Moving from Unix to Windows

[Jeri Sicari]

Greetings Clovertechies,

We were preparing to upgrade from QDX 3.8.1 on a Tru-64 OS to QDX 5.3 on Redhat Linux and for various reasons are now considering a switch to QDX 5.4 (suggested) on Windows 3000.  

I have heard at lot of conflicting opinions of Windows as a server for QDX but would really like to hear it all!

specifically:

1. What are some of the changes that would be necessary to port QDX from Unix to Windows.

2. What is the reliability of the Windows environment vs Linux or Unix.

3. How about performance issues?  Is there a real difference?

3. Won’t some of the ‘advantages’ of having a windows based IDE, be there by virtue of being on the newer version of QDX regardless of OS?

Any and all comments are welcome.

thanks,

Jeri Sicari

Topic

[Dennis Pfeifer]

5.5 is expected in Dec…..

[Robert Gordon]

I’m suspecting your are getting ready to re-write your unix scripts to the windows shell being DOS.  Might not be a good move if you have Unix like scripts.  Also you might want to considering the uptime between reboots, while most Windows server can update themselves with server patches automatically they can also reboot without notice.  This might be a problem if you have users that point fingers when they have no patient information.   It has been mentioned before that UNIX and AIX have the best uptime between reboots, and Windows about a month or three on the newer versions, but the automatic patch update tool of Microsoft might cause you a bit of pain when Microsoft can release three times in a week and reboot your server remotely.  One more thing to think about is user security, your MS administrator has full control across all windows machines, one click and ten seconds later an irreversable error.  might as well have spare servers just in case the last one gets killed by the MS administrator on its own network, on its own domain to segragate it from the hospital.

[Russ Ross]

If you are being forced to ask these questions against your own free will, as I suspect, that should tip you off as to what is the right choice (UNIX).

But I have a hunch you already know that.

I see this question all the time but wonder if anyone proficient with UNIX has ever made the switch to Windows without kicking and screaming.

Either the whole world is crazy or I am.

I get a sick feeling in my stomach just thinking what I would do if faced with such a delima.

Russ Ross
RussRoss318@gmail.com

[Jeri Sicari]

Actually, I was asking with an agenda… I was hoping to hear from others some facts to support actually going to Linux, as good as Unix, yes?

we don’t have a real strong admin presense on either OS, thats why the consideration to Windows…

but I’m breathing a sigh of relief…the decision is to go with Linux.

thanks for the responses…2

Jeri

[Dick Bly]

My two cents – Those that know me may think I hate windows, and they are probably right. The reliablility of cloverleaf on windows is poor to say the least (quovadx will tell you otherwise, but talk to the customer base.)

If you have a limited number of interfaces, use only the tools supplied by qdx, don’t schedule task, etc., and can afford to reboot weekly, and don’t neeed a backup system, then you could get by with it. Do watch out for the windows pacthes, they have been known to break applications.

Plain and simple – cloverleaf was built on to run on unix (aix in particular)

The ports to other unix/unix like systems is easir to do than than trying to prot to windows where things are done differently.  If you have multiple sites on a system, they have to run under one windows service, one database manager, and have a common point of failure that will take down all of your sites. Cuirrently under cl 5.3 and windows server 2003 there are major problems with shell and tcl interaction.  In fact, from a shell, start hcitcl several time and you are likely to see it fail to even run, giving very little information about why. It is a constant battle.

we had work arounds that seemd to work on running tcl script (redirects) but when one of the recent windows patches went in, the scripts started failing.

If you want to run windows, then use a product that was designed for windows and its pitfalls.  If you want to run cloverleaf (best choice in my book) then do it on unix. You’ll be a lot happier.

[Author]

Replies