To all... here's my response sent to John Dodge at PC Week. If you missed it check out his article at: http://www.zdnet.com/pcweek/opinion/0608/08week.html John, Your column caused quite a stir in the Linux community and the more zealous of our bunch called you an idiot, but I'm not going to do that as I have a strong suspicion (sp) that your article was, in some ways, a fishing expedition. So... you caught one... a bonified Linux user is now going to attempt to answer your question. "Will someone tell me what's so great about Linux?" First of all, about my background... I am, in fact a technologist by trade. I spent 11 years learning that trade in the US Army (it's amazing what you can do with technology when they're shooting at you while you do it! ;-) and I make my living now doing a myriad of IT related tasks in a wide variety of environments. I have been a civilian for a couple of years and I wear at least two hats on a daily basis as I do Web development and support work for my own clientele and I direct and market the Internet operations of a small but growing Network Service Provider as well as perform a variety of engineering functions in my capacity as their Senior Systems Engineer. This is the abbreviated version but at the very least I don't qualify as merely a "user". My experience in the PC world goes back to the last days of CPM and the early days of DOS and has continued through the advent and current monopoly of Windoze (the client) and Windoze NT (the server). As further evidence of my "more than just a user" status I have to tell you that I'm quite familiar with the Registry Editor on NT and '95 and it's not broken when I'm finished with it (I thought you'd get a kick out of that!). I have done NT and Microsoft Exchange Server installations nationwide for a host of different clients, including the largest installation of it's type (that I know of) in history (the Veterans Administration project from 1997 which affected in excess of 200,000 desktops). My Unix experience prior to beginning with Linux was virtually nil beyond some minimal experience with HP and SUN GUI's. So... enough about me, how 'bout some Linux. 1. Linux as a Server. Linux (particularly the RedHat release) comes "out of the box" with everything you need to serve a Web site (Apache Web Server; PERL/CGI functionality and Real Audio Server); perform as an email server (Sendmail and a POP3/IMAP daemon); a News Server; function as a SQL server (PostGreSQL, MySQL, mSQL etc.); a print server; a file sharing server in a Microsoft (via the Samba Daemon, which, incidentally, allows a Linux box to make nice with NT networks! This thing will actively participate in NT domain security with ease.), Novell (IPX/SPX protocols are native), or NIS environment; an FTP server (wuFTPD); a DNS server; a Firewall/Proxy server; a network management platform; a telnet server; and a bunch of other stuff that I don't really care to learn how to do! A low end Pentium with a single processor and 32 MB of RAM will do all of this simultaneously and just keep right on working for months. I know this to be true 'cause I've done it both for myself and commercially. A huge number of ISP's and NSP's use Linux to do these things and more everyday and their clients are blissfully unaware of what operating system is providing them with their services. Please note the use of the word "blissfully". I use that word because this operating system works and it keeps on working! One of the best parts of the whole deal is service up time. If you need to make a change on a Linux service while it's running you edit it's configuration file and stop and restart the service... total downtime... about 1.5 seconds and this applies to all of the services I listed above. The only configuration which I know for sure requires a reboot is re-compilation/customization of the OS/Kernel which is also extremely easy to do (even for a newbie) if said newbie is willing to take the time to read and comprehend about a page and a half of a simple manual. I challenge you to try that with NT any old time! In the commercial arena I am using Linux right now to do almost all of the things I've mentioned here. Two cases in point... One is running on Dell hardware with a Pentium 200 with a 4GB SCSI drive and 32MB of RAM. It is functioning as an email server, a Web server, a telnet server, an FTP server, and a Proxy/Firewall for about 75 users and it routes all of their traffic onto a T1 with a dedicated internet connection. It's current system uptime is over 6 months without a reboot or a hiccup of any substance. The doggone machine is coexisting with Windows 3.11 clients, a Novell 4.x server and an IBM AS/400 without a hitch and the initial install and configuration took just over an hour. We've had way more trouble with the configurations on the clients than we did with the Linux box. So much so that I've sworn off Windoze 3.11 for life! The other install is new... it's a Linux frontend for a pair of M$ Exchange 5.5 servers which is also doing DNS and Intranet duty for the users. The M$ Exchange boxes are Compaq 3000's with dual Pentium Pro's, hardware raid and 196MB of RAM, each. The Linux box is a thrown together Pentium 100 with 32MB of RAM and 1 new 4GB SCSI drive. They were all brought on line in the same week... Guess which of the three machines hasn't had to be rebooted yet... AND the engineers in the company (it's a Novell and Microsoft house) are clamoring for a telnet account so they can learn how to use Linux (they have to earn this right. I won't let "just anybody" have access!;-). This illustrates Linux' use in "small" corporate environments but does it scale? Yup! In my personal experience it does. One of the top 11 NSP's (I'm not gonna say which) is using the Linux OS, exclusively, as a Network Monitoring platform and their NOC is kinda big! Granted, this may not be the best example because this type of process doesn't neccessarily place a great deal of stress on these machines but we're talking about a bunch of 'em all working together in a common environment and sharing a common task or process. Guess what OS was used to run the high end graphics rendering tools which created the water effects for the recent movie "The Titanic"? So that sums up my opinion of Linux as a "server". On to Linux as a Workstation. Linux is a superb OS for Workstation use. There are productivity app's galore (most of which are free). On a normal PC it runs X-Windows with a wide variety of Windows Managers to chose from (the vast majority of which can be had without cost). The look and feel of these GUI environments is infinitely customizable (if you would like to see what mine looks like go to: ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/pub/desktops/chuck.mead%40moongroup.com/chuck_AS145.jpg and have a look). I think it's interesting that I paid nothing but the cost of a download to acquire the software to run that Window Manager (Afterstep 1.4.5). I'm typing this message using a piece of email client software called TkRat (which also cost me nothing) which I've been using for several months now with no troubles. There's a great piece of software called The Gimp (http://www.gimp.org) which I use to create Web graphics. It rivals Photoshop's capabilities and it was also free! I use StarOffice 4.0 as my primary productivity suite (also free) and though it's a bit on the large side it suits my needs quite well. From an admin point of view Linux is great because (just like NT) I can create an environment for a user that he/she can't change and I don't have to come back and fix it after they break it. In the corporate world this has a direct effect on TCO and anything which saves man hours is wholly welcome! From this workstation I can print directly to a shared HP printer which is attached to an NT Primary Domain Controller and the printer also shows up in the shares list on my Windoze 95 WS as a network device available through the Linux box! Earlier this week I was busy creating some custom Web graphics (3D stuff with POV-Ray) and after they were created I pulled them directly to my Windows 95 box via a network share! Three weeks ago some folks in our Washington, DC office sent me a 1MB text file of names and addresses which they needed converted to MS Access format. With my Linux workstation I was able to write a simple script (using Sed and Awk) which organized this misshapen mess of text into comma delimited fields and then I sucked it up into M$ Access. That job would have been nigh on impossible in DOS or Windoze alone but I did it in less than half an hour using Linux and Windoze together. How about support? Do this... subscribe to the Redhat mailing list and lurk for a week. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised by what you find and that doesn't count the fact that Redhat has a Commercial support program available and that they're about to be on the GSA schedule because of that (send email to Mr. Robert Hart --> [EMAIL PROTECTED] for details) To subscribe to the Redhat list: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "subscribe" as the Subject. To sum up I want to point out that I'm not a zealot or a nut. I use these machines to do real work in the real world and to me, a tool is only a tool. You use the right machine for the job when it's needed. Case in point: a lot of "purist" Web Developers have gotten snooty about using GUI development environments for Web work. They say, "Use notepad or some type of text editor... Who needs Frontpage or Pagemill?!". the answer to that question is simple, nobody, unless you're doing real work in the real world and you need to save some time. So I use Frontpage 98 to take care of and publish the code but I spend half my time hand coding stuff that the GUI won't do for me. Then I test it on a Linux server and an NT server to make sure everything works before I put it out on the Web. Here again I'm using the right tools for the job and I'm trying to make some money! One of the most critical points to consider is that everything I've said here only relates to one "flavor" of Linux. I haven't mentioned the other excellent releases such as Debian, Caldera, S.U.S.E, or who knows what else and I've only mentioned some of the things "I" use Linux for. I don't have enough time to learn everything it's good for or everything it'll do. I only know it's good for my purposes and I have two Linux boxes on my personal network coexisting with NT and Windows 95 clients. I could not do my "jobs" as well as I do without the Linux OS! Linux is a great tool (in my opinion) and I think I've done a passing fair job of answering your query... "Will someone tell me what's so great about Linux?". -- Chuck Mead [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.moongroup.com "Never underestimate the power of a small tactical nuclear weapon." This message was sent with Tkrat v1.1 -- PLEASE read the Red Hat FAQ, Tips, Errata and the MAILING LIST ARCHIVES! http://www.redhat.com/RedHat-FAQ /RedHat-Errata /RedHat-Tips /mailing-lists To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
