The author has a different experience than me (I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with blade systems as much as traditional rack servers-- and I come from a Dell background) but arrives at almost the same conclusions I do. The Oxide model, as compared to fleets of poorly-manageable PC-based servers still clinging to compatibility shims for their 1981 IBM PC progenitor, looks like tons of fun. In the environment I'm working in now, and with Oxide's product offering as it is, I'll never get to touch their gear. Man, it looks cool though.