflicting requirements. Some are
fundamental requirements such as price and performance, others may be
slightly woolier, such as reliability, spares availability, etc.

One size does not fit all.