1234

Linux Users: Chime In... (Read 165 times)


Not dead. Yet.

     Huh? This is a bit of a  weird assertion. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, major ISPs, etc. have aircraft hangers full of linux boxes doing exactly that sort of thing...

     

    +1

     

     

    Windoze is for users, linux is for servers.  I guess it depends on your industry and shop as to what type of infrastructure you see.  If most of what your company does is not computer intensive and most of the computers you have are users desktops, then yeah, Windows is your easiest/best way to go.  But for shops that have lots of data that needs to move around and users that are creating/modifying/saving/copying that data, you need more power/versatility than will offer.

     

    And lets not forget Linux and all (most) of its awesome apps are free (as in beer), but any good Windows app costs a penny and the free ones will generally riddle your comp with spyware.

    How can we know our limits if we don't test them?

       

      I've tried it but the appearance  is off.  Can't get a font size that is appropriate, eg for words Transitional and Threshold.  Either so small they can't be read or too long to fit without making the rows much taller.  Also I can't get it to line break as in "Race Week."  

       

      try changing the font to Liberation Sans Narrow and use 8pt - it's readable and you won't have to change the cell height.

       

      you can put in a line break within the cell by using ctrl and return.

      My leg won't stop mooing.

       

      i think i've got a calf injury.

      xor


         

        I am pretty sure he is referring to the Microsoft bashing.

         

        Well, after almost 18 years of it while I worked there and long after.... I developed a thick skin for that stuff early on.  The rants are endless and in some cases definitely deserved.  I don't take it personally.

         

        But an "abortion"?  Stay classy.

         

        (NT5/W2K and Windows Server in the XP timeframe were damn good products, imho.  And for all of you pissing and moaning about the registry, I assure you from firsthand experience that configuring and administering Unix/Linux isn't magic and intuitively obvious.  It's just that all the WTFs involved with that are "cool" in a retro way and the borg ones aren't.  And I agree that they aren't.  The registry was way dumb. Don't ask me about Windows ME, the-thing-that-shall-not-be-named before Windows 7, Windows 8, or about 100 different silly MSN things I was involved with.  Do ask me about Bob)

         

        PS, facebook uses a shit load of Windows FWIW.  They also use other stuff, but they are not not not purely a Linux shop.

         


        Prince of Fatness

          And lets not forget Linux and all (most) of its awesome apps are free (as in beer), but any good Windows app costs a penny and the free ones will generally riddle your comp with spyware.

           

          True and that's most likely the reason it exists at my company.  However free is a relative term.  If you have a mix of MS in your infrastructure (I would think that most companies do) then that means you need to pay people to support your Linux environment.  Also, you have less recourse in the way of getting product support.  Sometimes it is worth paying for a product to get a higher level of supports.

           

          Of course business requirements factor into all of this, but you usually end up getting what you pay for.

          Not at it at all. 

          LedLincoln


          not bad for mile 25

             Huh? This is a bit of a  weird assertion. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, major ISPs, etc. have aircraft hangers full of linux boxes doing exactly that sort of thing...

             

            I think the assertion was referring to MS domain controllers, which are pretty necessary in a real-life business that has its users on Windows machines.  Sure, I love Linux for web and db servers.

            LedLincoln


            not bad for mile 25

              I hate Linux.  I've been a Windows guy for a long time and to me it just feels like it takes a completely different mindset to navigate around and get things done.  We have a couple of Linux servers in the office but are trying to move away from them.

               

              Not really a knock on Linux, but it is different and there aren't enough hours in the day for me to familiarize myself with it.

               

              Next time you have an old laptop or desktop to play around with, try Zorin.  It is so easy (for Windows folks) to use and runs so nice.  You'll gain back hours in your day in increased productivity. Wink


              Not dead. Yet.

                 I think the assertion was referring to MS domain controllers, which are pretty necessary in a real-life business that has its users on Windows machines.  Sure, I love Linux for web and db servers.

