LWN: Comments on "Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)"

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

jmm82 — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:29:09 +0000

"So, routers are still routers and switches are still switches. Unless you have a layer 3 switch, that is ;)"

Didn't routers stop being routers a long time ago when the first nat device was hacked together. That was the beginning of the end for simple layer 3 routing devices. Once they got to layer 4 you knew it was only time before they attacked layer 5.

Buying a server on the down low

felixfix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:00:31 +0000

In both the US and UK, and probably elsewhere, when old sailing warships got past the point of economical maintenance, money for new ships was hard to get, but money to overhaul old ships was available, so they'd strip the old ship down to nothing, reuse one timber from the keel or just a small scrap, build an entirely new ship, and call it an overhaul.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

njs — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:16:22 +0000

Presumably that would be the Broadcom ia64.

Expert without quotes

nix — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:50:41 +0000

Stroustrup's _The Design and Evolution of C++_ actually touts that as a
*feature*. I'm not so sure. It sounds nice until you have to look at a
project written by someone else...

Expert without quotes

man_ls — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:05:27 +0000

And, if LWN comments are to be trusted (we know they are), every expert will recommend using somewhat overlapping but subtly different feature sets.

Buying a server on the down low

job — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:51:17 +0000

It's funny because it's true.

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

zotz — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:24:38 +0000

That's why this is so *newsworthy*!!!

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

nix — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:40:14 +0000

What? There's a CPU out there that draws more power than an (Intel/AMD) x86?

Amazing.

C and C++

nix — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:38:24 +0000

I know people who do the opposite. As in 'the Linux kernel is written in C++'. No, it isn't.

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

tzafrir — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:06:20 +0000

X86 instead of Broadcom processors will make them consume less power.

Allowing people with "little or no knowledge or routers" to write code for them is in order to make them more secure.

The article makes perfect sense :-)

(Please read it before considering to reply to this)

C / C++

mjthayer — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:46:33 +0000

Hear hear hear. But it takes an expert to know what to use and what to leave.

C / C++

dwmw2 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:19:26 +0000

The trick to writing good C++ programs is not to use most of the features of the language.

There are those who say that the best C++ programs are written in C, with a tiny smattering of C++.

So I think it makes sense to lump them together.

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

pbrutsch — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:06:53 +0000

For quite a while now Cisco has offered expansion modules for their routers that are single-board computers running Linux.

These modules include an IDS module (the NM-IDS) and a series a HTTP caching modules (such as the NM-CE-BP-40G-K9 and NM-CE-BP-80G-K9).

All Cisco has done is provide a way for third parties to run code on one of these NM modules specifically designated for this purpose.

So, routers are still routers and switches are still switches. Unless you have a layer 3 switch, that is ;)

C and C++

simlo — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:46:47 +0000

Actually, at the company I worked before people meant "C++", but just said "C".

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

eduperez — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:16:40 +0000

The contest proved that server-side Linux developers who know C/C++, Java, or Python can now write applications to Cisco routers with little or no knowledge of routers.

Back in the old times, routers where routers, and they where almost as reliable as a switch or a hub; now, we are going to have applications inside routers, written by people "with little or no knowledge of routers".

Am I the only one to find this scary?

Buying a server on the down low

dmarti — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:07:00 +0000

If it's from Cisco, it's part of the Network Operations budget, not part of the Application Servers budget. And Network Operations can say, "we're expanding the router to add (functionality)" instead of "we're buying a server to do (functionality)" so they don't set off the company Server Buying Process. Slick.

C and C++

ncm — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:15:35 +0000

Hear, hear! Writing "C/C++" outside the context of "easily called from" demonstrates ignorance.

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

mikov — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:58:37 +0000

The analysis in CNet doesn't make a lot of sense to me. According to it the two things that Cisco lacks to really win developers are x86 and Windows.net compatibility. WTF?

Apparently this is not really Linux running in the router itself (naturally) - but inside the Cisco Application eXtension Platform (AXP), which "is a Linux server blade that plugs into Cisco routers and runs a Cisco hardened Linux running a 2.6 kernel." (according to http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10113633-16.html ).

So this is not bad, but since the AXP is additional and not every router has it I don't see how it is that different from an ordinary Linux box/blade/etc. Just this one is manufactured by Cisco.

May be someone cares to explain?

Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

qg6te2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:47:11 +0000

How I wish people would stop using the term "C/C++" and instead separate it into "C, C++". Just because C++ has most of C in it, it doesn't mean a C coder can write good C++ programs. In fact, they're two different beasts, with C++ slated to pick up yet more features.