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The biggest recent development in commercial Unixes space is that Oracle pledged to support Red Hat Enterprise Linux -- charging less than half of Red Hat's support prices ($99 for minimal level -- patches and RPMs only). 

See:

As a news this was certainly on par with Google buying UTube for $1.6B hoax, which might be Sequoia capital trick of selling one of its properties to the other making 2 billions on 15 million investment in the UTube and helping Google to maintain its exorbitant share price a bit longer; or for a change with IBM hoax of buying ISS for over a billion. Still this is was an interesting development that reminds dot-com bubble mergers and acquisitions. Reminds us that the traditional Open Source (GPL-based Open Source), is a very problematic business model. It is often used as a smoke screen for the VCs to get software engineers to work for free, NOT EVEN Minimum Wage, but for free!  Then they take their hard work, pump $20M in marketing and either sell the resulting company to one of their other portfolio companies or take it public and dump the shares on the public. Meanwhile the software engineers that worked to develop that software for FREE, aka Slave Labor, get $0.00 for their hard work while the VCs and Investment Bankers make a killing. And of course then they get their buddies in Big Media hype the GPL-based Open Source id the best thing after sliced bread.

Oracle will also supply a RHEL clone. Oracle pledged Linux support from its own army of employees--including several Linux kernel programmers. Internally Linux is used by Oracle as a development platform along with Solaris. That makes the move somewhat similar to Sun buying Star Office: cutting internal costs. 

Anyway a good news is that the price of Linux support will be 50% lower and RHEL AS support model with its fat margins essentially died by quick painless death: customers now have a viable way to drive down the cost of maintaining RHEL and are likely to use this information in contract negotiations, even if they don't switch.

Eventually this move might divert major part of Red Hat's support subscription revenue stream into Oracle coffers.

Along with Red Hat, Novell is also under new pressure.  There is no longer much sense to use Suse as an enterprise distribution as its main selling point was lower support costs in comparison with Red Hat.

Subsystems to be deleted/disabled for a server to increase stability of Suse 10 SP1.

  1. iptables (Firewall, can affect stability of netwrok layer, especially on high loads)
  2. AppArmor (security framework for applications)
  3. cups (printing subsystems)
  4. Samba (Microsoft filesharing)
  5. Alsa (Sound subsystem)
  6. power management
  7. ReiserFS (ext3 should be used instead)
  8. synaptic modules (laptop only)


Notes:
  • Those pages are written by people for whom English is not a native language. Some amount of grammar and spelling errors should be expected.
  • This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site. It cannot replace the best teachers and the best books.
  • The site contain some obsolete pages as it develops like a living tree... Some links on older pages are broken. Please try to use Google, Open directory, etc. to find a replacement link (see HOWTO search the WEB for details). We would appreciate if you can mail us a correct link.

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Old News ;-)

[Feb 28, 2008] Mk-boot-usb a Script to Create Multiple-Bootable USB Sticks

Mk-boot-usb is a perl script to create multiple-bootable usb sticks (usb keys / usb flash drives). It wipes out an entire usb stick, partitions it, creates file systems on it, installs grub, and installs a minimal linux on it. Mk-boot-usb is meant to speed up and lower the barrier of entry for creating bootable usb sticks. The usb stick will immediately become bootable (using the minimal linux), and more useful distributions can then be installed into other partitions manually simply by (1) copying any Live CD into each partition (2) modifying grub's configuration file.

This program will destroy all of your data in the usb stick. It may even destroy all of your data in the harddisk and/or those on any storage device attached to it if you are not careful! Additionaly, this program is written with absolutely no security consideration in mind. Please use it at your own risk.

A snapshot of the most current version is here: mk-boot-usb.tgz

This program is distributed under the terms of GNU General Public License, version 3 or later.

The following utilities are used by mk-boot-usb: perl, sfdisk, mkfs (mkfs.vfat and mkfs.ext2), grub, wget.

In addition, it will use wget to download ttylinux into its working directory the first time it is executed.

It is recommended that you also install qemu so that the usb stick can be immediately tested after it is processed.

This program is written with absolutely no security consideration in mind

Interactive Usage

Say you have a 1GB usb stick and you want to put into the usb stick Damn Small Linux 4.2.5 and slax 6.0.0 (other than the default ttylinux). Mk-boot-usb's default grub boot menu happens to contain entries for these two distributions, and therefore they require the least of your efforts. These are recommended to users who try mk-boot-usb the very first time.

So we will allocate rougly 60MB and 240MB for them, respectively, leaving about 700MB for your usb as an ordinary storage device.

First make sure that this usb stick is _not_ attached to the computer. Then extract mk-boot-usb.tgz, cd into the directory, and run mk-boot-usb as follows:

        ./mk-boot-usb

Mk-boot-usb will ask you to insert the stick. Please do so, and wait a few seconds for the lcd on the stick to flash and stop flashing. Also make sure to close all file managers that popped up after the insertion if your version of linux auto mounts usb sticks. Now press enter to continue. Mk-boot-usb compares your /dev/sd* before and after the insertion to figure out which stick you want to wipe out.

Next mk-boot-usb will display a partial listing of the files it finds in your usb stick. Make sure that this is indeed the stick you want to wipe out. It then determins the true size of the usb stick (in MB) and ask you to type in a list of numbers that add up to the true size exactly. It will refuse to proceed if the sum does not equal to the total size exactly. This is to ensure that you are wiping out the right usb stick. (or at least one that happens to have exactly the same size :-) ) Let's say it shows 968 for the 1GB stick. Then you would type something like:

        668 60 240

Leading and/or trailing spaces are ignored. Once you agree to proceed, it will create a primary vfat partition of size 668MB, where it will install grub and ttylinux, plus two ext2 partitions of sizes 60 and 240 each. (Ext3 is too slow for usb sticks.)

Now you can test your bootable usb stick by typing qemu -usb /dev/sdz (or whichever device you are processing) if you have qemu installed. ttylinux's login id is 'root' and password 'root' (both without quotes).

Batch Usage

Please read the first page of the source code, where the options are commented. Be very careful in batch mode, especially with the -d option. Dangerous!

Installing Live CD's into Other Partitions

For DSL 4.2.5 just copy everything on the live CD into one of the appropriate empty partition of the usb stick, and modify /boot/grub/menu.lst in the first partition of the usb stick. Note that with grub syntax, the first primary partition is called (hd0,0) when this very stick is being booted, and its first logical partition is called (hd0,4). This is about all that you need to modify.

Ditto for slax 6.0.0. BTW, slax automatically records any changes you make during the session into the /slax/changes directory of its partition. Think about it: you copied from a live CD which packs 400MB worth of software into 200MB space, and yet now it works like it cared nothing about having had to deal with a read-only device in its prior incarnation! Slax just rocks!

