[plug] Linux/Win2000 feature comparison guide

[Jeremy Malcolm]

I don't think this has been mentioned on this list before, but I found
it on a CD from Micro$oft and I was surprised at how relatively
even-handed it is.  Most of the points that Micro$oft makes are things
that Linux advocates would probably concede, although they would
disagree that they are all disadvantages.  For example Micro$oft makes a
point of how Linux is made up of open source components from disparate
sources.  You can't argue with that, but you can argue over whether it's
a disadvantage of Linux over Win2000.

Also, Micro$oft doesn't make any reference to the fact that Linux is
free (in the beer sense).  This is the carrot that initially attracts
most people to it, before they are converted over to the philosophical
cause (ie. that it is free in the freedom sense).  When I started using
Linux I had no money so I couldn't afford to buy Micro$oft products
(well, not legally anyway).  Now, I can afford Micro$oft products, but I
choose not to do so; I prefer to spend my computing budget on
standards-based hardware.

Here is the executive summary of the Micro$oft paper with respect to Red
Hat Linux 6.0:

"Outside of Management Services, Red Hat Linux 6.0 generally provides
extremely strong core feature-sets in most major customer deployment
scenarios. However, because the majority of the operating system has
been put together utilizing a wide variety of unrelated open source
components, it falls short of providing customers with an integrated or
easy-to-use solution. As such, the majority of the operating systems
services lack common management interfaces and security infrastructure,
making system administration at times a difficult task. In addition,
many pieces of core functionality are not included in the base product -
such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) data encryption support - and must be
acquired, installed, and configured separately, further complicating
tasks for system administrators. In addition, although a large number of
graphical administration tools are provided, most advanced configuration
or administration tasks still require direct editing of configuration
files or the use of command-line utilities, a burden that demands
administrators with considerable UNIX skills and expertise. Finally,
many key features are lacking including large system scalability,
fail-over clustering, load balancing services, integrated component
model for building distributed applications, distributed file system,
user data and settings management infrastructure, and a hierarchical
directory service.  

File and Print Sharing. In terms of standards support, Red Hat Linux 6.0
provides a usable feature-set for file and printer sharing. All major
standards are supported including NFS, SMB, AppleShare, and (optionally)
NetWare for file sharing. Unfortunately, lack of integration between
services, difficult administration, and sub-standard implementations
(especially in the SMB arena) potentially hinder its usefulness to
customers. 

Networking and Communications. Red Hat Linux 6.0 provides full support
for the TCP/IP, IPV6, IPX/SPX, and AppleTalk protocol suites.
Interoperability with other environments is excellent with no
significant client compatibility or deployment issues. Although IPV6 is
not in use today, Red Hat Linux 6.0 is the only solution of the three
evaluated in this paper to contain support for the IPV6 protocol suite
today. A relatively feature-complete remote access feature-set is
provided, but is exceptionally very difficult to use because it relies
on many non-integrated components. Routing support is strong and
features among the best TCP/IP routing protocol support of the three
solutions evaluated; unfortunately, configuration is  overly complex.
VPN support is very poor; no single VPN solution is provided, requiring
customers to look to third-party solutions. Finally, hardware device
support is also quite limited, making it somewhat difficult to use
non-standard network hardware in Red Hat Linux systems. 

Application Services. Red Hat Linux 6.0 provides an infrastructure for
developing Web applications including PHP3 scripting, CGI, FastCGI, and
Java Servlets. Aside from this, application services support is very
weak. Scalability is not easily achievable; SMP and large memory support
are very sub-standard when compared to either of the Microsoft
solutions. In addition, no distributed component model is integrated
within the operating system, hampering developers seeking to author and
deploy distributed applications on the Red Hat Linux platform. Finally,
no availability or load balancing clustering services are available in
non-experimental forms, making Red Hat Linux 6.0 a somewhat poor choice
for hosting mission-critical applications. 

Internet Services. Red Hat Linux 6.0 provides an extremely strong
Internet services implementation. Its integrated FTP, SMTP, and NNTP
implementations are considerably more feature-rich than the included
services in either of Microsoft’s solutions. HTTP services support is
also strong, supporting all of the latest standards including WebDAV.
The inclusion of caching Internet proxy services, which is an optional
feature on both Microsoft solutions, is also an added benefit. However,
despite a strong feature-set, Red Hat’s solution is beset by integration
difficulties. Many key components - such as SSL data encryption - are
not standard and need to be acquired separately. Configuration for all
Internet services is separate and requires a great deal of expertise,
potentially raising administrative costs. Finally, content management
support is also not particularly strong; no integrated content indexing
is provided and log file support is not standardized between services or
as comprehensive as either of the Microsoft solutions. 

Management Services. Management services in Red Hat Linux 6.0 are
especially weak. The combination of Red Hat’s own graphical management
utilities and Linuxconf provides an impressive user interface that is
relatively easy-to-use. Unfortunately, for all but the simplest
administration and configuration tasks, system administrators must
revert to either direct editing of configuration files or command-line
utilities to perform all but the simplest of administration and
configuration tasks. In the area of software distribution and
management, KickStart provides a vehicle for remote operating system
installation. The Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) provides an excellent
vehicle for managing software on a local machine; unfortunately its
capabilities do not extend to centralized software package distribution
and management over a network. Directory services fare poorly in
comparison with Active Directory, as the UNIX account database is
non-hierarchical or extensible and works on a local machine basis only.
NIS provides a means to implement a shared user account database between
machines, but still does not provide a platform on which directory
enabled applications can be constructed. Desktop and user data
management services are not provided in any capacity. Security and
authentication support is somewhat feature-complete; unfortunately most
of the features must be acquired separately and considerable effort is
required to properly configure them."

--
Independent consulting solicitor* | _ .__ ._ _    |\/| _.| _ _ |._ _
and technology consultant.**    \_|(/_|(/_| | |\/ |  |(_||(_(_)|| | |
Personal site: http://malcolm.wattle.id.au     /   Finger for GPG key
* http://www.ilaw.com.au ** http://www.terminus.net.au jm at ilaw.com.au