cold water on linux

[Chong Yu Meng]

Net Llama! wrote:

>Apparently you've never tried to setup an Exchange server, or tried to
>keep IIS from getting 0wn3d.
>
>  
>
LOL !! Actually, backing up Exchange and ensuring that you can recover 
from a crash are the two most important skills of an Exchange 
administrator. I had a network engineer once, some years back, who 
insisted on using all Microsoft products, even though the applications 
we wrote and maintained were mainly on UNIX/Linux. I told him that it 
was okay, provided he comes in on time every morning. He can leave on 
time as well. He thought I was being my usual nasty Simon Cowell-ish 
self, because I allowed my programmers to come in late, especially since 
they worked late. The reason for this is very simple : Microsoft stuff 
is not very reliable ( from my own experience ). If the PDC goes down at 
9am in the morning, and the network engineer comes in at 12 noon, the 
boss is going to be livid, because that's 3 hours gone before the 
engineer even starts to fix the problem. Say, it takes an hour to reboot 
the server, check that everything is ok, and get everyone back online 
(an optimistic scenario -- normally it takes the whole day!), that's 4 
hours. In the meantime, the boss has no access to the printers, the 
shared drive, etc.

Some MCSE's would argue, that's why we need a BDC. Well, my experience 
has been that PDC's and BDC's are like Siamese twins -- cut one of them 
and the other bleeds as well. In this case, if the PDC goes down, 
normally the BDC follows close behind. So, instead of bringing up one 
server, you now have to bring both up.

Anyway, after many years of fighting the Microsoft drones, I've decided 
that it is completely pointless. So now, when people ask me if I'm still 
a Linux zealot, I tell them that I am a corporate whore -- yes, I do 
Windows too. I will "do" anything if you pay me enough. And Microsoft 
shops really do pay well.

Of course, if I ran my own company, I'd insist on UNIX/LInux, not 
because of reliability problems (Win2K is really quite good, and pretty 
stable), but because I can tweak the operating system to do what I want, 
and because there is a LOT of free server software out there, such as 
online bug trackers, CVS, scripting tools like sed and awk and docbook, 
etc.

-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pascal Chong                                                   |
| email: chongym at cymulacrum.net                                  |
|                                                                |
| Please visit my site at : http://cymulacrum.net                |
| If you're using my documentation, please read the Terms and    |
| and Conditions at http://cymulacrum.net/terms.html             |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+