[KLUG Advocacy] TCO Windoze vs Linux

[Adam Tauno Williams]

>By now I think everybody's heard of the Microsoft-commisioned "study" 
>that states that Total Cost of Ownership is lower with Windows servers 
>than Linux ones in most roles.  Ignoring the various false assumptions 
>that made such a result possible, the main reason they gave for this was 

I put TCO up there with phrenology, divination, and tea leaves.  It has far more
to do with your staff/skill mix than the actual technology deployed,  even if
that techonolgy sucks.

>the relative immaturity of Linux's management tools.  Can somebody who 
>knows them comment on this?  

I know, in spades.

>I've only worked as an IT person in 
>Microsoft environments, and I can say that while a GUI is nice to have, 
>management tools are not all that great on Windows.  Pre Windows 2000 
>they're downright awful. 

Agree.

>How bad are Linux tools?  

It depends.  If you have a directory enabled network (i.e. LDAP) there are some
really nice tools for manageing both users/groups and arbitrary information: 
DirectoryAdministrator, GQ, etc...  Otherwise management of accounts, e-mail
information, etc... is a bear.

RedHats printer configuration, DNS, and Apache virutal hosting tools are
top-notch, IMHO.

If you use Kerberos GNOME provides a very nice GUI for principle administration.

>Does it have 
>anything to match the tricks in Active Directory like remapping My 
>Documents to a server share and 

NFS automounting?

>assigning software packages to be installed as needed on workstations?  

There is kudzu for initial installation.  Remote installing an RPM is easy,
other than that I've never seen such a system work except in demonstration.