[plug] LINUX IS ONLY FOR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS

[Rob Hall]

On Sun, 31 Jan 1999, you wrote:

>LINUX IS ONLY FOR SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS, AND PEOPLE OF THAT ILK.

I think that in it's present form Linux is ideal for  business installs.  You
can setit up so that it can't be tampered with, it's reliable and fast.  Best
of all it's remotely administrable - the SA needent even getout of his/her
chair and admin the whole network (even remote sites).  I can't think of
anything that I can't do via telnet.

It can be a bit daunting for a beginner - but then most OSs are.  I feel
documentation is a bit to blame in that it's generally too technical for most
users.  This is partly because Linux is so flexible.  The are a million ways to
skin a cat with Linux.

It's taken me a while to get the hang of it - it's a completely different
midset than Windows - but it is well worth it (for me anyway).  What I like
most is that even though I may have trouble getting something to work, once I
find the command for it, it works first time and never seems to fail.  Unlike
Windows where you can have 2 machines set up identically and one refuses to
broadcast on the network and the other does.  You then spend the afternoon
uninstalling and reinstalling drivers etc until it finally works.

The big thing that I love most about Linux is that I can't think of anything
where I would need to reboot the machine.  You've only got to fart in the
direction of Windoze and it needs a reboot.  (Incidently, NT which is
supposed to be a server Ha Ha Ha - can I stop laughing now! - seems worse
that W95/8 here.  Even if you try changing the binding of your dialup adapter to
com 1 insead of com 2 you will need to reboot... pathetic really.)  This is a
plus for remote admin.  You can change a setting on the server or a workstation
and then restart that service in a matter of seconds.  No one even knows that
you've been playing around.

I'd say don't give in too soon on Linux.  It is a steep learning curve.  But
once you've had a bit of a taste, you won't want to go back.


Rob Hall