For other live CD's, you have to translate syslinux's configuration file syntax into grub's. Use DSL and slax entries as successful translation examples.

Installing a Live System into the USB Stick

Let's say you use Ubuntu daily on your desktop and you would like to install it to a usb stick. First of all you need a usb stick with large enough memory since such a live system is not compressed like DSL and slax are. Secondly you have to boot from some other device (maybe from a live CD, or maybe from the slax partition of the usb stick you just created!) and copy everything from your Ubuntu partition into one of the stick's empty partitions. By now you also know that /boot/grub/menu.lst on the usb stick's first partition has to be modified.

Here are a few additional important steps to take:

  1. Modify /etc/fstab on the target partition of the usb stick. Root device should be specified by UUID or LABEL since you don't know its true name in a mobile environment. Add 'noatime' to the options. Remove most static entries. Mount /var and /tmp as tmpfs.
  2. Anything else? Your comments please.

[Feb 19, 2008] Discover the possibilities of the -proc directory by Federico Kereki

February 15, 2008  | Linux.com

The /proc directory is a strange beast. It doesn't really exist, yet you can explore it. Its zero-length files are neither binary nor text, yet you can examine and display them. This special directory holds all the details about your Linux system, including its kernel, processes, and configuration parameters. By studying the /proc directory, you can learn how Linux commands work, and you can even do some administrative tasks.

Under Linux, everything is managed as a file; even devices are accessed as files (in the /dev directory). Although you might think that "normal" files are either text or binary (or possibly device or pipe files), the /proc directory contains a stranger type: virtual files. These files are listed, but don't actually exist on disk; the operating system creates them on the fly if you try to read them.

Most virtual files always have a current timestamp, which indicates that they are constantly being kept up to date. The /proc directory itself is created every time you boot your box. You need to work as root to be able to examine the whole directory; some of the files (such as the process-related ones) are owned by the user who launched it. Although almost all the files are read-only, a few writable ones (notably in /proc/sys) allow you to change kernel parameters. (Of course, you must be careful if you do this.)

[Jan 24, 2008] freshmeat.net Project details for cgipaf

The package also contain Solaris binary of chpasswd clone, which is extremely useful for mass changes of passwords in corporate environments which include Solaris and other Unixes that does not have chpasswd utility (HP-UX is another example in this category).   Version 1.3.2 now includes Solaris binary of chpasswd which works on Solaris 9 and 10.

cgipaf is a combination of three CGI programs.

All programs use PAM for user authentication. It is possible to run a script to update SAMBA passwords or NIS configuration when a password is changed. mailcfg.cgi creates a .procmailrc in the user's home directory. A user with too many invalid logins can be locked. The minimum and maximum UID can be set in the configuration file, so you can specify a range of UIDs that are allowed to use cgipaf.

[Dec 21, 2007] LXER interview with John Hull - the manager of the Dell Linux engineering team

The original sales estimates for Ubuntu computers was around 1% of the total sales, or about 20,000 systems annually. Have the expectations been met so far? Will Dell ever release sales figures for Ubuntu systems?

The program so far is meeting expectations. Customers are certainly showing their interest and buying systems preloaded with Ubuntu, but it certainly won't overtake Microsoft Windows anytime soon. Dell has a policy not to release sales numbers, so I don't expect us to make Ubuntu sales figures available publicly.

[Dec 21, 2007] Red Hat to get new CEO from Delta Air Lines Underexposed - CNET News.com

"When you take them out of the big buildings, without the imprimatur of Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Oracle, or HP around them, they just didn't hold up."

Szulik, who took over as CEO from Bob Young in 1999 just a few months after its initial public offering, said he's stepping down because of family health issues.

"For the last nine months, I've struggled with health issues in my family," and that priority couldn't be balanced with work, Szulik said in an interview. "This job requires a 7x24, 110 percent commitment."

Szulik, who remains chairman of the board, praised Whitehurst in a statement, saying he's a "hands-on guy who will be a strong cultural fit at Red Hat" and "a talented executive who has successfully led a global technology-focused organization at Delta."

On a conference call, Szulik said Whitehurst stood "head and shoulders" above other candidates interviewed in a recruiting process. He was a programmer earlier in his career and runs four versions of Linux at home, he said.

Moreover, Szulik said he wasn't satisfied with more traditional tech executives who were interviewed.

"What we encountered was in many cases was a lack of understanding of open-source software development and of our model," he said. During the interview, he added about the tech industry candidates, "When you take them out of the big buildings, without the imprimatur of Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Oracle, or HP around them, they just didn't hold up."

The surprise move was announced as the leading Linux seller announced results for its third quarter of fiscal 2008. Its revenue increased 28 percent to $135.4 million and net income went up 12 percent to $20.3 million, or 10 cents per share. The company also raised estimates for full-year results to revenue of $521 million to $523 million and earnings of about 70 cents per share.

[Dec 1, 2007]  Linux Initial RAM Disk (initrd) Overview

developerWorks

The initial RAM disk (initrd) is an initial root file system that is mounted prior to when the real root file system is available. The initrd is bound to the kernel and loaded as part of the kernel boot procedure. The kernel then mounts this initrd as part of the two-stage boot process to load the modules to make the real file systems available and get at the real root file system.

"The initrd contains a minimal set of directories and executables to achieve this, such as the insmod tool to install kernel modules into the kernel..."

[Nov 30, 2007] Got more than a gig of RAM and 32-bit Linux Here's how to use it By Bruce Byfield

September 21, 2007 | Linux.com

Nowadays, many machines are running with 2-4 gigabytes of RAM, and their owners are discovering a problem: When they run 32-bit GNU/Linux distributions, their extra RAM is not being used. Fortunately, correcting the problem is only a matter of installing or building a kernel with a few specific parameters enabled or disabled.

The problem exists because 32-bit Linux kernels are designed to access only 1GB of RAM by default. The workaround for this limitation is vaguely reminiscent of the virtual memory solution once used by DOS, with a high memory area of virtual memory being constantly mapped to physical addresses. This high memory can be enabled for up to 4GB by one kernel parameter, or up to 64GB on a Pentium Pro or higher processor with another parameter. However, since these parameters have not been needed on most machines until recently, the standard kernels in many distributions have not enabled them.

Increasingly, many distributions are enabling high memory for 4GB. Ubuntu default kernels have been enabling this process at least since version 6.10, and so have Fedora 7's. By contrast, Debian's default 486 kernels do not. Few distros, if any, enable 64GB by default.

