Looking to play with Linux...

[Sirbendy]

I'd say Virtualbox on XP, with a linux VM if you're not sure of yourself, to be honest..not the other way about.

 

I dualboot my home rig between XPSP2 and Ubuntu Gutsy. Still got a bug with Nvidia though on Linux..gah.

[K.C.Leblanc]

I'll echo what people are saying about needing to use it everyday to get a feel for it.

 

I've had Linux on dual boots for years (I even once had 4 different OS installs on my PC) and I never ever bothering using it in the end.

 

Last time I had to rebuild my PC my XP disk disapeared off the face of the earth so I installed Linux instead. I now use it daily at home.

 

I use PCLinuxOS, ubuntu wouldn't play ball with my graphics.

Edited January 16, 2008 by K.C.Leblanc

[StuartC]

Big lesson learned by me this week.

 

Linux hates ATI

 

nuff said

[Geoff]

Indeed, I'm currently fighting with flgrx

[StuartC]

Finally got it set up. I now have OSX Leopard, Ubuntu 7.10 and Windows XP on my Macbook Pro. Full decent triple boot, with all devices working in all OS using refit as the boot manager. It's pretty sweet and worth the hard work and tears.

[Dantech]

Hi

 

I have spent the last year getting rid of a Linux system. Our main issue was that every time we opened a browser we had to authenticate, every time we accessed e-mail(squirrel mail) we had to authenticate. It was not untypical for most ofice staff and teachers to login at least twenty times a day. Squirrel has got be be the worst e-mail system I have ever used. I soon got rid and setup exchange server 2003 to tie in with the brand new Server 2003 AD that I put in as well. We now have single sign on to our whole system and even to SIMS. The only Linux I have now is a moodle server which runs two virtual servers on some version of Linux. This is supported by Webanywhere and I am totally dependent on them for support. It took the Linux Guru about 3 weeks on and off to get single sign on working with moodle but it does work well. The problem is that my moodle server is just a glorified PC with a standard Gigabyte Mobo and a single PSU and I notice how slow it is compared with my HP kit. I regret not paying more for an HP server now.

 

[localzuk]

I'd have to say that your issues with Linux are down to one thing, your not knowing the system. Personally, I'd have been right at home in that system, and would have created methods of single sign on for the systems myself. Also, whilst squirrelmail is a bit ugly, it is very easy to alter to do what you want. You could've used Horde and IMP instead, which would've tied in nicely and looked nicer. Or there is roundcube, or a whole host of other choices.

 

I'd say that with proper training, your old solution would've been a more sustainable one than your new one. And in the long run, cheaper.

 

But then, that's just me.

Edited October 30, 2008 by localzuk

[Dantech]

Hi

 

I agree - my knowledge of Linux was virtually nil. But who has the time to learn all the nuances of Linux - I don't. To change a students password meant changing three passwords in a DOS type screen. In AD its so simple. My technician had used it for three years and now he does not want to go back. Education is about achievement and Linux just wouldn't link easily with any of the developments that we were planning.

 

I'm not totally against Linux - it is stable. I just think there are too many distros and too many things like drivers which don't work. Also we were totally depending on a third party to do everything in Linux and he would not tell us how to do things unless we asked because he knew that he would do himself out of a contract. In the end he did that anyway. Also our county can provide no support for Linux (or Vista for that) and when they brought in Netsweeper which had to be integrated in our AD I don't know what we would have done with the old linux system. We would have had no internet access at all!

 

If I have time I will re-install one of our Linux boxes and use it as a proxy server, but to be honest I would rather learn Sharepoint and Server 2008 which are of much more use to me.

Edited October 30, 2008 by Dantech

[powdarrmonkey]

But who has the time to learn all the nuances of Linux - I don't. To change a students password meant changing three passwords in a DOS type screen.

 

 

I do. I jumped the Windows ship at home a couple of years ago, which is the only way to really do it. Immerse yourself, and it'll happen. I don't exactly have spare time - I work full time all year, and most evenings too elsewhere. If I can do it, so can anyone else - my mother included, of who I'm very proud. But she's had to put the effort in too, she doesn't just expect it to work - she tries to understand why and how.

 

Your rewards with Linux are closely tied with how much effort you're prepared to put in.

 

That said, I'm inclined to agree with you about Active Directory. It's a big mystery under the hood but it does work well and it's childs play to work with. The hurdle tends to be that there aren't really any graphical GNU/Linux tools for managing it - if we could solve that (or I'm wrong and someone can point me) it would be half the battle.

 

It sounds a lot like your individual systems weren't integrated, which they certainly could have been (AD is based on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, LDAP, which has its roots in Unix). I guess your original architects didn't appreciate the environment as a whole, they just made each bit work.

 

Incidentally, distros are about choice. Research well and don't be afraid to change it if you're sure it's the distro you don't like. The major ones (RHEL, Debian and its kids, Slackware, Gentoo and Mandriva) have very good package sets, far more software than is available to Windows, and support networks with many users, a lot of whom will go out of their way to help you.