[H-GEN] Re: Unix vs NT (religious war :-)

[Byron Ellacott]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs "Byron Ellacott" <bellacott at hotmail.com>)

[on NT and Linux and ease of configuration]

>fix. Time is money in business.  From that point of view I can see

yes, time is money.  but what does that *really* mean?  As I have said 
already, there are people who have invested time to become experts with 
networks and network configuration.  You can avoid investing that same time 
by paying money to these experts, or you can avoid investing that money by 
putting in the same time as those experts.  However, looking for the quick 
fix won't get the same job done.

NT may look easy to configure, but I bet if you took someone who'd been 
using playstations all their life, and sat them down and told them to set up 
a router on an NT box, they'd bemoan the lack of documentation, and say how 
much easier it is to put a CD in the machine and start playing.

If you took an experienced sysadmin and told them to set up a router on an 
NT box, if you survived, they'd probably find it extremely difficult also, 
because they'd want to produce optimal settings, but wouldn't be able to 
find a clear path to do so.  And I bet they'd complain about the lack of 
comprehendable documentation, too.

The point of this is ``ease'' is a relative term; microsoft have pushed and 
pushed at NT being easy to administer, but it is simply not true.  It is 
easy to babysit, but if something goes wrong, 90% of self proclaimed NT 
experts will not know what to do, or will opt for a reboot/reinstall.

This supposed easiness has resulted in countless SPAM mail relays around the 
globe, innumerable security violations, and more denial of service attacks 
than you can poke a stick at.  And why?  Because this ``ease'' means anyone 
who's played with 9x or NT for a bit can call themselves an administrator 
and get a working router/mailer or whatever.

A successful business does not take shortcuts when doing an alarm system.  
You don't see the janitor putting a wet hair across the door so he knows 
when someone's been in.  Someone is paid to come in and cast a professional, 
experienced eye over the place and do as much as they can to ensure noone 
can enter undetected.  Why are computers so different, when all that 
valuable intellectual property is sitting on them?  The only difference 
between a computer theft and a physical theft is it's so much more obvious 
when your fileserver is physically removed.

I seem to be ranting again.

This is my absolute last post on this subject.

Summation:
o If you do a cheap and nasty job, you'll get a cheap and nasty job
o Linux does require some technical knowledge to set up as a router
o NT does require some technical knowledge to set up as a router
o Both are easy to set up as workstations
o Either put in the time, or pay for the time someone else put in,
  or suffer the consequences of a poor network setup.

---
bje


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