A production server is off limits, for various and sundry very good reasons. Now we'd like to get a new SMP kernel tested in real world conditions, to flush out all those problems that don't show up in routine testing. You know, the intermittent, hard to reproduce things, that come out of overlooked inter-CPU race conditions and unusual sysop behavior. Things that even the most imaginative tester is unlikely to think of.

How? Where? Catch-22.

What we need is a server that's used in the real world for real work on a large scale, but is nonetheless considered highly expendable. Can we convince the IRS to use a 2.4 kernel, but only to process forms of victims who owe money to the IRS? Maybe if telemarketers used 2.4 to run their phone banks.