I am an IT director looking to replace our aging network and am looking at using linux as a file server OS. The problems I am having is determing how other enterprises are using Linux and how have they configured them.
For instance, we have all heard the SCO has files suit against Chrysler and Auto Zone (I think) for using linux. How are they using it? Does everyone use Samba to provide file sharing? Is there something else? What about clustering what do we use for that?
Any body care to share?

Thanks

Rick

SCO filed suit against IBM for several things, but has since dropped all claims other than breach of contract. As such, the SCO vs. IBM litigation no longer has anything to do with Linux per se. The SCO suits against Chrysler and Auto Zone are in retaliation for those two companies discontinuing their use of SCO products and switching to Linux. The point of contention in the Auto Zone case is that SCO alledges Auto Zone improperly used unlicensed SCO libraries in order to facilitate their Linux applications. I'm not aware of the specific complaint vs. Chrysler.

It may be of some interest to note that all but one of SCO's investors have since sold their stock, or put it up for sale. Also, the association of retailers (who has significant concern, since many POS devices in retail stores run, or ran on SCO software) has publically stated that they believe the SCO litigation is without merit.

That being said, nothing is 100% certain, especially in the US legal system. The courts may find in some bizarre way that SCO may pursue individual suits against any company using Linux. You should seek qualified legal advice in the area of intellectual propterty and software licening if this concerns you.

As to how Linux is deployed in enterprises, it varies widely. Many, many companies run webservers and web applications on Linux. Some companies run databases, especially Oracle on Linux. Other companies use Linux as file server replacements on Windows networks, using Samba to serve the SMB/CIFS protocols for Windows clients. A place where Linux has frequently been delployed is on x86 hardware to replace legacy RISC systems with proprietary UNIX. This fills a variety of tasks, from web serving, NFS, DNS, gateway e-mail servers, proxy servers, etc and even legacy UNIX applications that have been or can easily be ported to Linux.

The important thing to keep in mind is that Linux is a tool, just like any other software. It should be used where and when it makes sense, to fufill specific tasks or roles to which it is suited.

Yes, we use Samba for file sharing. Yes, we use mt & tar for tape backups. Yes, we use cp -R over nfs to dump from the production server nightly to the backup server for the tapes during the day. Yes, we use IP tables for routing and firewalling between the Wireless Access Point and the LAN, although I doubt the signal is strong enough to make it outside of the factory walls. That's all I've been able to do in 3 months here. We don't do much internet stuff, but I have run web servers on linux before elsewhere.

We run oracle, db2, part of websphere, dns, monitor all our phone switches with linux, and several small servers running list servers, email servers etc.....

Thanks for your input. Looks like I will need to do some more reseach on software that will do what we need. Most of my workstations will be running windows XP or 2K so I am guessing we will need to use the samba program for file and printers. Tape backup and phone switch monitoring sound interesting.

We use Enterprise and Samba for file sharing and as pdc to xp and w2k CAD workstations, once researched it was fairly simple to set up. We also put a RH9 box in using Squid as a web proxy server. It has been a most enjoyable learning experience and the trust my bosses put in my judgement to go open source has paid off.

Thanks, WE also do CAD work here. I have not used any proxy setups as yet, I haven't seen or recognized a need for them as yet. I am however looking as Mailman(?) as a replacement for Groupwise and I am being asked about delivering e-mails to PDA's and wireless so I will need to investigate some of that also.

If you have GroupWise, you're probably already a Novell customer. You might look into Novell's NLS - maintain your investment in Novell. NLS has a linux base, (uses Samba, for example) but maintains Novell's ease of management, and provides mobility through ifolder, remote office.

Novell is offering $20 one-day seminars nationally introducing SUSE in general with a focus on integrating it with existing Novell products. Check their web site. I attended one earlier in the month. It comes with a free distro and a trial version of several tools.

I'm a administrator for a school system and am also new to linux. My question is how can I set up linux as a workstation to login to a windows PDC with out having local linux accounts.

I need to make linux login using a windows PDC just like my windows workstations do.

Can linux workstation login to a windows NT domain?

Small business here -- we use Linux for:

1. Samba file server for technical workstations running PC-DOS and Windows legacy apps required in our business.

2. Accounting server (proprietary accounting package).

3. In house mail server.

4. Two web servers.

5. Firewall, routing, DNS.

6. Thin clients and XDMCP/application server.

7. Print servers.

8. Specialized, industry specific, in-house developed/adapted intranet web services.

Perhaps most importantly, we are using Linux to eliminate per processor, per machine, per seat licensing costs and to reduce administrative overhead to the bare minimum.

Size of an operation imposes its own practical limitations on how inexpensively Linux can be deployed, but I think it is worthwhile to note that we have relied entirely on Debian and Slackware since Q3 2000, and have no intention of turning to any of the "supported" Enterprise Linux distributions such as RedHat ES or Novell/SuSE's new Enterprise product line.

Also worth noting that we're not running a business in the "IT" segment of the economy, and that there was/is no Unix background in-house, other than that gained through the process of initial investigation --> migration and ongoing administration. Along the way, we investigated FreeBSD as well, but standardized on Linux.

install Real VNC(VNC server on windown and VNC client on linux)
note : use VNC java on linux.


have fun

My business does cellphone game development and ringtone production. We use Linux for everything. We have Apache servers which pass dynamic requests to our Tomcat servers which grab info from our mySQL servers. Our file servers use Samba, our mail servers use postfix and we use Linux for our firewall.
Couldn't get a VPN setup though. Our network admin (me), president and distrobution manager all use Linux desktops too. Most of the other machines are OS X boxes which almost count as Linux!
We're trying to seriously expand our network though by use of clustering or whatever will work! Please check out my post here as I really need some insight for the future.
If you want to see some of the stuff we're doing and how it looks when it comes together you can visit us here!

im from turkiye. we use linux too :-)

especially i love squid and iptables so much. they r great.
bandwidth limiting per users is possible with squid and iptables with tc.
also it is possible to limit downloading for file type. i couldnt find these options in M$ ISA. also ISA often crashes. i think linux is very good on network.

i prefer qmail as mail server, samba for file and print sharing.
our company plans to move our database server from windowz to linux in the next year.

i am using a desktop environment to test bed Thrash, and other wise attempt to ruin apps and OS's. Your best bet is Red Hat
Surprise Surprise!!
or, in my personnal best, WhiteBoxLinux.org. try it. if you can't broadband to a mirror (like me. i can't)you can snail mail it home from www.edmunds-enterprises.com. , for 10 bux. it is rock solid, sound and extensible. and extremely easy to diddle with from rpms originating from SuSE, Mandrake, RedHat, Ximian, and of course, FreshRPMs (RH 9 and Fedora files).
luck -O.
edit: one caveat, mon amis---make damn sure you know what you're doing if you caress the kernel. whitebox is close enough to RedHat that it is just as unforgiving of clutzes.
luck -O.