To check whether your kernel is configured to use all your RAM, enter the command free -m. This command gives you the total amount of unused RAM on your system, as well as the size of your swap file, in megabytes. If the total memory is 885, then no high memory is enabled on your system (the rest of the first gigabyte is reserved by the kernel for its own purposes). Similarly, if the result shows over 1 gigabyte but less than 4GB when you know you have more, then the 4GB parameter is enabled, but not the 64GB one. In either case, you will need to add a new kernel to take full advantage of your RAM.

Managing Initscripts with Red Hat's chkconfig

This article was EXTREMELY useful! Thanks for writing it!

 

[Oct 31, 2007] freshmeat.net Project details for fio

fio 1.17.2
 by axboe - Tue, Oct 30th 2007 10:39 PDT

About: fio is an I/O tool meant to be used both for benchmark and stress/hardware verification. It has support for 12 different types of I/O engines (sync, mmap, libaio, posixaio, SG v3, splice, null, network, syslet, guasi, and more), I/O priorities (for newer Linux kernels), rate I/O, forked or threaded jobs, and much more. It can work on block devices as well as files. fio accepts job descriptions in a simple-to-understand text format. Several example job files are included. fio displays all sorts of I/O performance information. It supports Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenSolaris.

Changes: ETA display fixes. A new psync I/O engine. A man page has been added. There are documentation improvements. I/O verification fixes have been made. A --readonly option has been added. There are vmsplice() improvements. CPU burn engine fixes. Updated to the newest syslet kernel support.

 

[Aug 26, 2007] How To Use NTFS Write Support (ntfs-3g) On Fedora 7

Write access to NTFS permits some using it virtual machines

"Normally Linux systems can only read from Windows NTFS partitions, but not write to them which can be very annoying if you have to work with Linux and Windows systems. This is where ntfs-3g comes into play. ntfs-3g is an open source, freely available NTFS driver for Linux with read and write support. This tutorial shows how to use ntfs-3g on a Fedora 7 desktop to read from and write to Windows NTFS drives and partitions.

See also:

How To Use NTFS Drives/Partitions Under Ubuntu Edgy Eft
Our-Picks: Access Your Linux Partitions Under Windows(Mar 05, 2007)

zfs_linux

data=writeback While the writeback option provides lower data consistency guarantees than the journal or ordered modes, some applications show very significant speed improvement when it is used. For example, speed improvements can be seen when heavy synchronous writes are performed, or when applications create and delete large volumes of small files, such as delivering a large flow of short email messages. The results of the testing effort described in Chapter 3 illustrate this topic.

When the writeback option is used, data consistency is similar to that provided by the ext2 file system. However, file system integrity is maintained continuously during normal operation in the ext3 file system.

In the event of a power failure or system crash, the file system may not be recoverable if a significant portion of data was held only in system memory and not on permanent storage. In this case, the filesystem must be recreated from backups. Often, changes made since the file system was last backed up are inevitably lost.

[Aug 7, 2007] Linux Replacing atime

August 7, 2007 | KernelTrap
Submitted by Jeremy on August 7, 2007 - 9:26am.
 
In a recent lkml thread, Linus Torvalds was involved in a discussion about mounting filesystems with the noatime option for better performance, "'noatime,data=writeback' will quite likely be *quite* noticeable (with different effects for different loads), but almost nobody actually runs that way."

He noted that he set O_NOATIME when writing git, "and it was an absolutely huge time-saver for the case of not having 'noatime' in the mount options. Certainly more than your estimated 10% under some loads."

The discussion then looked at using the relatime mount option to improve the situation, "relative atime only updates the atime if the previous atime is older than the mtime or ctime. Like noatime, but useful for applications like mutt that need to know when a file has been read since it was last modified."

Ingo Molnar stressed the significance of fixing this performance issue, "I cannot over-emphasize how much of a deal it is in practice. Atime updates are by far the biggest IO performance deficiency that Linux has today. Getting rid of atime updates would give us more everyday Linux performance than all the pagecache speedups of the past 10 years, _combined_." He submitted some patches to improve relatime, and noted about atime:

"It's also perhaps the most stupid Unix design idea of all times. Unix is really nice and well done, but think about this a bit: 'For every file that is read from the disk, lets do a ... write to the disk! And, for every file that is already cached and which we read from the cache ... do a write to the disk!'"

 

[Aug 7, 2007] Expect plays a crucial role in network management  by Cameron Laird

31 Jul 2007 | www.ibm.com/developerworks

If you manage systems and networks, you need Expect.

More precisely, why would you want to be without Expect? It saves hours common tasks otherwise demand. Even if you already depend on Expect, though, you might not be aware of the capabilities described below.

Expect automates command-line interactions

You don't have to understand all of Expect to begin profiting from the tool; let's start with a concrete example of how Expect can simplify your work on AIX® or other operating systems:

Suppose you have logins on several UNIX® or UNIX-like hosts and you need to change the passwords of these accounts, but the accounts are not synchronized by Network Information Service (NIS), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), or some other mechanism that recognizes you're the same person logging in on each machine. Logging in to a specific host and running the appropriate passwd command doesn't take long—probably only a minute, in most cases. And you must log in "by hand," right, because there's no way to script your password?

Wrong. In fact, the standard Expect distribution (full distribution) includes a command-line tool (and a manual page describing its use!) that precisely takes over this chore. passmass (see Resources) is a short script written in Expect that makes it as easy to change passwords on twenty machines as on one. Rather than retyping the same password over and over, you can launch passmass once and let your desktop computer take care of updating each individual host. You save yourself enough time to get a bit of fresh air, and multiple opportunities for the frustration of mistyping something you've already entered.

The limits of Expect

This passmass application is an excellent model—it illustrates many of Expect's general properties:

You probably know enough already to begin to write or modify your own Expect tools. As it turns out, the passmass distribution actually includes code to log in by means of ssh, but omits the command-line parsing to reach that code. Here's one way you might modify the distribution source to put ssh on the same footing as telnet and the other protocols:
Listing 1. Modified passmass fragment that accepts the -ssh argument                   

            ...
         } "-rlogin" {
            set login "rlogin"
            continue
        } "-slogin" {
            set login "slogin"
            continue
        } "-ssh" {
            set login "ssh"
            continue
        } "-telnet" {
            set login "telnet"
            continue
           ...
     

In my own code, I actually factor out more of this "boilerplate." For now, though, this cascade of tests, in the vicinity of line #100 of passmass, gives a good idea of Expect's readability. There's no deep programming here—no need for object-orientation, monadic application, co-routines, or other subtleties. You just ask the computer to take over typing you usually do for yourself. As it happens, this small step represents many minutes or hours of human effort saved. 

[Jul 30, 2007] Due to problems on high loads in Linux 2.6.23 kernel the Linux kernel process scheduler has been completely ripped out and replaced with a completely new one called Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) modeled after Solaris 10 scheduler. 

