10 years on, the saga draws to a close...

[Dr. Z]

One crisp morning in 1997, when I was just 10 years old my dad returned home with a copy of Personal Computer World. It was an inch-thick volume of fascinating reading but the best bit was the CD on the front, for it contained two very special goodies - OS/2 Warp and Linux. OS/2 Warp didnt really seem appealing, so onto my 486 DX66 went Linux.

Since that day, I have been using Linux on and off on at least one of my PCs - predominantly on whatever I have been using as my server box. However, as the last 12 months have rolled on I have been asking more and more of it and gradually the rewards for the effort required have dwindled away. I know that quite a lot of it comes down to lack of knowledge in certain areas, but I live with a certified UNIX geek (he managed to talk his way into a placement in the Sun R&D thingamy) and even he has started to get annoyed.

To be fair to the underdog, we are asking an awful lot from it. We are asking it to route at wirespeed on a gigabit lan across multiple VLANS as well as handling all the rest of our crazy projects but its just letting us down

So, Linux will remain on my faithful router box handling all my silly networking projects but I will be moving to a windows server solution because it just works. OK, so I might not be able to tackle things in a command prompt/config file to iron out a crease with the speed and simplicity that I am used to with Linux, but at least I wont suffer from hugely annoying niggling issues that make no sense at all. My ubergeek housemate feels the same way. He lives on the top floor, I live 2 floors down on the bottom floor and even through 3 closed doors I can still hear the shouts of frustration as another stupid, stupid problem crops up.

As for my main machine - for me, Linux lost the current round of the "battle for the desktop" the day Vista was released. I am sat here looking at Vista with Ubuntu next to me and it looks as dated to me as windows 3.1 did alongside 95. Against XP it was a fair contender I felt - Its performance rocked and it wasnt lagging dreadfully in the visual stakes but vista has shifted things and, well, it will take a lot for me to move back again...

EDIT:

Hmm, the dates are wrong. I installed linux in 1997 onto that 486 box, but I distinctly remember getting Linux on CD shortly after (my parents) buying the machine, which would have been in 1994/5. So its a bit longer than 10 years...

[Garp]

Originally Posted by DRZ

To be fair to the underdog, we are asking an awful lot from it. We are asking it to route at wirespeed on a gigabit lan across multiple VLANS as well as handling all the rest of our crazy projects but its just letting us down

Huh? Why not use a router to do it if you're wanting fast speed? Use appropriate tools for appropriate jobs, surely?
I don't expect you'll get anything better out of Windows IMO. After all, Windows has well known issues handling the concepts of multiple gateways / subnets and addresses.

[Dr. Z]

Originally Posted by Garp

Huh? Why not use a router to do it if you're wanting fast speed? Use appropriate tools for appropriate jobs, surely?
I don't expect you'll get anything better out of Windows IMO. After all, Windows has well known issues handling the concepts of multiple gateways / subnets and addresses.

Show me a router that costs under £100 that can be totally customised to exactly what I want (when I want, from where I want) regarding VLANs, routing, tunnels, mac spoofing etc etc and I will save up and get one

For routing, its unbeatable (which is why I did say in my post it would be remaining). Its the "crazy projects" that its not so hot on.

[leowyatt]

I see what you are saying Martin. When I was at Uni I got into Linux in a huge way and it was the only system I ran. The furthest into Windows I got was running VMWare.

Since I've left Uni I was using an XP laptop with work but got myself an iBook. Now before people start bleeting on at me for getting one I'm passed all the hacking things to make them work I just want something that works and I don't have to worry about it. I do have BSD inside OS X so can still use my dwindling knowledge to do stuff if needs present but honestly I just can't be bothered with all that messing

EDIT: The reason I don't run Linux now is because I just simply can't be arsed, too much like hard work

[Daz]

but at least I wont suffer from hugely annoying niggling issues that make no sense at all.

You haven't worked with them for long enough I hope you never have to deal with DCOM permissions!

I couldn't do without either OS these days, both from a workstation and server point of view (though less so the latter when it comes to my home setup - linux covers that base fine).

BTW, if you want pretty, look at XGL. Had it running on my Laptop once, great stuff.

[petemc]

7 years ago when I was working at my Uni in their computing department the managers were contemplating a large scale desktop switch to Linux. Wave of the future n all that. At the time people were saying Linux will beat Windows. No-one who actually knew anything in the department knew that it wouldn't and thought the managers were crazy to want to swap. They didn't swap. 7 years later and while Linux is better, easier, nicer, with more compatibility with Windows programs, it just isn't able to top Windows as a desktop OS. As a server its great. As a desktop, no thanks. Unbuntu is very nice. Vista isn't a huge leap over XP imho but it does look a lot nicer than a default install of XP.

[Daz]

Originally Posted by petemc

it just isn't able to top Windows as a desktop OS.

In the western market of course. Eastern/Asian markets are dominated by open source example, hence the Windows starter editions out there.

So it can be done, but Windows foothold is too great in Europe, users are too familiar. I can see a slight shift with the release of Vista, having spoken to various business folk in various fields about it. A move to Vista will inevitably require large retraining costs for both users and support staff, and I know a few people who are looking at retraining with a view toward moving into a largely open source model.

Most wont be successful I bet, but a couple could be.

In any case Windows has it's own work to do ousting Linux in it's own back yard - web servers/services. Have to see what Longhorn server and IIS 7 brings on that front.