> Happy to see so many views on this topic. I just shared my experiences > over > the past few years. the reality is that most MNC's have a centralised > authentication system, which unfortunately is MS AD. the intranet sites > may > be powered by Linux, and in such case, there is the necessity that Linux > server has to integrate with windows domain.
Senthil, the parts which I disagree with you on is that MNC's universally use MS AD. That hasn't been true in my experience. I am not disagreeing that many MNC's do use MS AD, but not all do. What is true is that pretty much all MNC's have a large number of servers running the new MS Server OSs which are actually quite good. > > If that is possible, then i am sure, much of the intranet sites will be > powered using Linux rather than Windows, as it would greatly reduce > their Project and Account Cost for each manager. Creating an intranet which works across multiple operating systems is a solved problem. There are a number of solutions to this problem from Oracle, Novell, CA, IBM/Tivoli, Quest etc, however, the reason non-MS solutions haven't been as successful is because it requires these companies to buy solutions from a number of vendors and pay these vendors (a LOT) to integrate these solutions across a number of different products. In the case of MS, the solution is delivered along with the OS - example: Sharepoint services with the MS Server OSs.. similarly SQL Server + IIS + Sharepoint + OS bundles. That level of integration is simply not available on Linux or any other platform. Oracle tried some of this with Solaris + Oracle bundles (costs a bomb) and IBM with AIX + Lotus Notes + DB2 bundles (again costs a bomb), Sun with their bundles (Solaris + Oracle + Glassfish + Sun ONE directory services etc) but in all my years of running a company, I am yet to receive a single call from any company offering me to sell me these non-MS bundles - while I receive a sales call from MS partners very often. If you are looking for collaboration suites, there are products such as Lotus Notes (shudder!!) which work across OSes but it is a real PAIN to work with.. I hear that Sharepoint is rapidly approaching Lotus Notes' as yet unreachable levels of horrible mess. Talking about project management - there isn't a single Linux-based solution which compares to MS Project. Also, there is simply no alternative to MS Office on Linux - no, openoffice does NOT count. Also for stuff such as graphic design (photoshop) or engineering design (CAD/CAM), the Linux offerings pale in comparison to what is available on Windows. That is another reason why people prefer working on Windows in the enterprise. But if you look at enterprises where access to MS Office, MS Project, Autocad, Photoshop etc isn't needed for the staff, you will see a whole plethora of OSes being used - Macs, Solaris boxes, Linux the odd SGI box etc. Linux is very commonly used in simulations, defense establishments, movie studios, labs etc. > > There are few open source apache modules like mod_NTLM, mod_auth_kerb.. > but > there is hell lot of problem in implementing those.. But the administrator needs to set this up only once but they feel that they don't need to bother with that because MS already offers stuff with everything pre-configured. And as stated previously, the lack of products on Linux (office, project management software) of comparable quality will impede the deployment of linux in those enterprises where such products are required. > > In my view, this should be a best case for taking it up as research > project > by ME students, who really want to do programming at system level > involving > cryptography etc.. > > Infact i used to say this to those students who ask me about final year > project.. Actually, the technology already exists. I would say that if these trainers were able to provide a single integrated linux-based solution for download using the best of breed products out there, it would help tremendously. > > On Linux as Desktop, we have to accept the reality that, how far linux has > evolved through ubuntu, it still lack the finesse of windows, which > inspite > of its crashes, is ruling the roost.. what is that special thing that > windows has as edge over linux.. I believe Linux is pretty solid and stable. I don't think that is what is causing any problems with its adoption. I think the problem is with the lack of apps and the integration of these apps as stated earlier. > > Is it possible for us to find it without locking ourseves to FOSS > ideology.. in my view, more than ideology, the purpose is important.. > and > here our purpose is NOT to uphold FOSS, but to improve FOSS to match the > microsoft's feature set.. many of the FOSS softwares exceed microsoft > based > products, but there are key areas where FOSS is really lacking.. Desktop > is > one such thing.. we need to understand the strengths and weakness of FOSS > vs MS to give MS a tough fight Good point. Regards, Prem _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