This is will not affect the current Linux distributions (Suse 9, 10 and RHEL 4.x) as they forked the kernel and essentially develop it as a separate tree.

But it will affect any future Red Hat or Suse distribution (Suse 11 and RHEL 6 respectively).

How it will fair in comparison with Solaris 10 remains to be seen:

The main idea of CFS's design can be summed up in a single sentence: CFS basically models an "ideal, precise multi-tasking CPU" on real hardware.

Ideal multi-tasking CPU" is a (non-existent) CPU that has 100% physical power and which can run each task at precise equal speed, in parallel, each at 1/n running speed. For example: if there are 2 tasks running then it runs each at exactly 50% speed.

[Jul 11, 2007] Tectonic Text freedom with Red Hat's Liberation fonts

By Staff Writer

21 May, 2007

Linux company Red Hat has released the Liberation font set which can be used to replace the Microsoft core truetype fonts installed on most PCs.

The three Liberation typefaces are free replacements for the Windows core fonts Arial, Courier New, and Times New Roman. The fonts, designed by Ascender Corp, have been made to be metric equivalents of the Microsoft fonts. This means that they occupy the exact same horizontal space that the Microsoft fonts do, ensuring that documents don't have to be reformatted because of sizing issues.

Linux.com provides the following potted history of Red Hat's font initiative: "Red Hat has a long history of interest in high-quality fonts that allow interoperability between operating systems. According to Mark Webbink, deputy general counsel and secretary at Red Hat, versions of the Red Hat distribution in the late 1990s included versions of Arial, Courier New, and Times Roman until a third party brought a case against the company for violation of Microsoft's copyrights.

"The dispute was settled out of court. In 2004, Red Hat announced it was licensing three proprietary fonts from Agfa Monotype that were metrically equivalent to the Windows core fonts: Albany, Cumberland, and Thorndale (the initial letter of each font is the same as the font it was designed to replace). These fonts were distributed on the Extras CD included in the Red Hat commercial box, but 'they weren't free and they weren't open, and that was frustrating for us,' Webbink says."

Red Hat released the fonts at the Red Hat summit last week under the name Liberation. There are three sets, Sans (a substitute for Arial, Albany, Helvetica, Nimbus Sans L, and Bitstream Vera Sans), Serif (a substitute for Times New Roman, Thorndale, Nimbus Roman, and Bitstream Vera Serif) and Mono (a substitute for Courier New, Cumberland, Courier, Nimbus Mono L, and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Fedora users can get the fonts through the RHN system. Other users can download them here.

 

[Jun 14, 2007] developerWorks AIX and UNIX Technical library view

Linux tip: Bash parameters and parameter expansions
Do you sometimes wonder how to use parameters with your scripts, and how to pass them to internal functions or other scripts? Do you need to do simple validity tests on parameters or options, or perform simple extraction and replacement operations on the parameter strings? This tip helps you with parameter use and the various parameter expansions available in the bash shell.
  Articles   16 May 2007  
 
Writing endian-independent code in C
Architectures, processors, network stacks, and communication protocols all have to define endianness at some point. This article explains how endianness affects code, how to determine endianness at run time, and how to write code that can reverse byte order and free you from being bound to a certain endian.
  Articles   15 May 2007  
 
Setting up a multicluster environment using General Parallel File System
Learn how to construct and deconstruct a simple multicluster of System x(TM)and System p(TM) computers using the General Parallel File System (GPFS). You can remotely add an existing GPFS cluster to another cluster. See how to mount a file system from the remote cluster using the GPFS secure communication protocol.
  Articles   11 May 2007  
 
UNIX tips and tricks for a new user, Part 4: Some nifty shell tricks
When writing a shell program, you often come across some special situation that you'd like to handle automatically. This tutorial includes examples of such situations from small Bourne shell scripts. These situations include base conversion from one string to another (decimal to hex, hex to decimal, decimal to octal, and so on), reading the keyboard while in a piped loop, subshell execution, inline input, executing a command once for each file in a directory, and multiple ways to construct a continuous loop. Part 4 of this series wraps up with a collection of shell one-liners that perform useful functions.
  Tutorial   20 Feb 2007  
 
Linux tip: Bash test and comparison functions
Are you confused by the plethora of testing and comparison options in the Bash shell? This tip helps you demystify the various types of file, arithmetic, and string tests so you will always know when to use test, [ ], [[ ]], (( )), or if-then-else constructs.
  Articles   20 Feb 2007  
 
Linux tip: Printing DVI files with CUPS
Have you ever tried to print DVI or other files in Linux and gotten an "unsupported format" message? This tip shows you how to combine existing tools to make a CUPS print filter for printing DVI files.
  Articles   07 Feb 2007  
 
Create uniform namespace using autofs with NFS Version 3 clients and servers
Do you have trouble accessing data exported from multiple file servers? If so, try using open source implementations of autofs and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), with Network File System (NFS) Version 3, to access data under the same global mount point. In this article, study and compare five different methods to create a uniform namespace using autofs. A handy table with a comparative evaluation is available to help you choose the best technique for your scenario.
  Articles   30 Jan 2007  
 
Delve into UNIX process creation
Examine the life cycle of a process so that you can relate what you see happening on your system to what's going on within the kernel. System administrators must know how processes are created and destroyed within the UNIX(R) environment in order to understand how the system fits together and how to manage misbehaving processes. Similarly, developers must understand the UNIX processes model in order to write solid applications that run unattended and won't cause problems for system administrators.
  Articles   03 Jan 2007  
 
IBM Cluster Systems Management: Installing the Webmin tool for Web access
Learn to install and use the Webmin UNIX(R) system administration tool so you can use a standard Web interface to remotely manage a clustered environment This article is an update to the 2005 developerWorks article about the IBM Cluster Systems Management tool.
  Articles   22 Dec 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Get the most out of zsh
Examine key parts of the Z shell (zsh) and how to use it's features to ease your UNIX(R) system administration tasks. zsh is a popular alternative to the original Bourne and Korn shells. It provides an impressive range of additional functionality, including improvements for completing different commands, files, and paths automatically, and for binding keys to functions and operations.
  Articles   19 Dec 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Get the most out of bash
Ease your system administration tasks by taking advantage of key parts of the Bourne-again shell (bash) and its features. Bash is a popular alternative to the original Bourne and Korn shells. It provides an impressive range of additional functionality that includes improvements to the scripting environment, extensive aliasing techniques, and improved methods for automatically completing different commands, files, and paths.
  Articles   12 Dec 2006  
 
UNIX tools for exploring object files
The programs that run on a UNIX(R) system follow a careful design known as the object file format. Learn more about the object file format and the tools that you can use for exploring object files found on your system.
  Articles   21 Nov 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Swap space management and tricks
Configure your swap space (including adding space in an emergency) to get the most out of your system. In this article, you'll learn how to monitor your system to determine an effective swap space figure as well as examine methods for using swap space for more than just secondary random access memory (RAM).
  Articles   31 Oct 2006  
 
