Many facts have surfaced in the dust following the uproar. Ebay failed to adequately test a system patch before applying it, according to Las Angeles Times . Ask any database administrator if they would sleep well at night with only a production system and you will understand why Sun Microsystems doesn't take kindly to these criticisms. A weakness in the latter will profoundly affect the odds of the former. No system is reliable without very rigorous change management policies.
Architecture is only one piece of the puzzle.
Unfortunately, some Windows NT hopefuls have jumped on the bandwagon to claim that Ebay's troubles are symptomatic of a larger problem with Sun hardware and the Solaris operating system. You place your trust where you perceive reliability . I won't labor the issue here as others have gone a long way to document the vast superiority of Unix to NT , but it is simply ridiculous to call Solaris unstable because of the Ebay situation. Through it all, NT and Unix people don't sit together at lunch very often, but then neither do children and adults. Maturity of process and design can alienate people sometimes.