Roger, your recent review of SuSE 7.1 could almost be called "bogus." You complain that server utilities aren't included in the distro....are you blind, or just can't find your way around any system. The same with the manuals.
As for Linux being a costly replacement for Win....WRONG again! I've almost half my department here now as SuSE Linux, and by the end of this year, I hope it will be 100%! SuSE installs quicker than anything from MickySoft, StarOffice provides SOLID NON-crashing business apps., and Konqueror and Kmail handle the rest that our staff requires. Users "convert" to using SuSE VERY quickly, and WON'T go back to using 'Bloze of any flavor. Did I mention security? Don't even think about that with M$!
I can tell you are young, maybe out of college, maybe not. I am a huge fan of Linux, I have been a Unix Admin for 8 years now and have been using Linux since like kernel 0.97 when you had to compile your own from the jump, however, Linux is not an ideal replacement for the Windows desktop. While most developers and other technical staff can intuitively function on a Linux box with a relateively short learning curve, the other half of the company cannot. You have obviously never seen the cost of training and the costs of administrative overhead. If you were to place a Linux desktop in a non-technical department, say HR for example, the learning curve/lack of productivity alone would outweight the cost of Microsoft. You must then figure in that Linux admins cost twice as much as NT admins and you will probably need 1 per every 100 desktops I am guessing (Our Sun/SGI desktop support guy has 45 clients and he keeps him real busy). I have been using Star Office for probably 4 years now, but my productivity on the Windows platform with MS Office is a lot higher. That is why I have 2 PC's and a switchbox on my desk. A properly configured NT 4 or W2K workstation can function decent enough for the non-technical users. You also forget that 95% of the business world produces documents/messaging/collaboration is Windows dependant applications and proprietary formats. (Or was your business going to succeed by only dealing with Unix-centric partners and customers?) Do not get me wrong, I daydream of a future where Linux is on every desktop. I personally prefer a Mac OS X box instead of a Windoze machine, but still the same. Linux has it's place and on the desktop, corporate wide, is not it. For what its worth, I just convinced my company to switch an Oracle database piece of a clinical data system we sell that consists of SGI/IRIX hardware to Intel/SuSE. If I can prove it is reliable enough, I just increased the profit margin on that piece of our product significantly. (The current SGI system costs us about $90,000 plus the cost of the software we develop, I am piecing a comparable system using Intel/SuSe for about $40,000, which most of that cost coming from disk storage/RAID technology) This is where Linux kicks azz. I am all for Linux in the back office/extranet, just not on the desktop of some 9-5, I can give a damn about learning how to use my PC, HR chic/dude. (sorry if there are any HR people here, but if you are here, you are probably technical, so this does not apply) As for Linux distro's not having the 'tools' & 'utilities', try using a pre-2.x kernel distro. Linux has come a very long way and SuSE is at the top IMHO. just my 2 bits, -CC
I don't mind a writer having a differing view. What I don't like is incompetence or deliberate distortion.
Fred A. Miller
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