Tunneling with SSH
Use OpenSource tools, such as Secure Shell (SSH), PuTTY, and Cygwin, to create secure connections to almost any resource you need to access. Current information on SSH tunneling and setup is fragmented and limited to specific applications, or it is written at a system administrator's level. With increasing security needs, the addition of boundary firewalls, and tightening of the number of allowed network ports, users need a method that is simple to configure, easy to operate and, above all, secure to accomplish day-to-day tasks and access the services that they have become accustomed to. This article describes the setup of a simple SSH client connecting to an AIX(R)- or Linux(R)-based SSH server that allows a typical, technically literate individual the ability to set up, configure, and operate a flexible means of tunneling data and services over the SSH service.
  Articles   17 Oct 2006  
 
Run commands sequentially across a cluster from a UNIX server, Part 1: Secure Shell (SSH)
Configure Secure Shell (SSH) on IBM System p(TM) and System x(TM) computers so the UNIX(R) server can access a remote server without a password.
  Articles   21 Sep 2006  
 
Get to know NetBSD
NetBSD runs on more hardware platforms than any other UNIX(R) derivative due to smart design decisions and a commitment to portable code. Whether you're porting an operating system to a proprietary embedded system or looking for stability and compatibility across hardware platforms in the lab, NetBSD and its open license is a compelling alternative to Linux(R) and the GNU Public License (GPL).
  Articles   29 Aug 2006  
 
Port Fortran applications
Discover how to port Fortran-based High Performance Computing applications, such as computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling, weather modeling, and linear algebra packages, using IBM XL compilers and gnu compilers on large clusters. The solutions in this article are equally applicable in all types of porting work in Fortran or any UNIX(R)- or Linux-based systems. Though C/C++ and other programming languages are popular, with strong features and widespread use, Fortran is still the favorite for the scientific and engineering community because of its performance.
  Articles   29 Aug 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Standardizing your UNIX command-line tools
Examine methods for standardizing your interface to simplify movements between different UNIX(R) systems. If you manage multiple UNIX systems, particularly in a heterogeneous environment, then the hardest task can be switching between the different environments and performing the different tasks while having to consider all of the differences between the systems. This article does not cover specific differences, but you'll look at ways that can provide compatible layers, or wrappers, to support a consistent environment.
  Articles   22 Aug 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Backing up key information
Most UNIX(R) administrators have processes in place to back up the data and information on their UNIX machines, but what about the configuration files and other elements that provide the configuration data your machines need to operate? This article provides detailed information on techniques for achieving an effective and efficient backup system for these key files.
  Articles   15 Aug 2006  
 
Take a closer look at OpenBSD
OpenBSD is quite possibly the most secure operating system on the planet. Every step of the development process focuses on building a secure, open, and free platform. UNIX(R) and Linux(R) administrators take note: Without realizing it, you probably use tools ported from OpenBSD every day. Maybe it's time to give the whole operating system a closer look.
  Articles   08 Aug 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Managing NIS services for authorizations
Examine how to set up, configure, and update a Network Information System (NIS) installation for sharing information, and learn how NIS can be merged with other solutions, such as files and Domain Name System (DNS), to provide subnet, network, and worldwide data sharing facilities. In a large UNIX(R) network, the ability to share information among the many systems helps to alleviate many problems, such as sharing permissions across different systems with Network File System (NFS), or simply providing a single login for the entire network.
  Articles   01 Aug 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Migrating and moving UNIX directory trees
Occasionally, you need to copy around an entire UNIX(R) directory tree, either between areas on the same system or between different systems. There are many different methods of achieving this, but not all preserve the right amount of information or are compatible across different systems. This article discusses the various options available for UNIX and how best to make them work.
  Articles   25 Jul 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Migrating and moving UNIX filesystems
Learn how to transfer an entire file system on a live system, including how to create, copy, and re-enable the new file system. If you have a UNIX(R) disk or system failure or simply fill up your file system, then you need to create a new partition and file system and copy over the contents. You might even need to mount the new partition in place to preserve the location of vital files and components. To add further complications, you need to do this on a live system, where you'd need to preserve file permissions, ownership, and possibly named pipes and other components. Effectively transferring these components and retaining all of this information is a vital part of the migration process.
  Articles   03 Jul 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Monitoring disk space and usage
Look at methods for determining disk usage across multiple UNIX(R) systems and how to create a simple warning system to alert you of potential problems. Keeping an eye on your file systems and ensuring they don't fill up is a trivial, but vital, process in the day-to-day management of your UNIX systems. In this article, you'll look at methods for keeping an eye on disk space, discovering which files, users, or applications are using up the most space, and how to make use of quotas and other solutions to find the information you need.
  Articles   13 Jun 2006  
 
IBM DB2 Enterprise 9 performance with POWER5+ and AIX 5L multipage support
Learn how IBM DB2 9 automatically exploits the 64-kilobyte page support in AIX 5L to deliver high performance for database applications on this platform. This article talks about the DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows exploitation of multiple page sizes, and shares some performance results as measured on IBM POWER5+ processor-based systems running IBM AIX 5L.
  Articles   08 Jun 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Monitoring a slow system
When your UNIX(R) system runs slow, it is vital that you discover what the problem is as quickly as possible so you can get your system back into the normal operating mode. There are many causes for a slow system, but actually identifying the problem can be exceedingly difficult. In this article, study examples of how to identify and diagnose the cause of your slow running UNIX system to get your machine running properly again.
  Articles   07 Jun 2006  
 
Basic UNIX filesystem operations
Take advantage of the readdir() and stat() functions to run through the entries of a directory. Because of the plethora of files and directories on a UNIX(R) system, you're going to need to know how to process directory entries using the readdir() function and extract information about those entries using the stat() function. These basic file system operations can serve you well in your UNIX programming career, allowing you to easily discover and read files, directories, and symbolic links on your UNIX system.
  Articles   23 May 2006  
 
Fun with strace and the GDB Debugger
Programming a UNIX system can be fun as well as educational. With the UNIX strace tool and GDB, the GNU Project Debugger, you can really dig deep into the functionality of your system and learn a lot about the various programs that comprise it. Using both tools in concert can be a rewarding experience as you look under the hood of your UNIX machine.
  Articles   11 May 2006  
 
Performance tuning UNIX systems
Be nice to your computers and examine some general guidelines for tuning server performance. A computer is like an employee who does tasks for you -- it's a good idea to keep from overburdening them. One way to keep this from happening is to carefully tune the processes that run on it. This article provides some simple performance tuning steps using the UNIX nice commands.
  Articles   03 May 2006  
 
