Re: My local Linux advocacy efforts

[Bill Ries-Knight <brk@slip.net>]

The only response to this is the one most admin. types with limited computer
capabilities will use.

"WinNT looks like regular windows.  Microsoft is the biggest, Why try anything
else."
Bill

Bill Tihen wrote:

> In the server area I am not too worried about NT taking over schools.
>
> 1) Cost reasons -- Five years ago (maybe 6) I arrived at a school and they
> had bought a brand new NT server.  Unfortunately with Win NT 3.51 & later
> with Win NT 4.0, there was odd behavior with the mac file sharing, the MS
> email bridge to Internet mail cost $10,000 -- a year later they offered me
> a special deal at $5,000.  I had to pay additional liscences for additional
> users.  NT Servers is just not cost effective for schools -- in my oppinion.
>
> 2) Affordable tech support -- I also couldn't find anyone to help me for
> free back then.  All my university friends and people on the Internet and
> other SysAdmins I knew however, where more than willing to help me with
> FreeBSD & Linux.  As well as BSDI -- BSDI is actually quite a good starting
> point for schools because the price is reasonable and the telephone tech
> support in the states is good and is also reasonable.  $500 for unlimited
> help and updates.  MS NT support was $1,500 for 10 questions and that was
> the minimum and I couldn't find anyone who could help me for free.  Another
> good option is MachTen.  $300 dollars to buy for a school and $150 dollars
> for unlimited tech support.  However it does not have real protected memory
> and it doesn't have all the software available (netatalk is just now being
> ported).  But its a good Unix learning environment.  In anycase, now I use
> Linux, because the price is right and there is no end to the support I can
> get.  I have a choice of friends, distributers (I find SuSE particularly
> good), Internet, and paid support -- although I have not tried this so I
> don't know how good the different companies are.
>
> 3) Capabilities -- As far as I know Linux can do nearly everything a NT
> server can do -- except it doesn't have the same screen as NT.  And it
> usually does things better than NT.  And for a lot less money.  This always
> makes people happy at schools.  Another Huge benifit for a school is there
> are millions of compilers available for free on Linux.  On other platforms
> one has to pay a lot of money to have access to them.  (Although linux
> could use a good IDE with a debugger built in).  This is the only complaint
> I get -- but no one complains about the price.
>
> 4) Free firewalling -- The first network I built didn't have any secret
> information on it and I was given a class C -- I didn't even ask I just got
> it.  Now all I can get is about 6 or so easily and then I have to IP
> masquerading.  Linux does this for free and it is well maintained.  NT it
> costs.
>
> 5) Stability -- I have had one crash in 5 years (actually the HD got
> corrupted and I had to shut it down and restart in single user mode and 10
> minutes later we were humming along again -- with only a few complaints of
> lost data).  I have had to restart some services on occasion though.  Maybe
> once a year.  This is however, better than anyother other platform I have
> used except BSDI, it hasn't had any crashes.
>
> 6) Hardware Compatibility -- With a little research it is possible to get
> nearly any type of device working with Linux.  FreeBSD is also very good
> but it doesn't support the wide variety of hardware that Linux does so
> again Linux wins.  Of course nearly every thing works with NT, but even
> there you have to be careful that the drivers are appropriate.  So I don't
> even see a huge benifit in this area either.
>
> Maybe you can write a advocacy note Doug.  If you agree with any of these
> posts.
>
> Bill
>
> I agree that the reason we exist is to bring NT to a competive scholastic
> workstation as well as the most cost effective server platform.

--
Today is the beginning of all time.
Today is the end of all time.
Today is.

Bill Ries-Knight Computer Services

www.slip.net/~brk

begin:vcard 
n:;brk@slip.net
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
version:2.1
email;internet:brk@slip.net
x-mozilla-cpt:;0
fn:brk@slip.net
end:vcard