Re: Linux, the final decision

From: Christopher Browne (cbbrowne_at_acm.org)
Date: 01/31/04 

Date: 31 Jan 2004 16:24:56 GMT

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Karlheinz Klingbeil <me@privacy.net> wrote:
> d2004xx schrub am Samstag, 31. Januar 2004 15:52 folgendes:
>
>>> It is false to state that linux is more stable than Windows XP. The OS
>>> architecture is different. Whilst linux is layered and windows is
>>> tightly integrated, layered linux applications still crash and the GUI
>>> needs to be restarted for any number of reasons... I've locked it up a
>>> couple of times and applications have mysteriously terminated. Because
>>> of the architecural differences between the OS', a GUI restart is akin
>>> to a windows reboot, so don't you linuxfux bull*** otherwise.
>>
>> If you login via X, the crash of GUI may also force you to reboot.
>
> why ?
> all Distributions (at least all i know of) have more than one console to
> access (simply press ctrl-alt-f1(f3,f4,f5,f6,f7) where f7 is usually the
> console for x, f1 is the system boot login and f2-f6 are free to use.
> login at one of those consoles, hose the chrashed x-server and simply start
> it again.

Actually, one of the remaining ways that you can totally lock up a
Linux box is for XFree86 to crash, hard.

There is an inherent, unpreventable system vulnerability there in that
PCI/AGP graphics cards have the capability to write to system memory,
so that bugs in the graphics "drivers" or bugs in the graphics card
chipset are quite capable of spewing trash into memory, and there
isn't a way for _any_ OS to survive that gracefully.

I have run into such problems with numerous graphics cards over the
years. 

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