Squip Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 First things first let me apologise for a really noobish open-ended question (the type of question that I usually hate). In all honesty I only know the absolute basics of Linux. I understand that almost everything is done through the terminal/SSH, that it much more stable then Windows but less GUI friendly, and that installing Samba kind of bridges the gap between Windows and Linux protocols etc. I really like the idea of delving into Linux more but aside from a much more reliable DNS, DHCP, Web server and FTP server I am really struggling to see how it could benefit an IT setup. I suppose my end question is.. what do YOU use Linux for/how does it benefit your IT setup?
markwilfan Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 We use it on most of our webservers. CentOS just rocks! :end:
webman Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 Linux is freely-available, and unless you want a support contract, you can download and install it on as many machines as you want at no cost. It's already ahead of Windows and Mac OS in terms of initial outlay. aside from a much more reliable DNS, DHCP, Web server and FTP server I am really struggling to see how it could benefit an IT setup. You just mentioned a lot of its strengths there, but additionally, a properly-configured server can be more secure than a comparable Windows box, and is likely to give you much less hassle in terms of updates and maintenance. Some software just runs better on *nix systems than it does on Windows - such as some of the services you mentioned above. System requirements are usually lower and more tolerant than Windows. For example, you could easily put old machines to good use, or you won't need to spend as much on new hardware. You could also cluster servers together, or run network RAID, if you wanted to create a super-computer or enhance the reliability of a server cluster. There are probably some other benefits that I've just plain forgotten, but hopefully the above is good for starters...
mdench Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 we use it for the following - smoothwall (based on centos) - virtual cluster (cloudstack on ubuntu) - disk to disk backup (backuppc on ubuntu) - dhcp - webservers x 3 in failover (apache on ubuntu) - phone system - CCTV (zoneminder on ubuntu) - file servers it just works soo much better than windows
Chris_Cook Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 We run it in various embedded and server roles such as securus, our staff proxy, our digital signage server, and our staff sign in terminals. I got a bit fed up with it on the desktop. To many issues weren't getting fixed, whilst the bits i liked they kept on changing - I really liked KDE 2/3, until they 'fixed' it in version 4. I've still got a bug report open about a wifi adapter that hasn't been fixed in over 5 years. One of the big benefits to me when I was a student was that it was free, and there were lots of good development tools on it. Now i get paid, I can afford windows, and there are much better tools on windows than 10 years ago.
dhicks Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 what do YOU use Linux for/how does it benefit your IT setup? You can run Linux virtual machines in paravirtualised mode, where the VM knows it is running as a VM and can be run more efficiently. My home system currently gives each VM 512 MB of RAM and seems to run fine, and that's with a domain controller, file server, remote access desktop server, etc. I've not had a chance to compare paravirtualised Xen VMs with Windows VMs running under a system that can share identical sections of RAM between VMs (I think VMWare can do this), and I see that Windows Server 2012 now actually defaults to a GUI-less install, so your average Windows Server VM should start taking less resources. The software RAID facilities under Linux are excellent - you can swap disks around and reinstall the whole OS withour loosing your RAID array, LVM and mdadm are good, powerful tools. Performance can be an issue, especially when it comes to larger arrays of newer, larger harddrives - FreeBSD's support for ZFS is an improvement on Linux. Linux's supoport for block-level deduplication and snapshots is rather poor at the moment, too - LVM snapshots get slower the more of them you do, and all the deduplicating filesystems I've seen have been experimental FUSE-based systems, not ready for actual use. With the new Samba 4, you can have a domain controler and not have to pay for CALs for each Windows workstation you join to your domain. My Samba DC has worked very well so far, I'll be doing more things with it in the near future. Also with Samba, you can add triggers to a Samba file share to execute code on file updates / creation / deletion / etc. It seems to be easier to do this for Samaba shares than on Windows ones, or maybe it's just that Linux is better documented in this regard. If you write an application of some kind that you wish to distribute as a self-contained server (or even sell as part of a server package), you don't have to worry about licensing or messing around with serial numbers and so forth. You can simply write your server-based application and distribute it as a VM image or however you wish.
free780 Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 Zentyal is good to learn things. It has a web gui.
CyberNerd Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 Linux runs our windows servers !!- it does top end virtualization for next to no money ( we pay for support ). We also use it to share files with Windows servers (faster, cheaper, better supported and more options than you get with windows) We use Linux on desktops and laptops: easy to centrally deploy, manage and maintain. We use Linux for server management, network management. Is there anything Linux doesn't do?