System Administration Toolkit: Time and event management
Automating your administration tasks can save you a lot of time, and UNIX(R) incorporates systems to automate the process for you. In this article, you'll look at the best methods for using these systems, including how to monitor and track their execution and output and how to schedule complex events.
  Articles   02 May 2006  
 
Make UNIX and Linux work together
Examine how to use the Network Information Service (NIS) to share core databases between Linux(R) and UNIX(R), and how to use the Network File System (NFS) to share file systems, both with direct links and through the automounter. Although UNIX and Linux are similar, there are some differences between the two that can complicate the process of integrating the two systems. Both, for example, share the same authentication system, but most systems are also standalone. Sharing this authentication information enables you to provide a single sign-on (SSO) functionality to any of the servers in your network.
  Articles   18 Apr 2006  
 
Using ReiserFS with Linux
Take a look at the ext2 (second extended file system), ext3 (third extended file system), and Reiser4 file systems and discover how to create your own Reiser4 file system. The most commonly used file system, ext2, is a traditional UNIX(R)-style file system that doesn't mix well with modern hard drive sizes. The ext3 file system adds journalling, but not much else. If you want something really advanced, you might want to check out the current Reiser4 file system.
  Articles   04 Apr 2006  
 
Retool your Linux skills for commercial UNIX
Examine how to best migrate your Linux(R) skills to take advantage of AIX(R) and Solaris. Linux is all the rage, but what if you have experience in Linux and need to apply it to a commercial UNIX(R) environment? UNIX and Linux are similar, and many of the same principles exist; there is a shell, root is still all powerful, and many of the tools and applications are the same. But how do you cope with understanding the nuances and differences?
  Tutorial   30 Mar 2006  
 
Advanced techniques for using the UNIX find command
Explore the vast terrain of the UNIX(R) file system with the find command. One of the most powerful and useful commands in the UNIX programmer's repertoire is find. All flavors of UNIX have file systems that can contain thousands of files of many different types. With so many choices, locating a specific file, or set of files, can be difficult. The find command makes this task easier in many ways.
  Articles   28 Mar 2006  
 
Solve application problems with tracing
Peer into the behavior of an application with truss. When an application doesn't work as expected, you typically look at application and system logs as a first recourse. But when logs don't help, UNIX(R) provides a powerful set of tools that you can use to trace the application while it runs. Armed with these traces and a bit of knowledge about UNIX, you can easily solve your application problems.
  Articles   21 Mar 2006  
 
Build UNIX software with Eclipse
Become more productive with your own code and others by utilizing Eclipse's syntax highlighting, code completion, and other amenities. Eclipse is an excellent open source IDE and has many helpful features. It runs on any UNIX(R) platform with a Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) (Version 1.4 or newer) and an SWT port, such as Linux(R), Solaris, AIX(R), and HP-UX. It's easy enough to start a new project using Eclipse or to import an existing Eclipse project, but how do you bring existing code into the IDE? And what if you need to get an existing project compiling right away without modifying its existing makefile or configure script -- the most common ways of building UNIX software? Read along for the answer to all of these questions.
  Articles   14 Mar 2006  
 
Differentiating UNIX and Linux
Investigate the areas where UNIX(R) and Linux(R) converge in terms of functionality, environment, usability, and also those areas where UNIX and Linux differ. Many refer to Linux as a UNIX-like operating system. It is an open source operating system that has many of the same principles and ideals as UNIX, but it is not a true UNIX operating system like Solaris, AIX(R), HP-UX, and others. This article covers a range of aspects, from the core technical elements, such as kernel and filesystem support, to application tools, availability, and the differences in how to administer them.
  Articles   14 Mar 2006  
 
Effective management of system logs
Provide solid information resources to decision makers. Discover a simple, but useful, application of the combined processing capabilities of awk and XML that you can use to present UNIX(R) system data in a reader-friendly form suitable for posting to the company intranet or Internet. UNIX generates useful system performance, usage, cost, and related data that management and other interested stakeholders can use.
  Articles   07 Mar 2006  
 
nmon performance: A free tool to analyze AIX and Linux performance
This free tool gives you a huge amount of information all on one screen. Even though IBM doesn't officially support the tool and you must use it at your own risk, you can get a wealth of performance statistics. Why use five or six tools when one free tool can give you everything you need?
  Articles   27 Feb 2006  
 
IBM NFS/DFS Authentication Gateway
Take advantage of the new features Network File System Version 4 (NFS Version 4) now has to offer. With the ever-growing storage needs in large enterprises and NFS implementations offering more and more features, it makes business sense for enterprises to migrate to NFS Version 4. In this article, we discuss the need and various strategies for migrating from the IBM Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)/Distributed File System(TM) (DFS(TM)) infrastructure to NFS Version 4 on AIX(R) and Linux(R).
  Articles   26 Jan 2006  
 
A comparison of security subsystems on AIX, Linux, and Solaris
Learn how to apply a strategy for implementing a single identification and authentication (I and A) framework across a heterogeneous, multi-platform environment. An I and A system provides a layer of abstraction between a user application and the implementation of any authentication or identification functions it needs to perform.
  Articles   13 Oct 2005  
 
How to install AIX 5L
Get step-by-step instructions for a number of generic AIX(R) system setup procedures. These instructions should work for any of the AIX(TM) 5L releases. Variations, if any, should be minor.
  Articles   31 Aug 2005  
 
Split mirror using suspended I/O in DB2 Universal Database
Looking for a high availability solution for DB2 UDB? This article provides a visual explanation of split mirror using suspended I/O for a DB2 UDB database and explains the details of various implementation scenarios. Learn how suspended I/O works and how it can be used to implement reliable high availability database solutions.
  Articles   25 Aug 2005  
 
POWER5 virtualization: How to set up the IBM Virtual I/O Server
Get more information on the virtualization capabilities of IBM(R) POWER5(TM) servers. Follow along as Nigel Griffiths illustrates how to set up and use the IBM Virtual I/O Server (VIO Server). In his previous article, "POWER5 Virtualization: How to set up the SUSE Linux Virtual I/O Server", he described the benefits of the IBM POWER5 servers and provided examples on how to set up the environment for pSeries(R) p5 and eServer(TM) OpenPower(TM) systems.
  Articles   29 Jun 2005  
 
Guide to porting from Solaris to Linux on x86
Solaris is considered one of the closest flavors of UNIX to Linux, but for migration purposes, there can be differences between the two in the areas of memory mapping, threading, or natural language support (to name just a few). This porting guide gives you advice on planning for the port to Linux/x86, and helps you understand the differences in the development environment and architecture.
  Articles   29 Apr 2005  
 
Dual boot Linux and AIX
There may be times when you find it necessary to develop in both the Linux and AIX operating environments. This article describes dual booting Linux and AIX on the same IBM eServer pSeries (including eServer p5), eServer i5, or eServer OpenPower server.
  Articles   25 Apr 2005  
 
Serving X from a Windows laptop
This article is an update to a previous article about working on UNIX(R) through your laptop. The author describes how to run the same environment from your laptop as you do when directly connected to a UNIX server's console terminal. The article discusses how to use X clients, installing uwin, and running X clients through a VPN.
  Articles   27 May 2004  
 
Using Samba as a primary domain controller
Open source Samba turns a UNIX(R) or Linux(R) system into a file and print server for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) network clients. Tom Syroid dishes up a juicy tutorial that shows you how to configure Samba as the primary domain controller on an xSeries(R) server.