                 

                Not true.  You can entirely replace Active Directory with OpenLDAP, and with those accounts users can log on to any OS on the network...Mac, Windows, Linux, do logon scripts, auto mount, etc, etc

                 

                It is hard to wrap your head around though.  Active Directory is much easier, but I would rather have an engineer on my team that is an expert at OpenLDAP than Active Directory.  Again, it's just more flexible, and because it's harder to grasp means that the person who is an expert at it will know how to harness all of the little nooks and crannies of the directory and how to best take advantage of all the features.

                 

                But again, if most of your computers are windows desktops, with only a few file servers here and there, then Active Directory is probably your best choice.  No reason to bring a cannon to kill a squirrel.

                How can we know our limits if we don't test them?

                freddie.sanchez


                The Scrub

                  I'm a Mandrake/Mandriva/Mageia user.  Used to keep WinXP around so I could bring it up in VirtualBox so I could upload my Garmin data, but now that Uploader is functioning I just upload from my Android phone and don't have to bring up WinXP any more for that purpose. 

                   

                  What is this Uploader that you speak of?

                     

                    What is this Uploader that you speak of?

                     

                    The first page of Sportablet has a link to the associated Uploader.  I don't have a tablet so I was just more interested in uploading my data from my phone.

                    LedLincoln


                    not bad for mile 25

                       

                      Not true.  You can entirely replace Active Directory with OpenLDAP, and with those accounts users can log on to any OS on the network...Mac, Windows, Linux, do logon scripts, auto mount, etc, etc

                       

                      It is hard to wrap your head around though.  Active Directory is much easier, but I would rather have an engineer on my team that is an expert at OpenLDAP than Active Directory.  Again, it's just more flexible, and because it's harder to grasp means that the person who is an expert at it will know how to harness all of the little nooks and crannies of the directory and how to best take advantage of all the features.

                       

                      But again, if most of your computers are windows desktops, with only a few file servers here and there, then Active Directory is probably your best choice.  No reason to bring a cannon to kill a squirrel.

                       

                      Too many of the third-party products only play nice with AD; for example, our SSL-VPN, helpdesk app, wireless controllers, HVAC, security, document management, blah blah blah.  It would be nice in principle to ditch MS, but not practical.


                      Not dead. Yet.

                         Too many of the third-party products only play nice with AD; for example, our SSL-VPN, helpdesk app, wireless controllers, HVAC, security, document management, blah blah blah.  It would be nice in principle to ditch MS, but not practical.

                         

                        I'm not an expert on that stuff, but as far as I know Active Directory is just LDAP under the hood.  Pretty sure you can get anything that will run on Active Directory to run on any other LDAP server as long as you figure out all of the needed structure for that plugin/application.  It might not be in the docs, so you might have to talk to the third parties support or reverse engineer it.  But they all talk the same language.

                         

                        I guess it's mostly theory, so I'm probably wrong.  I had some interest in this kind of stuff a few years ago and worked on an installer script that would set up the initial environment.  Not even sure if it works anymore and even if it did, it would be missing all kinds of Active directory things.  It pretty much just supports authentication, samba attributes and some of the Mac specific stuff.  If I could get my boss to buy in I would take it farther.  The problem is that it is a very complex topic, and I just began to scratch the surface.  And you are probably right; not practical, unless you have an expensive LDAP expert that has the whole thing figured out in their head already.

                         

                        https://github.com/hermanbanken/Ultimate-Single-Sign-On-Enviroment-Installer

                        How can we know our limits if we don't test them?

                        TJoseph


                          And lets not forget Linux and all (most) of its awesome apps are free (as in beer), but any good Windows app costs a penny and the free ones will generally riddle your comp with spyware.

                           

                          I missed the fun discussion.  I am travelling for work and in a different timezone.  Commecial applications for Linux are hardly free.  I am in the process of installaling an Oracle database server for a verticle application that will run on Redhat.  The Oracle software alone is half a million dollars.  There are many good open source apps you can run on Linux and I like to play with them at home, but most enterprise IT departments will shy away from those because of the lack of support.  They need a company they can call and hold their feet to the fire when something isn't working right.  I am sure there are exceptions to that, but I have been in IT for over 25 years and that is my experience.

