[s-cars] NAC: Server O/S [was: Hard drive crash]

Tue Apr 3 17:19:24 EDT 2007

Hi all,

If there is one thing I can make educated comments about, it is server 
operating systems. I know this isn't the forum, yada yada, but since 
there seems to be a bit of interest I'd like to add my USD$.02 to the 
thread. In fact this will be kinda long, maybe it's a nickel's worth. :-)

Like most people working in IT, I have spent YEARS working on 
Windows-based servers. In my case, all the way back to Windows NT 3.5. 
I've also got about 4 years in on Linux, going back to early Red Hat 
releases.  Before all that I cut my teeth on Netware going back to the 
days of Netware/86. Before that there was VMS...but I digress.

My view is that, as Vincent has said, Windows can be easier for many 
people to set up than Linux. This is especially true in this forum since 
we're all probably talking about small LANs.  On the other hand, the 
long term effort is probably less since once the Linux box is set up, it 
requires very little care and feeding and is extremely stable. Linux 
boxes run for years with no user intervention.

Here's an example: I just finally got the last Windows server off my 
network...because the machine got more and more unstable until one day 
the registry became corrupted and the server wouldn't boot anymore. 
Could I have restored the registry with the Emergency Repair Disk? Yes, 
probably...but that's a band-aid solution. The real issue with the box 
is that after a couple of years worth of Windows crashes and just plain 
use, Windows 2003 just wasn't stable and the only real solution was a 
complete reload. As you might imagine, this didn't sound pleasant. I 
figured as long as I was reloading anyway, I might as well try another 
path. Besides, as Microsoft becomes more and more intrusive with their 
licensing system, their operating systems start to look more and more 
like spyware to me.

I replaced Win2k3 with a build of Linux called "SimplyMEPIS" 
(www.mepis.org) that I downloaded for free. Even though I've fiddled 
with Linux for a while, this was my most serious attempt to run ALL my 
services on it, including Windows file shares (via Samba), NTP, email, 
FTP, syslog, DHCP and a couple of others.  The bootable CD discovered 
*all* of my hardware the first time around, and when it was done I had a 
decent-looking GUI (KDE) and a lot of tools to work with. The package 
manager worked great and let me add all the components I wanted, as well 
as things like codecs for the built-in MP3/MPEG/AVI/etc player.

All of this is 100% free and legal and it's easy to find support via 
Google. It doesn't call home to Mama every 10 minutes to see if I am 
running a legal license.  It probably took me twice the time to get all 
my stuff set up (at least this time...future servers will be faster!), 
but I am delighted to be nearly M$-free in my home. Also, I get a LOT 
more performance per CPU cycle than I would with *any* Windows-based O/S.

And, after all, isn't this forum really all about better performance on 
a limited budget? :-)

Marc

p.s. You can too run the Family Album on Linux, you just have to run it 
in a Windows session inside VMWare.

Vincent Frégeac wrote:
> Lee,
>
> Linux is, AFAIK, the only viable alternative. There's a few other server OS
> but none that has the support Windows and Linux has.
>
> The pro with Linux is it's a real server OS, with domain, access rights,
> etc. and, as a bonus, having a free copy of Linux is legal. The main con is
> the ease of use. It has been vastly improved with interfaces like KDE or
> Gnome but it's still way behind Windows. For mandatory Audi content, lets
> add that VAG-COM does not run on Linux.
>
> I've played with Linux for a little over 6 month, both on the laptop and the
> file server and reverted back to Windows on both, simply because it's so
> much easier. And, on my home file/media/FTP/VPN server, XP can run for month
> without rebooting despite my bad habit of trying each and every piece of
> beta crap I can put my hands on, so I don't see the need of "improved"
> reliablity.
>
> On the other side, I would not venture myself in some Vista based OS. Tried
> the RC2 during a week, found that my P4HT was slower with Vista than the PII
> 300 with XP, so my Vista RC2 CD is now much better used for avoiding coffee
> stain on my desk.
>
>
> Vincent proud member of the HD/XP/Scirroco/M5 err, Audi? List
>
> 2007/4/3, Lee Levitt <lee at wheelman.com>:
>   
>> Shit Matt, we're all pretty freakin' geeky one way or another, and
>> any server, Micro$oft or otherwise, will be used to store
>> significant Audi content.
>>
>> So no worries. Most of us, well, me at least, have at least one
>> ear open regarding this topic. Me, I run XP as a file server at
>> home, am always wondering what would be better that wouldn't
>> require further imersion into geekdom (I do have a day job or two
>> that aren't related to actually physically touching the inside of
>> a computer).
>>
>> :)
>>
>> Lee
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue Apr 03 11:13:15 PDT 2007, "matt ludwig."
>> <urs6avant at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> again, my apologies to anyone really not wanting to hear
>>> computer/ server speak on this list, and not try to start a flame
>>> war  additionally.
>>>       
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>     
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>   