Even as major software developers embrace Linux, however, some office
applications will lag. For example, Lotus is porting Domino Server (Notes'
heart) to Linux; the Notes client for Linux is still a rumor. It's also
unclear how many, and when, Notes developers will port their APIs to
Linux. You must make sure that your customers' enterprise programs,
especially those that are NT-based, will be available on Linux before
doing the penguin hop.
Even if Linux clears the app hurdle, it stumbles when it comes to
high-end networking. That's because the OS lacks numerous advanced
features, such as a journaling file system (JFS). It also offers only
basic support for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), clustering and
storage-area networks (SANs). Those holes should leave "true" Unix to
dominate the high-end market for the foreseeable future.
Virtually all of the Linux experts we conferred with for this article
agree that Linux needs a JFS, which would vastly improve reliability. With
a JFS, a file server that crashes after someone accidentally cuts off the
power (OK, we admit it has happened here) can be up and running with its
files intact and restored in a few minutes. If your customer considers any
length of downtime intolerable after a "normal" crash, a JFS is a must.
JFS is an architecture that logs all changes made to the file system.
Introduced by IBM in AIX, JFS provides both additional speed and added
security for high-end server operating systems by enabling them to check
and restore files based on the operating system's own "memory" of the
correct file ordering.
JFS could find its way into Linux, under the guise of the ext3 file
system. Ext3, as blessed by Linus Torvalds himself, will be
upward-compatible with the current ext2 file system, but is a few months
from deployment. Silicon Graphics' open-source XFS file system also could
make the grade as a JFS for Linux. Still, don't expect to see either of
those file systems in commercial deployment until mid-2000, at the
earliest.
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