 

Red Hat What me worry Between the Lines ZDNet.com

Dan Farber & Larry Dignan
December 21st, 2006

Red Hat: What me worry?

When Red Hat holds court with financial analysts later today to discuss the company's fiscal third quarter results the conversation is likely to go like this:
Analyst: What is the impact on Oracle's Unbreakable Linux on your business? How can you compete?

Red Hat exec: We're not seeing any direct threat. Billings are looking up.

Analyst: What about this Microsoft-Novell partnership?

Red Hat exec: Can't we talk about our quarter just a little here?

And then you'll get a lot of questions about Red Hat's forecast for future billings so analysts can surmise the answers on their own. Red Hat, which provides Linux and open source software, is expected to report earnings of 12 cents a share on sales of $104 million.

The competition is circling around Red Hat, but it's too early to see the effects. Are folks going to jump from Red Hat? Possibly, but it won't be this quarter. Or the next.

How do I know? Let's evaluate what those aforementioned Red Hat killers are saying lately. Oracle said it had 9,000 downloads of Unbreakable Linux in the first 30 days after announcing it. Big question is what happened beyond that 30 days and were the downloads front-end loaded indicating waning interest.

As for the Microsoft-Novell deal, the two parties announced that three financial services firms are getting SUSE Linux Enterprise Subscription certificates from Microsoft.

What's all of this mean for Red Hat? Probably a decent quarter after a lot of worrying. What's it mean for technology buyers? Some serious leverage as Red Hat subscriptions expire in a few months.

UBS analyst Heather Bellini said it will take about six months to see any dent in Red Hat's business.

"Our conversations with Linux channel partners indicate that Red Hat's business in the third quarter was largely unaffected and any impact will take at least six months to play out. While the resellers were equally split on whether Red Hat will have to lower prices, we believe pricing pressures are inevitable as customers will at the very least use Oracle's pricing to negotiate deeper discounts."

WR Hambrecht analyst Robert Stimson said in a research note that Red Hat's products are "sticky and deeply embedded within its enterprise customers."

"We are expecting a roughly in-line quarter to both our and Street estimates, as we believe recent concerns over competitive pressures from Oracle and Novell/Microsoft have been overblown. We believe investors will be most closely focused on billings growth as the most meaningful metric to determine any negative effect from competition, as well as management's commentary on the JBoss integration process."

In fact, the integration of open source software maker JBoss is the more immediate worry about Red Hat. Rumors have swirled for weeks about Marc Fleury leaving, but thus far no formal announcement.

The skinny from Stimson:

"Comments from JBoss head Marc Fleury in late November regarding a perceived lack of investment from Red Hat raised investors' concerns about the integration of the JBoss business into the Red Hat stack. Shortly after, Fleury took paternity leave, which some investors read into as a sign of discord. Although we believe these concerns are overblown, we will be looking closely at commentary from management regarding the progress of the JBoss integration."

[Dec 21, 2006] Linux Today - OSNews Has the Desktop Linux Bubble Burst

Linux Today is not responsible for the content of the message below.
Don Ferguson - Subject: Excellent Points ( Dec 21, 2006, 17:07:53 )
I am no fan of glossier, fancier and more processor and memory intensive user interface graphics. But a lot of people are. More importantly, there is real movement on the Mac and Windows front from a user interface perspective and these changes will define computing experiences and desires.
I do not think Windows Vista is a Linux killer. But, Leopard is. Apple has proven you can do *nix and make it a visually pleasing, easy to use, and productive environment for people. Macs run Linux programs, Mac programs, and Windows in VMs or as a dual boot option. Apple has created everything that Linux ever wanted to be but couldn't achieve because it was unable to attract enough people to the KDE and/or Gnome.

I almost wonder if what we are seeing with KDE and Gnome is symptomatic of "open source". The movement relies on coolness to bring in new, young coders, and its anti-establishment exture to bring in rebels.

Linux, KDE or Gnome are getting less cool by the day. And Linux and several open source projects are so tied into corporations that the work of rebels is simply being used to increase the fortunes of billionare wannabees.

Slashdot Oracle and Red Hat begin battle for the Enterprise

  • It has always seemed relatively obvious to me that most OSS software companies are vulnerable to this type of attack mounted by a large proprietary software vendor. Take the software (which, at the end of the day is where the real value is), and offer support, but without undertaking any of the major development tasks (only do bugfixes). The OSS competitor has two choices: continue to do R&D work on the product, to keep it advancing, and accepting that they can't sell support as cheaply as the "bug-fix only" proprietary vendor, or stop doing R&D themselves, so that they can be cost-competitive. Of course the disadvantage of this approach is that the product quickly falls behind proprietary offerings....

    This is not going to be an easy battle for Redhat. I suspect they are going to have to find a new business model if they are to survive.

  • I'm not so sure the real value is in the software. People and, especially, companies seem to be willing to pay more for support contracts than for software. They'll even take inferior software over superior software if they can get a support contract that way.

     
    I own a small-ish business. In no way, shape, or form, is support more important to me than quality software. If I have to make support calls, that's lost time and money. The second software malfunctions, is the second you start losing money. No question about it. I will pay multiples more for a product that requires little to no support, than I will for a product that has good support.

    The only reason a product needs support is because it's not good enough to be used without support. So by definition, a better product requires less support than a product (that does the same thing) that requires support. There's no value in support. Support is purely a cost, and an avoidable one at that.

    In the case of somebody like Red Hat, there's simply no way I'd ever use the product (at least for our desktops... our server stuff is outsourced). I don't care if I can get a literate, English speaking person on the phone instantly 24/7 via a toll-free number. I don't care if the company will teleport a support person to my company within one minute of needing help. That's not nearly as good as using a product that doesn't require support.

