[plug] Linux-based ISPs and TCO

[Leon Brooks]

I went through iiNet on their last open day (and have two of their handout 
bottle-openers to prove it if anyone wants one), and saw a lady using PINE in 
a PuTTY window on her Windows box talking to a Linux server - resisting 
pressure from management and peers to switch to Outlook. I also saw one 
web-developer in an adjoining office, pointedly using a full-screen Linux 
session and screen(1) on the Windows box he was forced by office policy to 
use.

Today, this memory was revived by this comment:

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2003-04-03-006-26-OS-BZ-SW-0003

    I use Linux in an educational environment that needs to be live 24/7
    for 9 months at a time. Last year I took the next step and switched
    from an ISP that uses windows to one that uses BSD, because the
    windows based ISP was responsible for 90% of my systems
    unavailablity. Even though my systems had a near perfect record for
    reliability, the windows based ISP was the culprit.

...which was in turn a response to this:

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2003-04-03-006-26-OS-BZ-SW-0001 
[brackets in original]

    If time is money, then I'm saving my employer a small fortune by
    replacing our Windows "servers" with real Linux servers. A couple
    months ago. Or has it been longer? 

    [checks server uptimes -- 51 days on the web server (since the last
    power outage; we put it into action a month prior), 56 days on the
    DHCP server (it was on its own UPS, so survived the power outage),
    and 79 days on the print/file server (it was put into action before
    all others, and was also on its own UPS).]

    I had forgotten about that print server, which is indicitive of how
    much time I have to spend maintaining it. Once a Linux system is
    configured, it can be lost in the server room. [...etc...]

    The DHCP server is the only one that doesn't see much action (it
    currently only serves a few machines in a test network; next week
    it replaces our Windows DHCP server to serve 600 simultaneous
    users because the Windows server [surprise] requires frequent
    attention).

    With every new Linux server that replaces Windows, my available
    time to develop our in-house software rises accordingly. The
    initial time and effort needed to learn about configuring Linux
    services pays extraordinarily dividends -- far greater than the
    time spent doing the configuration.

Cheers; Leon