Traditionally a Linux server was a nightmare to administer. You needed to know the ins and outs of how the hardware and software worked and then had to remember complicated commands to get the system to do anything. With Windows it was much simpler – everything is done by wizards and windows which are easily found by navigating around the window based system – much simpler and you didn’t have to remember exact complex commands as everything was contained within the wizards. You also didn’t need an exact understanding of how things worked – just how to modify things to get them to do what you want. But how have things changed?
Well, our company is still using the same Linux server we were using 4 years ago – the second hand server only cost £75 back then and of course the Linux distro on it was free – with other networking bits and some hardware failure that means we’ve provided a small business network at a cost of around £50 per year. Any manager would be happy with that. But what about the administration – has my life been much harder keeping this bargain network up and running? Simply put – no.
I was just downstairs on the customer services floor and noticed one of the printers had stopped. This usually happens with that particular printer when it has jobs in the queue but hasn’t had any paper in it for a few days and the printer tells the linux server it’s gone offline. With a Windows server all you would have to do is to find a spare PC, load up a Remote Desktop session and check out the problem. With Linux – even easier.
In this case all I needed to do was get my iPhone out of my pocket, load up Safari, log into Webmin on the server using our wireless network and with a few clicks taps put the printer back online. Before I’d even had chance to put my phone back in my pocket the printer was spitting stuff out again.
How can anyone claim Windows is easier to administer than Linux?