As a preliminary ... when people pose these sorts of objections to using
Linux, sometimes they are sincere responses, and intelligent answers matter.
Other times, they are a polite way of telling you to get lost. If the
latter, answering these arguments won't do anything more than bring forth a
new, different set of arguments. So assess the situation realistically
before you go into combat here. Comments on the specific arguments are below.
At 01:06 PM 3/22/00 +1100, oTe wrote:
>I have recently had an opinion put forward to my company in relation to the
>benefits of linux of other server operating systems such as novell and
>windows nt. The comments made were along the lines of;
>
> we dumped our linux box in favour of a novell small business system
>which is easy to manage and fully compatible with the rest of our network.
Maybe so, maybe not. Depends on what the speaker finds "easy" and what the
rest of the network looks like. Someone trained as a CNE but with no
experience on Unix will honestly find Netware easy, Linux hard.
> linux has a lot of supporters mainly people who have come from a
>unix environment and others who do not like microsoft BUT it is not a
>mainline network operating system.
What does the speaker mean by "mainline"? Unix hostorically was THE
operating system of the Internet, and Linux makes available the same
capabilities that made that so, on an OS that works well on lower-cost
equipment than (say) Solaris. The honest question to pose here is something
like: "We need to do X, Y, and Z on our servers. Can Linux do that? If so,
how?" Put that way, it can be answered (and, to be honest, some instances of
X, Y, and Z could indicate that Linux isn't the best solution -- e.g., NIS
is weak as shared directories go, and Samba isn't a perfect replacement for
Windows-based file and print servers).
Here, the argument I often make is that looking at Linux in isolation is
misleading. Looking at it as part of a Linux/Unix continuum is more
realistic. Viewed this way, Linux offers enormous scalability advantages ...
if you outgrow the limitations of Intel-based servers, moving to (say)
Sun/Solaris or HP/HPUX is much easier from Linux than from Netware or NT.
And Linux itself is available for more powerful hardware (though I have no
experience with it so cannot personally advocate it for performance on
non-Intel platforms).
> the level of support for linux is minimal.
Not on a level playing field. People who argue this often look at expensive
support contracts from (say) Microsoft or Novell VARs, then want Linux users
to provide the same level of assistance at no charge. Ain't gonna happen.
Under Linux, there are two ways to go ...
-- the cheap way: places like www.linuxdoc.org, combined
with lists and newsgroups like this one (and irc
channel, for those who can tolerate the ambiance
of irc). This does require the questioner to do
more work than if he/she were paying someone
to do the work (duh!).
-- the expensive way, paying real money for your distribution
and buying support from the vendor (at least Red Hat
has a paid support program; don't know about the
others), or an independent support organization like
LinuxCare (http://www.linuxcare.com/), or a local
Linux equivalent of a MS or Novell VAR.
> linux may go the way of os2 a great system but even with the support
>of IBM it finally died because the market didnt support it.
True. It "may". And Novell "may" go bankrupt, leaving its loyal customers
with no upgrade path and no place to get bug fixes and the like (since the
source code isn't publicly available). And Windows 2000 "may" prove to be a
disaster. With any long-term commitment to a computer system, you need to
assess the risks. This is nothing special about Linux. Saying "may" isn't
performing a risk assessment.
>When i answer these questions i do not want to come accros as evangelistic
>or what not but I dont know how to answer my bosses who seem to think that
>the person who made these remarks is akin to god in the computer industry.
>
>If anyone could provide some feedback or advice relating to how to handle or
>what information i should provide (any opinions from people certified in
>novell and microsoft etc would be useful), it would be much appreciated as I
>have run linux at home for quite a few years now and it is by far the most
>stable operating system i have ever seen, however at present my bosses do
>not seem to put much stock in my opinion over that of other professionals.
I believe there is a Linux Advocacy HowTo, and you might look at it for
ideas. I haven't looked at it in years, so I don't know either how current
it is or how muxh help it will really offer.
------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"---
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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