Thanks for the comments on the products folks. We are using Zen here (and it works very well. It's no longer tied to a single directory, and the new version is supposed to image Linux and Windows (not sure about Mac but we don't have MAC clients). The main issue I am having is the pricing. Microsoft pricing for SMS is so cheap (for non-profit/state contract at least) they are practically giving it away. Zen, LANDesk, and Altiris do not offer this sort of pricing, at least that's what I'm told. The Zen price is tens of thousands more, which is too huge a price gap to ignore for non-for-profit entities. And when there are only so many dollars to go around, that's money I could use elsewhere in my budget. I've asked my sales representative to address the disparity, but at least with Zenwork, Novell just doesn't get it. That company's loss. Tom Miller Engineer, Information Technology Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board 757-788-0528
>>> "Stephen Wimberly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 1/21/2008 9:32 AM >>> I've not seen a single plug for LANDesk in this thread, sorry if I missed it. We just went with LANDesk, and where I don't feel I have enough experience with it to compare it with the ZENWorks I used at my last job (which I loved!) I will have to say we chose LANDesk largely because it was more impressive in the cross platform category as we have a great deal of Macintosh machines, some Linux stations and of course the ever present Microsoft flavors. One of the main things we wanted was the ability to image workstations of any platform. LANDesk makes claims to do this and was able to demonstrate this in a "dog and pony show" for us. To image a Macintosh requires an Apple server in addition to the existing MS Servers which do the other OSes. SMS was ruled out and not considered because it required third party plug ins for the MAC support. For software distribution and inventory all products seems rather similar. ========================================== Stephen Wimberly ========================================== -----Original Message----- From: Rod Trent [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 12:21 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions I suspect folks would consider you a unique individual. From: HELP_PC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 12:18 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: R: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions Not Symantec apologist. But as I use many of their products since many years I cannot complain having more issues than I had with MS(i.e.) or Adobe GuidoElia HELPPC ________________________________ Da: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Inviato: venerdì 18 gennaio 2008 17.48 A: NT System Admin Issues Oggetto: RE: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions No question, just Guido being a Symantec apologist. From: Rod Trent [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:41 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions Not sure I understand the question. From: HELP_PC [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 10:25 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: R: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions Opinion on using or just a firing to Symantec ? GuidoElia HELPPC ________________________________ Da: Rod Trent [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Inviato: venerdì 18 gennaio 2008 16.03 A: NT System Admin Issues Oggetto: RE: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions Reed Porter is about the only individual I know who still uses Altiris. I’m sure there are more, but it’s now more hit-and-miss, it seems. I really don’t know if that’s a Symantec-issue or not. I’m sure Reed would be willing to help you out offline. Let me know if you need this and I can set it up. BTW: There was a recent poll on the Symantec acquisition of Altiris. You can view the results: http://www.myitforum.com/absolutepm/polls/symalt.asp From: Tom Miller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:50 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions Zen uses MSI format now, so I'd only have to create a pointer in the new package, whatever that is. Looks like Altiris is now owned by Symantec. Any issues with support? >>> Bryan Garmon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 1/18/2008 9:47 AM >>> It's worth noting for your consideration that while there is the cost of the software itself, I assume you're using Zenworks packages for software distribution. If you choose to switch vendors, you'll more than likely be rebuilding all of your application packages into a non Zenworks format (possibly MSI or exe). This could be a significant undertaking depending on how many application packages you have and might be good enough reason to stick with Zen. I'm biased toward Altiris but it will probably be the more expensive of them. -----Original Message----- From: Tom Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: NT System Admin Issues <[email protected]> To: NT System Admin Issues <[email protected]> Subject: Altiris, Zenworks, LANDesk, SMS...decisions decisions Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:35:39 -0500 Hi Folks, I'm currently using Novell's Zenworks for workstation and user management here (imaging, ghosting, remote control, inventorying, application deployment, user and workstation management). There is a new version out and it looks great. But, before I purchase Zenworks can those of you who use LANDesk, Altiris, and SMS give me some feedback on what you like/don't like about those products? All of these products seems to provide similar functionality. One big thing for me (as my organization is not-for-profit) is that Microsoft has non-profit licensing that is so much less than the other three, and cost is a factor here. But Zen does a lot in one package and I need to find out if the others do the same. Comments welcome. Thanks, Tom Tom Miller Engineer, Information Technology Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board 757-788-0528 Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt ( http://www.sunbelt/ ) <http://www.sunbelt/> -software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. 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