Hi Guys,

I'm new to this community and i just have a basic Linux knowledge especialy Ubuntu+ UbuntuServer. I'm Studying IT its my last year and im working on a thesis called "Windows Vs Linux". I'm trying to setup a virtual company environment in windows and the same in Linux. I want to compare the both... what are the pros and cons from both operating systems, stability, Security, managability, TCO,... . I did some research and stuff but for the Linux part its not easy... So i have a few questions, hopefully I'm getting some response. First of all I'm thinking of using Ubuntuserver LTS as server side OS and for the workclients Mint or ubuntu. Is this a good distro choice ?

My second and i think its the hardest part of setting up a manageable Linux Company environment is an Active directory alternative that offers the same functionality in Linux. Is this possible ? Ok you have like openlDAP and stuff but thats just basic authentication password and shit, but do you have something like GPOS for Linux ?

I'm hoping someone can help me out a bit

Grtz

If you are comparing to a proprietary server like AD, why not Tivoli or Oracle?

OMG, how could all those unix networks exist without GPOS so long!
(for some things you can use samba)

check out what Suse or Redhat can offer.
thy sell server and desktop editions, I am sure they have something to solve your needs
and no one says that Linux has to cost nothing

an other thing you can think about is, possible you should not try to copy/emulate the windows way of solving things with the Linux/Unix environment because for a comparison the result will be not that valuable.
so before calling something shit you should possible find out how people work with the tools they use. maybe you find out that GPOS like in Windows are not always needed.

and of course ( ) you should use Slackware or something base on Slackware like http://www.microlinux.fr
central authentication is from time to time a topic in the Slackware forum
there have been recently discussions about central authentication, PAM and so on and there are people that said that is not required at all, so if you want to have some interesting discussions ... :-)