Original Post
What is it about the capability of Windows software that gets ubernerds in such a tizzy? Lately there was an article on Slashdot that offered anecdotal evidence suggesting that W2003Server can have as much as 20% more uptime than your average Linux distro. The main reason given for this is readily available documentation allowing for shorter downtime. WELL. When the nerds caught wind of this, they just had to grab their graphing calculators and pick it apart. To say nothing of the overwhelming outrage, some posters did have the sense to mention that controlled studies are what they are. But then you have replies like this:
Quote:This must be that New Math I've been hearing about. Did no one ever set him aside and explain the concept of percentages? Hey, if there's a box of a dozen donuts and I ate 20% more than you did, it's hard to prove otherwise by saying "if I hypothetically ate 11 donuts, you ate donuts that don't exist". Sure, "20% more uptime" can mean any number of things-- but this sort of rebuttal/reasoning can only mean ONE thing. Surely someone here finds this as amusing as I did.
Let's just say a Linux server has 24 hours of downtime a year (higher than the "survey" says). That leaves 364 days of uptime in a year, 365 days in a leap year. Implied in the article then, a Windows 2003 server would have to be "up" approximately 20% more to satisfy the "claim". Now, I am not a calendar "expert", but I'm having a difficult time believing that Windows 2003 server is up an average of 364 * 1.2, or 436.8 days a year. If it is, I'm buying.