Billyboy-
I did a little research on Holaday before I posted my comments. They
have 100 employees in the heart of Minnesota, they manufacture printed
circuit boards, and their web page was created using Microsoft Frontpage
4.0. I understand where your frustrated comments are coming from, because
I understand where YOU are coming from as a systems administrator.
However, I find it very difficult to take advice from someone whos very
existence is dependant upon the particular company whose software they're
pushing. In the high-glamour world of MCSEs, the "needs or potential email
usage patterns" speech sounds great. In the real world, assumptions are
made, budgets are undercut, and profits increase. This, Billy, is called
business. And business is why you wake up in the morning. Now to someone
with all those acronyms after their name, this might not make sense. You
are also going to have to understand that whoever is in charge of the IT
budget at this company is not about to shell out money for a new server to
run Exchange when they can use the old one to run Domino.
As to the "people" who prefer Outlook over Lotus Notes...where do I
begin? I suppose I must start, again, with the acronyms following your
name. Billy, if you had a Novell Certification, you'd be ranting and
raving about Groupwise. Just because you went to 236 classes, read the
whitepages, AND subscribe to TechNet does not mean that Exchange provides
the best of anything. It just means that your job DEPENDS on it.
"Lefkovics, William" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 09/07/2001 12:14:46 PM
Please respond to "NT System Admin Issues"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "NT System Admin Issues" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cc:
Subject: RE: Exchange 2000
How can you suggest that those hardware specs would be good for 100 users
without knowing their company's needs or potential email usage patterns?
Your word: "perfect". Potentially adequate might be better.
WindowsXP is an excellent desktop for the business environment. The
additional features from Windows2000 do not provide a huge step, but things
like remote desktop built-in and the added commandline functions work very
well for some. That and Windows2000 will not be available OEM anymore, I
would suggest you get used to the idea of the activation feature, which is
totally painless in the corporate environment. More painless than Oracle,
Computer Associates, and the pre-XP Metaframe registration requirements.
As for your recommendation of Lotus Domino... if that's what you're used
to.
I just completed another migration from Lotus to Exchange and yet another
customer wonders why the hell they stuck with Lotus so long. Outlook
provides the best email client interface available. I've had clients
prefer
Outlook as their Lotus Domino email client!
Lotus used to have the largest market share for collaborative messaging
applications. They don't anymore. Can you guess who does?
Exploring your options is very good. "Best tool for the job" definitely.
So, do they need the collaborative functionality, or would PostFix on
OpenBSD or Sendmail on Linux for free be adequate?
William Lefkovics
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 6:19 AM
To: NT System Admin Issues
Subject: Re: Exchange 2000
Before you implement anything Exchange, I think it is in your best
interest, (as in that of your company, users, and IT staff) to look into
alternative E-mail platforms. My first suggestion would be Lotus Domino.
Their server software is more stable, easier to administer, and MORE SECURE
than any of the competetion I have seen. Also, the functionality of the
client software is far superior to anything e-mail coming out of Redmond,
WA. If your server that you mentioned is now idle and will be performing
ONLY email functionality, that is perfect for 100 users, and I would bet
you could squeeze in another 100. My suggestion for hard-disk space is a
mirrored system volume (2 disks). For the data, I would suggest allocation
100 meg for each user. Disk space is cheap, eat it up. Running 4 10 gig
drives RAID5 would be a beautiful thing. Buy 2 extra, just in case. I
would also recommend, if you want to upgrade desktops, to go with Windows
2000. Upgrading, loading, installing, whatever you want to call it, WinXP
could turn out to be a nightmare. Especially with Microsoft's new Product
Activation "feature". In a business environment, there is no reason, as
far as I have seen, to put WinXP on the desktop. Windows 2000 has proven
itself to me to be an adequate choice for end use.
I must stress again the importance of exploring your options. Just because
your OS says Microsoft on it doesn't mean your Backend product has to.
Nathan W.
Jim Mediger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 09/07/2001 09:03:02 AM
Please respond to "NT System Admin Issues"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "NT System Admin Issues" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cc:
Subject: Exchange 2000
We are looking at implementing Exchange 2000 and I have a few questions,
and
wanted advice from people who have had real world experience. We are
currently
running NT 4.0 Svr and Wkstn. I have setup a Windows 2000 Domain (still in
testing phase). We have about 100 users.
My Questions:
1. I have a PII with 2 300mhz processors and 384mb ram. Will this be ample
enough to handle Exchange 2000 and future growth? How much Hard Drive space
would you recomend?
2. We plan on Going from NT 4.0 to Windows XP. Can we connect to Exchange
2000
with the NT 4.0 Clients during the interim? Any issues I should be aware
of? Any
issues with WXP?
3. We have 50-60 users on Outlook 2002 with internet access etc., and 40-50
users on other clients (internal e-mail and intranet only). Does Exchange
play
well with other e-mail clients?
4. Any other Gottcha's, Do's, Don'ts? All advice will be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks,
Jim
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ntsysadmin_list_charter.htm
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ntsysadmin_list_charter.htm
