Eric wrote: > One major disadvantage with Linux (and unix-like OSs in general) is how > file and directory permissions are managed. Unix started out as a research > project, and the simplistic permission settings are indicative of this. > With Netware you can tailor permission settings to suit your needs. I would have to agree with this. NDS/eDirectory also makes it very easy to set permissions on all sorts of devices, directories, and file systems through a very well designed GUI that runs on (generally) a Windows client. This is probably NetWare's strongest area, and where they really add value. Microsoft's Active Directory is an attempt to copy what Novell has done, and, IMHO, this is one area where NetWare is still ahead. > In my experience Netware performs well as a file and print server, if it > is administered by someone who knows the product well. Again, I would agree 100%. Here is the caveat, and the main reason I advise most people who are not already Novell shops against NetWare. There is a relatively steep learning curve for anything beyond basic system administration, and there are a lot of system tuning issues to get NetWare just right on your network. Going with NetWare guarantees that you are in a multiplatform shop since it doesn't, for the most part, serve apps at all. It also means buying additional NetWare client(s) for your enterprise backup solution, system/network monitoring solution, and so on. This means a generally substantial investment in proprietary third party software for any shop big enough to really benefit from Netware's strengths. It also generally means a substantially higher investment in IT personnel, since you are now paying for an additional skill set. I should also add that NetWare, in and of itself, isn't exactly cheap. Oh, and don't even get me started on GroupWise vs. Exchange. As much as I despise Exchange, I can tell you endless stories about GroupWise that aren't exactly complimentary. As you get to larger enterprise mail systems Novell always recommends throwing massive amounts of hardware at GroupWise, too. The resources needed to support, say, 6,000 users dispersed across multiple sites are just horrendous, even compared to Exchange. In my last job we supported, oh... 6,000 users across multiple sites, so my comments are based on hard experience. Three full time GroupWise admins still needed help from us network engineers *all the time*. What a nightmare! JB wrote: > Netware 6, upon its release will add some functionality > that has been missing, as well as some manageability issue. That may be so, but every Netware x.0 release I am aware of has been terribly buggy, even more so that most Microsoft releases. Novell always gets it right eventually, but I always advise people to steer clear of any MS or Novell x.0 release. > If I were given the choice, Novell over Windows, I would have to say Novell. Prior to Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 1, I would have agreed. Now I don't. Novell offers very few advantages now that Microsoft actually has something stable out there. Win2K is a lot more manageable and flexible in an enterprise environment than NT 4.0 was, and it is definitely *much* more stable. OK, it's also more complex and a resource hog, but that is true of NetWare 5 as well. > But Novell over Linux would definitely be a toss up, and many factors > would have to come into play. I don't know how you can rate one vs. the other without knowing precisely what Walt (or his company/customer) are trying to do. How big is the network? What is it being used for? What other NOSs are on the network, and which need to stay no matter what do to applications being run? Do they have Terminal Server/Citrix in place (which Novell cannot serve directly)? Do the have UNIX/Linux IT talent on staff already, and would they have to hire new or learn from scratch migrating to Novell? Budget factors have to be taken into consideration in most business environments, too. I also believe that businesses have to take the marketplace into account too, and sometimes that overweighs purely technical considerations, unfortunately. If NetWare is only slightly more suitable or slightly better for their environment, but is losing ground badly in the marketplace, what kind of a future does it have and is it worth investing in? Once upon a time I was OS/2 certified, and I really, from a technical perspective, liked a lot of what IBM was doing. I had to be realistic, though, when Warp 4 failed to catch on to any real extent, and advise my clients away from it. As it was I put far too many into OS/2 2.11/LAN Server and Warp 3.0 (and subsequent upgrades) and they ended up in a technological cul-de-sac. It didn't matter that OS/2 may have had some real superiority from a technical standpoint. They still felt they had to replace it, and they blamed the consulting firm, which I happened to own up until December of 1994. The firm continued to tout OS/2 until 1996 or 1997. The folks who bought the business from me (my former partners/employees) couldn't keep most of those OS/2 customers. Yes, NT 3.1 was a joke. 3.5 was scarcely better. Still, we should have seen what Microsoft would be able to do in terms of marketing and invested in making it work. We didn't, even when 3.51 was clearly reasonably stable and beginning to capture the market. They paid a heavy price. Novell, from a purely technological standpoint, still has some real strengths. In other areas both Microsoft and *nix have passed it by. Even if, all other things being equal, I like Novell a bit better, I still wouldn't advise anyone to buy it today. It has a shrinking installed base, sales mainly to existing customers, and very little mind share among corporate or even IT executives who, invariably, make the decisions in large companies. (No, I am not defending suits, just stating reality as I see it.) I hate to say it, but NetWare is the next OS/2: sound technology lacking decent marketing equals a slow and painful demise. It's just my opinion, and it's worth exactly what you paid for it, but Walt and everyone else, if you are not already heavily invested in NetWare, avoid it like the plague. I'd like to think that the future belongs to Linux. If not, at least it will be shared by Linux and Microsoft, at least until the "next big thing" comes along. All the best, Caity (speaking only for myself) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Caitlyn M. Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Systems Analyst (919) 541-4441 Lockheed Martin (a contractor for the US EPA) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ techtalk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linux.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/techtalk
