FW: Solaris for Hotmail servers...

[Robert Honerkamp <Robert.Honerkamp@digital.com>]

Bwa-ha-ha

Robbie

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Gabriel Coindreau [SMTP:gabriel@integratec.com]
	Sent:	Saturday, May 02, 1998 3:49 PM
	To:	Inet-Access
	Subject:	Solaris for Hotmail servers...

	Don't know if this is old news for you but I find it quite
revealing:

	===

	Solaris calls Hotmail shots for Microsoft 

	Microsoft has decided to get the hots for Sun and is using Solaris
to
	run its acclaimed Hotmail web-based e-mail service instead of NT. 

	The software giant has attempted to exchange the Sun/Solaris
	infrastructure of Hotmail with NT since buying it in December 1997.
	However, the demands of supporting 10 million users reportedly
proved
	too great for NT, and Solaris was reinstated.

	In a leaked report, sources close to Hotmail said:  "... its whole
mail
	server infrastructure is Solaris. NT couldn't handle it. On the web
	server, they're running MP Pentiums and Apache on FreeBSD. They're
	moving to Solaris for threads. The engineering team did its best to
run
	NT - and failed. The issue's being escalated."

	Hotmail is running Apache's /1.2.1 web server which is not available
	for NT due to technical difficulties. A statement on Apache's
website
	states: "The road to Windows NT has not been a pretty one.  Several
	attempts have been made, both by Apache Group members and outside
	folks, but due to a lack of stability and a clear consensus on how
to
	manage a true cross-platform development project, NT is not yet a
	standard platform supported by Apache."

	Microsoft is currently recruiting engineers for Hotmail, but NT
	specialists need not apply.  Hotmail's website lists vacancies for
an
	operations software engineer and a QA engineer - and the common
	requirement is for Unix experience.

	Judy Gibbons, director of the Microsoft Network, was unaware of the
	hardware behind Hotmail, but said:  "We looked at all the on-line
mail
	services and Hotmail was far and away the best. It has the most
proven
	and scalable architecture."

	             First appeared in Network News, 22-April - 1998


	===

	Regards,

	--
	Gabriel Coindreau
	gabriel@integratec.com