Charlesedwin
December 18th, 2009, 12:32 AM
The fight between Windows and Linux has been nearly as overhyped as a Don King venture in a monster Vegas arena, screaming fans included. In one corner, hard-core Microsoft fans avow Windows Seven as the comeback kid of the new century, rising above all previous problems with Windows Vista. In the other, Linux boosters claim the open-source operating system is poised to power the enterprise from stem to stern, trash-talking Microsoft's bloated code and licensing gotchas along the way.
The truth, unfortunately, is far less dramatic. The real battles take place in smaller venues, where Windows wins sometimes and Linux pulls off its share of victories with little fanfare.
On the Windows side, the release of Microsoft Services for Unix 3.5 has shown that Redmond is providing some semblance of integration with modern Unix systems. SFU's network information service and network file system services are reasonably complete, and its Unix tool set even includes Perl and the Korn shell. In fact, these tools will be officially distributed with Windows Seven.
Historically, if a few Linux servers existed in a Windows network, they were orphans handling a single task that had little relation to the services provided by Windows. Today, Samba 3 provides true integration with Active Directory, making it easy to configure directory-authenticated Linux Web servers, FTP servers, file servers and especially database and network management services.
The truth, unfortunately, is far less dramatic. The real battles take place in smaller venues, where Windows wins sometimes and Linux pulls off its share of victories with little fanfare.
On the Windows side, the release of Microsoft Services for Unix 3.5 has shown that Redmond is providing some semblance of integration with modern Unix systems. SFU's network information service and network file system services are reasonably complete, and its Unix tool set even includes Perl and the Korn shell. In fact, these tools will be officially distributed with Windows Seven.
Historically, if a few Linux servers existed in a Windows network, they were orphans handling a single task that had little relation to the services provided by Windows. Today, Samba 3 provides true integration with Active Directory, making it easy to configure directory-authenticated Linux Web servers, FTP servers, file servers and especially database and network management services.