rich_tech Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 I would say try it out for yourself really, its better you get an idea for it by having a go OS distros are a good place to start with the "popular" ones being listed here - DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. I would recommend trying Ubuntu/Fedora/Centos
localzuk Posted February 23, 2013 Posted February 23, 2013 We use it for: Web servers Reverse Proxying Asterisk/FreePBX Phone system Server monitoring (nagios/cacti) Mysql Database hosting
3s-gtech Posted February 24, 2013 Posted February 24, 2013 We use it for: Web servers Imaging via FOG Squid proxy Virtualisation (ESXi) Was used for Xibo but we moved that to IIS to remove a physical server Email hosting
gshaw Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 It's great for running open-source products on the LAMP stack - more stable and less resource hungry than Windows for web platforms. Also lots of good firewall appliances such as Smoothwall and pfSense
LeMarchand Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 One use not mentioned above (that I noticed!) that I'm about to start trialling is using older hardware to provide "internet terminals". Got BrowserLinux running on a Dell GX60 with 512MB RAM and it all starts up MUCH faster than the XP image that it originally used. Just need to see if it will actually be used.
twin--turbo Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 Home ------- Daily Laptops. ( Ubuntu ) Music Media Server ( VortexBox ) File Server ( SLES ) TV PVR ( MYTHBuntu ) Web Servers(s) ( IPSconfig on Ubuntu ) Work ------- Web server(s) ( ISP Config 3 ) Helpdesk Server ( SLES LAmp Stack ) Mail relay ( spam/malware ) on ClearOS Securus ( Runs on Ubuntu IIRC ) IPTV ( Onelan ) Digital Signage ( OneLan ) Telephony (CISCO Call Manager) Virtual Hypervisors ( Citrix , ESX ) CCTV ( Zone Minder on SLES ) Captive Portals for BYOD ( pFsense ) ISCSI stoarage Server ( Open Filer ) probably more..... Rob
twin--turbo Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 P.S... been using Linux since 1996. Implemented Squid Proxy in school in 1999 when a dual 64Kb ISDN line was not enough Rob
ronanian Posted February 25, 2013 Posted February 25, 2013 Linux is a rock-solid, no-fuss server OS for my Oracle server, one of my web servers, and a couple other servers. It makes my job easy. In some contexts Windows provides more compatibility, ease of configuration for advanced stuff, features, etc, but Windows is what makes my job busy. It's funny, while my co-workers can handle Windows stuff and know almost nothing about linux, it's really Windows that keeps me in a job -- and modern Windows servers run way better than those of the past. I've been using linux personally since around 1994 and professionally since 1999 or so. I've been in and out of fanaticism and at this point I care little for proselytizing, I just like to use the best tool for the job, so Linux fills certain niches and Windows is used elsewhere.
Si2100 Posted March 28, 2013 Posted March 28, 2013 Ive been using Linux about 2004ish - Always Stuck with Ubuntu, Although ive played with CentOS, Debian, Arch and Fedora Desktop. I Have Linux Servers at home, which run over a ESXi Hpyervisor. Running a 2TB Media Server, and hopefully (over easter) a Games and Web Server, I Also have plans, to move away from my crappy netgear router, and implement, either a virtual or dedicated software router - running Ubuntu LTS with DHCP Capability and a couple of WAPs around the house - but that's more long term project.
Squip Posted April 7, 2013 Author Posted April 7, 2013 I know it's a bit late but I thought I should probably update on my progress.. I started small and bought myself a Raspberry Pi and a fairly comprehensive book on Linux. Whereas I used avoid most things to do with Linux it was only because I knew very little about it. I feel like I almost know it inside-out and have found many uses for it. Thanks to all for the insight
mdench Posted April 7, 2013 Posted April 7, 2013 Good to hear there are so many things you can do with it and it the list will keep growing
jinnantonnixx Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Good for you! Linux knowledge is scalable (from the Pi up to datacentre servers) and future-proof. I still have manuals from old Xenix/286 systems from the 1980s. These are relics, but the the command syntax and examples are still current.
Ephelyon Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Not to rain on any parades but pfSense is actually based on FreeBSD. It does look very interesting though; if I ever find myself without a wireless controller that can provide captive portals I'll definitely take a look. The same rule for a migration applies as much to Linux and FOSS in general as it does to anything else: don't do it for the sake of it. You need a reason to change things. Having said that, most of the responses so far have highlighted some very good reasons for doing so, but if you're going to switch the majority of your back-end system over to FOSS, make sure the school is aware they may need to recruit at a higher salary level next time in order to find someone with strong Unix management skills (another hidden cost of FOSS as these people tend to cost more - some notable exceptions though!)... Also be aware that if you rely heavily on Group Policy to manage user restrictions, software deployments and the like, then Samba is nowhere near as functional as a Windows DC (though other packages for managing software are available).
CyberNerd Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Also be aware that if you rely heavily on Group Policy to manage user restrictions, software deployments and the like, then Samba is nowhere near as functional as a Windows DC (though other packages for managing software are available). In what way? Are you comparing samba3 or samba 4?
Ephelyon Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 (edited) Samba 4 is undoubtedly a marked improvement (in that it actually supports GPOs), but some are known to be dodgy (folder redirection for one). Edited April 8, 2013 by Ephelyon
ConradJones Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Never worked in windows so thats an authentic emulation
Ephelyon Posted April 8, 2013 Posted April 8, 2013 Most of our user folders depend on it... it is possible to get it working.
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