Re: MS SFU and Demonizing Sys Admin -- WAS: Xandros reviews

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 08:35, Danny Sauer wrote:
> Yeah, it's completely understandable for SA - "The journal for UNIX 
> systems administrators" - to have a giant advertisement for MS Windows 
> 2003 server containing an install disk (for 2K3 server - SFU is 
> something else you can download if you don't want cygwin's more current 
> versions of the same things or if you're sadistic enough to want a 
> windows NIS server) and a training disk plastered over the front of the 
> magazine, obscuring the list of articles that I actually wanted to see... :)
> I like SA (it's easily my favorite tech magazine), and understand that 
> "UNIX administrators" have to interoperate with (and sometimes maintain) 
> WinServers, but that giant MS ad just isn't what I expected in a 
> magazine whose target audience is not people who generally have good 
> feelings toward MS.  Esp. when the ad mostly describes how to migrate 
> away from those "legacy" *nix systems...  I'd expect the 3 or 4 SA 
> readers who are also interested in trying out 2K3 server to be able to 
> find the page at 
> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/trial/evalkit.mspx
> where they can download the ISO and get a registration number, anyway.
> --Danny, who personally doesn't run any MS "server" systems, because 
> they don't work best for his needs - they may work for others, though, 
> and that's just fine

Well, I guess "LinuxWorld" is "sold out" too, because Microsoft Services
for UNIX (SFU) has taken nominations and even an award in the past.

But I'm just an engineer.  Here's my SFU story ... (I hate doing this)

Back in 1998, the aerospace industry was largely Windows and Solaris,
plus VxWorks was the mainstay of the more embedded space, but little
Linux.  I was working with a major vendor who was porting their first
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) application to Linux.  I was working
on spec'ing one of the first Linux clusters to hit the aerospace
industry.

This was _before_ there were _any_ general OpenGL cards that had
high-performance Linux drivers (only either ultra-high-cost cards or
fairly low-performing generic drivers from 3rd parties), so we used a
Windows front-end.  A network filesystem was a requirement for a number
of capabilities.  Trying to use smbfs, mounting NT 4.0 over CIFS/SMB, we
quickly ran into POSIX issues -- from codepages to case sensitivity. 
Hummingbird's MaestroNFS server was also a file locking PITA.

I looked at the other options.  One was AccessNFS from Intergraph, which
was formerly Sun's PC-NFS.  Then I found out that Microsoft had just
recently released Services for UNIX (SFU) 1.0, which included both the
AccessNFS client _and_ server -- all for $149, with no additional client
access licenses (CALs).  That was a _huge_ savings over the AccessNFS
server.  And sure enough, although it was quite limited, it was stable
and reliable with Aerosoft's application.

I cut through the various political BS at my firm (long story -- my
company v. aerospace consultant v. CFD software vendor) -- I was just an
engineer who wanted to keep the schedule up.  Sure enough, SFU 1.0 did
the job.  And why not?  After all, the NFS client/server was just Sun's
old, trusted one.  I could care about getting an extra 30% performance
out of Hummingbird's Maestro NFS if the file locking was a constant
issue.

I got interviewed by Ziff-Davis and it hit eWeek.  The consultant and
vendors got an Aerospace Daily article.  We quickly found ourselves
among a growing interest in Linux for supercomputing clusters for
engineering solutions.  Then there was the SVLUG-Intel-semiconductor
industry shin'dig.  And Dell started offering Linux as a standard OS at
Intel's requirement not shortly afterwards (see a previous thread about
those MS-OEM issues ;-).

So if you really want to demonize Sys Admin, I don't really understand
it.  Especially after the nominations and awards SFU is getting from
conferences like LinuxWorld.  Yes, SFU doesn't do much compared to even
just MacOS X Server, let alone a _real_ Freedomware solution, but it's
not bad for Micrsooft.  So get off the Sys Admin demonizing, okay?

-- Bryan

DISCLAIMER:  I am _not_ a CMP employee.  Although I am infrequently
compensated for writing various articles for various CMP IT and
engineering magazines like Sys Admin, I _neither_ speak for them, _nor_
could I even do so.  But I don't like seeing stuff posted like this,
especially about a magazine I highly respect, from a publisher that has
been very good to both professionals like myself, and its readership as
well (which also includes me).

P.S.  Just FYI, I _hate_ to "toot my horn" because I prefer to be humble
-- but sometimes I've gotta do it to stick up for others.  I've only
been around LUCI/SILUG and it seems some people are quickly starting to
say, "just WTF does this guy think he is anyway?"  The _only_ reason I'm
on the LUCI/SILUG lists is because I came up to Bloomington, IL to work
at State Farm on a _major_ Linux integration project.  3 weeks into my
job, they canned it because of the SCO mess.  I then caught onto a much
higher position with State Farm's Bank enterprise security. 
Unfortunately, my contracting company double-screwed me over when that
happened (long story short, they realized the goldmine they had in me,
and renig'd on a lot of things), which is why I returned to Orlando
after 4.5 months (I cut my "contract," which I never really had,
short).  But I still like being a part of LUCI/SILUG.

P.P.S.  I'm on the digests now (at least for LUCI, SILUG doesn't seem to
offer one?) so I will not post in rapid thread succession like before. 
It will likely be only 1-2 posts per day, maximum, I promise!  ;-ppp


-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- Engineer, Technologist, School Teacher
b.j.smith@ieee.org



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