                          LedLincoln


                          not bad for mile 25

                             I'm not an expert on that stuff, but as far as I know Active Directory is just LDAP under the hood.  Pretty sure you can get anything that will run on Active Directory to run on any other LDAP server as long as you figure out all of the needed structure for that plugin/application.  It might not be in the docs, so you might have to talk to the third parties support or reverse engineer it.  But they all talk the same language.

                             

                            I guess it's mostly theory, so I'm probably wrong.  I had some interest in this kind of stuff a few years ago and worked on an installer script that would set up the initial environment.  Not even sure if it works anymore and even if it did, it would be missing all kinds of Active directory things.  It pretty much just supports authentication, samba attributes and some of the Mac specific stuff.  If I could get my boss to buy in I would take it farther.  The problem is that it is a very complex topic, and I just began to scratch the surface.  And you are probably right; not practical, unless you have an expensive LDAP expert that has the whole thing figured out in their head already.

                             

                            https://github.com/hermanbanken/Ultimate-Single-Sign-On-Enviroment-Installer

                             

                            Well, the vendors/installers of such products get the heebie-jeebies about getting their products to work with anything but MS AD.  Yeah, and I forgot to mention our VOIP phone system.

                             

                            Don't get me wroing; I love the stability, power, and low cost of Linux at both server and client ends.

                            TJoseph


                               

                              I'm not an expert on that stuff, but as far as I know Active Directory is just LDAP under the hood.  Pretty sure you can get anything that will run on Active Directory to run on any other LDAP server as long as you figure out all of the needed structure for that plugin/application.  It might not be in the docs, so you might have to talk to the third parties support or reverse engineer it.  But they all talk the same language.

                               

                              I guess it's mostly theory, so I'm probably wrong.  I had some interest in this kind of stuff a few years ago and worked on an installer script that would set up the initial environment.  Not even sure if it works anymore and even if it did, it would be missing all kinds of Active directory things.  It pretty much just supports authentication, samba attributes and some of the Mac specific stuff.  If I could get my boss to buy in I would take it farther.  The problem is that it is a very complex topic, and I just began to scratch the surface.  And you are probably right; not practical, unless you have an expensive LDAP expert that has the whole thing figured out in their head already.

                               

                              https://github.com/hermanbanken/Ultimate-Single-Sign-On-Enviroment-Installer

                               

                              And what happens to you when that one LDAP guru you managed to find gets hit by a bus or finds a better job?  If my job and reputation depend on it, I going to design something I know will work, that I can get support on, and that follows general industry best practices.


                              Not dead. Yet.

                                 I missed the fun discussion.  I am travelling for work and in a different timezone.  Commecial applications for Linux are hardly free.  I am in the process of installaling an Oracle database server for a verticle application that will run on Redhat.  The Oracle software alone is half a million dollars.  There are many good open source apps you can run on Linux and I like to play with them at home, but most enterprise IT departments will shy away from those because of the lack of support.  They need a company they can call and hold their feet to the fire when something isn't working right.  I am sure there are exceptions to that, but I have been in IT for over 25 years and that is my experience.

                                 

                                We have two IT divisions here, and I think thats where the differences pop up.  Corp and Production.  Corp follows a lot of the principles that you are talking about, I can totally see why Windows is the choice.  In production, we support the actual production of media, which is a totally different beast.  Lots of storage, tape backups, app dev, databases, data, etc.  We also have our own domains, networks and user stations.

                                 

                                So I guess when I first think of IT, I think of my department, but in reality, most IT really follows the Corp guidelines. Sorry.

                                 

                                Still though, linux opensource apps are not toys and I think you are just working your own ego to suggest so.  Mysql, python, redis, apache, firefox to name a few.  I have made some very complex databases, and I still don't think I have yet to hit the need for an Oracle install.  MySQL is 100% free and will cover the job in 95% of cases.  If I was making the decision to go with a half a million dollar product, I would make sure to benchmark the application against all of the "toy" databases as well.  I hope you have some metrics to support your decision over the free one.

                                 

                                Excuse me while I take off my birkenstocks, take my dog to the park and smoke a doobie.

                                How can we know our limits if we don't test them?

                                1234