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Re: [ossig] IDC: Windows cheaper than Linux
Somehow this is just so easy to refute that the challenge is probably
gone. It's like telling someone that Elvis change his identity to
Michael Jackson.
First of all, the original comparison by IDC was commission by IDC and
now IDC is trying hard to preserve their image by publishing another
report? Many has pointed out that the criteria use in this comparison
was based on Windows 2000. It gets more expensive when you use the new
microsoft end user licensing agreement. The report apparently doesn't
factor in the various mandatory upgrade regimented by MSFT starting
form XP
I am not sure exactly who and what sort of criteria IDC poll on the
time spent on system administration issue. However, on the surface of
it. All these seems laughable. I do agree that linux typically require
more time to setup and configure. However, I am not sure if all the
tools provided by MSFT really make things really being properly done. I
have had NT that require some fair amount of intervention during the
course of its two year lifespan. That system have since been retired
due to various problems that developed over the years. I still have a
Mandrake 6.0 system on samba running till this day and only rebooted a
few times mainly due to memory upgrade.
Quite frankly, I believe the time spend on each system has a lot to do
with the general competency of sys admin. I been a unix guy ever since
my first job. I admit that I am not that well verse with windows.
However, I do find myself spending more time on fine tuning windows to
make it work the way I want it to be. With linux or BSD, this is
usually done not more than two working days.
On Tuesday, January 14, 2003, at 06:24 PM, Colin Charles wrote:
A fairly independent study, based on server use:
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-975938.html?tag=fd_top
Something that caught my eye:
"We believe these higher costs are...related to the relative
immaturity of the management tools available today for Linux
systems," IDC said. Administrators, too, will become more adept.
"Over time, the gap in support costs between Linux and Windows will
contract."
As I always tell my co-worker. Easier doesn't always means better. My
first job was as a HP-UX sys admin. At that time I find SAM very
usefull and use it all the time. Over time I discover that to edit some
of the configuration file is actually easier to do so and hell a lot
more flexible. I personally think that if you are a sys admin, it is
probably best to learn everything you can. GUI or not. I don't want to
sound like an old fart but, system admin is more than just adding
additional user on your gui or to export your file system by right
clicking on your mouse.
Maybe the Linux zealots (well, FreeBSD, and other Unixes as well)
shouldn't stick with the CLI based admin/management tools, and get
some really good GUI thing running for the Windows-converted admins.
In some distribution these days like Mandrake, most of the basic gui
tools are there already. Besides, most commercial unix tools already
have quite a comprehensive array of gui based admin tools. This is true
from Solaris to Tru64. Quite frankly life was so much easier when you
are a commerical unix sys admin.
I've seen Webmin in action, and intend on actively playing with it
soon. What other GUI admin and management tools do you all use out
there?
A lot of them are distribution specific. IMHO, mandrake and suse
has one of the best gui admin tools around. However, again, in my
opinion, nothing beat your vi editor and your perl scripts. I don't
want to sound like I like to do things the hard way. As a person, I
love to do things the best possible way and the fastest way to get it
done. If a particular method involve is faster with gui than gui it is.
If is is faster for me to fire up my vi editor and run a few command on
my bash shell, so be it. Being an all rounder is the best bet.
--
Colin Charles, byte@aeon.com.my
http://www.bytebot.net/
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