ML> I'd personally keep running Maximus on x86 Windows. 
 ML> Maximus v3.01 (DOS) is stable. All the other platforms are bodgey. 
 ML> As long as they keep making VMware work for Windows 2000 I'm happy.

I might end up doing that.  I plan on retiring my current desktop to
replace it with a Sun workstation, and could use the old desktop to run Max
on Windows.  It's much newer than the old PII450 that runs my bbs now. It
just would have been so nice to be able to use the Linux maximus :/  I'll
still give the linux version a try to see where it's at.


 ML> Hmm. The whole DOS EMU part may be entirely independent of Maximus.

 ML> Because Maximus can run doors after being unloaded from 
 ML> memory (eg. via Xtern_Erlvl) it could be reasonably 
 ML> assumed that running doors only require the same 
 ML> process of passing hot com ports/handles/sockets (for 
 ML> DOS/NT/Linux respectively) to DOS EMU - assuming 
 ML> Xtern_Erlvl works the same under Linux as DOS or OS/2.

 ML> Not sure if Maximus has to be enhanced for this kind of 
 ML> socket handling. I'll ask those Synchronet guys.

I've always used Xtern_Dos in my menus.ctl to execute batch files to start
doors. Is that any different?  I'm sure the Synchronet guys will have
useful information.  Even if Max needs some tweaking to work with DOSEMU,
it will be well worth it.  There are external programs people use other
than doors such as EZ-ROM, one liner programs during login, etc... there is
more to a bbs than doors, but people won't call my bbs without doors.  I
would imagine any other potential Maximus/Linux sysop would agree.


Thanks for taking the time to look into this.

You asked earlier why anyone would want to use Solaris, and hinted that you
are a big Red Hat fan.  I'll admit I'm a big Sun fan.  Some big plusses
about Solaris 10 : 

1) ZFS lets you expand your file system by adding more drives to the
"pool".  

2) TCP/IP stack in Solaris 10 is up to 300% faster than any other OS
because of a complete redesign. 

3) Solaris containers (virtual servers) are very fast, easy to configure
and very secure.  Even if an app crashes the whole virtual OS in a
container it can't affect other containers or the main system.  US DoD,
military and banks trust Solaris containers.  

4) DTrace lets you monitor and debug any running application without the
source, recompiling or restarting the app or OS. 

5) It's been around since 1982.  Rock solid security, performance and scalability.


I'm a Java developer.  I love Sun's Java, IDE, application server,
developer support, hardware, Solaris, and other products like directory
server, etc... I'm a brand loyal guy and want to change my network of
various linux distros and OS's to Solaris on everything.  I'm sure there
are many people who would not want to do this for whatever reason.  This is
just my home network and my opinion. Everyone is free to use whichever
distros and programming languages they want. 

BTW Sun is running a campaign trying to convert Red Hat Enterprise Linux
users to Solaris.  I think some of their points are:

1) After 3 years of Red Hat P1 support, the updates aren't quite the same
anymore.  A lot fewer updates?  You either have to upgrade to the latest
Red Hat, or live with less support.  With Solaris, all versions are fully
supported for 7 years.  

2) Solaris support costs are (I think) less than half of Red Hat

3) All the features I mentioned above


I predict your reply will have a bunch of pro-Red Hat, anti Solaris
information :)  FYI, I don't want to engage in a flame war.  You asked why
anyone would want to use Solaris, so I answered. 



Thanks,
Ryan

--- Maximus 3.01