[aklug] Re: heading towards a windows domain

Quoting Stephen King <sking@chartercollege.edu>:

>> My experience w/consultants is they will recommend what they know,=3D20
>> not necessarily what is actually the best for your organization.
>
> Absolutely true, but....
>
>> packages that are Windows server based
>
> THAT's the rub. Largely everything else you've described can easily be
> handled by whatever system you want. For example, I'm not sure what
> specific Cisco systems you're using, but I'll bet they interface with
> RADIUS, not AD. RADIUS is a vendor-neutral product supported on pretty
> much all platforms, so a Linux solution will work fine. =3D20
>
> But if you have applications that the users specifically want that are
> only available in Windows, then in my experience it's just better to go
> with Windows. Sure, you can run most Windows applications in wine (no
> doubt, everyone here can tell of various success stories in
> multi-platform application work) but the devil's in the details (like
> printer management and application specific user management). In my
> experience, the time spent dealing with those details is worth it if
> you're a techie who likes to play with stuff, or if the network is large
> enough to have actual full-time trained support staff, but is absolutely
> not worth it if you're trying to manage a busy schedule while keeping a
> semi-supported network running. =3D20
>

I agree with Steven in principal. However, there are a couple of =20
solutions that have yet to be mentioned. One is terminal services. =20
This could be used to limit the amount of Windows servers that ARE on =20
the network and every client out there that I know of can use RDP to =20
get connected.

Second alternative is VMWare. If we are trying to say we can only =20
have one operating system or the other...then this point is mute, =20
however, you could setup a server (or servers) to run these =20
applications in a VMWare session.

In addition to providing a solid operating system to house these VM's, =20
it provides a mechanism to propogate or redeploy without the hassle of =20
hardware changes that inevitably come down the pike.

Granted there is some learning curve here.

Let's also not forget Xen or VirtualBox...but at the moment, VMWare =20
seems to be the leader.

With a good virtual machine environment, you can get a lot done with =20
less money.

Just my two cents as well.

Mike B.

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Received on Thu Dec 4 14:10:29 2008