[Oct 28, 2006] Perspective: Sending the penguins out with a hot foot

This rates as a stroke of cruel genius--right up there with Bill Gates' decision to gut his Borland nemesis Philippe Kahn in the early 1990s. Old-timers may recall that Borland once was a high-flier in the software business. But when Microsoft slashed prices on its Excel spreadsheet and Access database programs, Borland stumbled. The company failed to find a way to compete against a bigger, better financed rival that could afford to pursue a beggar-thy-neighbor strategy.

Hand it to Ellison for taking a page out of his arch-rival's playbook. Oracle's offer of free support for Red Hat Linux was designed to inflict maximum pain on Red Hat. So it did. One day after the announcement, Red Hat shares lost 24 percent of their value. After watching his stock take a tumble, Red Hat's CEO Matthew Szulik is in a bind. He has just absorbed the equivalent of a cyber-kick in the groin from a bigger, badder bully.

"This is capitalism, we are competing," Ellison later said during the question-and-answer session following his announcement. "We are trying to offer a better product at a lower price."

It's also a veiled threat to any open-source software vendor within earshot that Oracle's declaring a support price-war. Outside of an IBM, I don't know of any open-source supplier with the financial wherewithal to absorb that kind of profit margin punishment.

[Oct 28, 2006] Will Red Hat Survive#16621552

  • Fedora will never be a production OS

    (Score:1, Informative)
    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 28, @08:09AM (#16621534)
    Fedora on the other hand is free.
    There's a good reason Fedora is free. It's not a production OS and it never will be, for that would conflick with RedHat's ability to sell its "enterprise" products. You can use Fedora if you want to debug problems for RH for free.

    As Bruce Perens said it a while ago:
    Fedora project is obviously intended to look like Debian. But unlike Debian, Fedora is an extremely unequal partnership. "Fedora" is where the community developers are supposed to build Red Hat's product, while the certifications and vendor endorsements are held back for the high-priced "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" brand. This is especially obvious in recent certification announcements: the Common Criteria certification will go to "Red Hat Enterprise Linux", not "Fedora". And of course the entire steering board of the Fedora project are Red Hat employees. Red Hat recently announced a second draft of the leadership structure for Fedora, in which they have eliminated voting, expressing the need to keep control in the hands of Red Hat's management.

    But the most ludicrous aspect of the Fedora project is that with Fedora, Red Hat seeks to achieve what Debian did long ago. Because they can't (and shouldn't) control Debian, they decided to re-invent the wheel. It would take them years to achieve a fraction of what Debian already has.
    If you need a stable, easy-to-administer, well-established production OS, I would suggest Debian [debian.org].
  • Re:Prices--Red Hat way more expensive

    (Score:3, Informative)
    by lukas84 (912874) on Saturday October 28, @10:50AM (#16622560)
    (http://projectdream.org/)
     
    I work in sub-200 people environments in switzerland. So my perpspective might differ a lot from yours, but i've found microsoft to offer good value for their money.

    1 CHF (Swiss Franc) = 0.80 US$

    If you're a sub-15 people company, and only have one machine, Microsoft Small Business Server is a good bet. You can get the Standard Edition for 800 CHF, and the Premium Edition (includes SQL Server and ISA Server (no idea why you would want that)) for 1300 CHF. Each includes 5 User CALs, So for 15 people you need two more five packs or about 1000 each. This price doesn't include support, though. Also, i'm not much of a fan of SBS because of several restrictions (only a single domain controller, Exchange and DC on the same machine), but these are the standard practice in such small companies.

    Microsoft offers their SBS server for up to 75 users. I don't think thats a good idea.

    Companies in this size usually don't have any IT staff, so self help is important. With windows, the people at least feel that they can try to fix problem themselves (which they usually can't). With Linux, this isn't the case. (Just because windows server offers a GUI for 80% of it's functions doesn't mean that it's simple).

    Windows is mostly the only choice if you are cooperating with other companies. Some might offer their shipping calculation program only for windows, some specialized ERP software might only be available or windows, etc. pp.

    I've found windows to offer the best SMB desktop management, everything from redhat etc. seems to be geared at big companies with a standard desktop images. Group Policies are a fucking cool thing.
  • The answer is, of course, it depends.

    If you are a information technology company, it might be possible and might even have lots of advantages to use linux exclusively.

    However, if you are not an IT company, i don't see linux to stand a chance. There are some technical reasons here, but also social reasons:

    The technical reasons:

    * Software, which the company needs might not be available under linux. Using VMs or WINE might solve the problem in the short term, but what if the a new version doesn't work anymore?
    * Especially for low end hardware, there isn't much support for linux. But if we're honest here, low end hardware causes lot's of trouble under windows.
    * Integration with linux is very difficult. All kinds of mobile phones, pdas, mp3 players, etc. can be hooked up to windows with the help of a CD. With linux, it isn't as easy. While some devices might be supported, some of them won't be. Unfortunately, this also includes high end hardware (like Windows Mobile PDAs).
    * Groupware with Linux seems to be a problem still. I lack experience in this area, but last time i checked solutions here weren't as well integrated (for example lacking support for Direct Push, Blackberry, etc.)

    The social reasons:

    * There usually are no people with linux knowledge ("Power Users"). This means for every so little problem, external support is required, adding a lot to the cost of linux. A technicians hour is usually the same as a single CAL. This problem will solve itself over time, though.
    * People are afraid of Linux. It is new and unknown. People like to have something to blame. If they can't get their document out because they have to use Linux to write it, they will blame Linux. Irregardless of facts.

    As it is now, linux can't be adopted by small companys. Larger companys have much more resources available, and might save money when deploying linux.
  • Re:Prices

    (Score:2)
    by msobkow (48369) on Saturday October 28, @09:16AM (#16621876)
    (Last Journal: Saturday October 28, @09:32AM)
    Ok, so RedHat provides buzzwords and certs so managers and business owners can comfort themselves with the warm fuzzies that their techie has a cert. Is the cert really that much better than Microsoft's various techie certs? Has a cert ever actually demonstrated someone has the skills and training needed to do the job right, or does it just prove someone had the time and money for a course?

    Clearly certs aren't enough to maintain a company of RedHat's size, or there would be major competition from companies like Learning Tree by now.

    Security audits of code, patches, updates, enhancements -- those are what a vendor is supposed to be focused on delivering. The problem is that with OSS, the benefits of those corrections go to everyone, but the expense only goes to the company that developed the fix or enhancement (and their customers.)

    SuSE/Novell put in a lot of time, money, and effort. RedHat put in a lot of time, money, and effort. So has Mandrake, whatever their latest name is.

    What has Oracle put into Linux?

    Show me the pieces of system code that have been enhanced and updated by Oracle. I want to know which security issues and performance tweaks they've implemented. That trail of invested effort will show how good their team is at providing service and support.

    If they haven't invested the time, budget, and effort before someone paid them to provide support, why in the world would I trust a database vendor to maintain my operating system?!?!?!