This article is from 1998 about a Linux installation in 1995!
The machine was a 386 with 4 meg of memory. Linux came on 40+ floppies. We only had dialup to the net and I had to setup both sendmail and nntpd to use uucp, something that as far as I know doesn’t even exist anymore.
The point is, DON’T COMPARE TODAY’S LINUX EXPERIENCE TO THIS ONE!
Though, unless you’ve actually used Exchange, it’s still way more work to setup a Linux box to do everything exchange gives you out of the box. Not just email but shared folders, shared calendars, permissions allowing an assistant to mail for you, integrated newsgroups, etc, etc, etc… One you install, type in a domain name and it’s all working. The other you’ll configure for hours if not days and still never get all the functionality of exchange. Ever wonder why the topic of an open source replacement for exchange somes up on slashdot every few months? Because sadly there still isn’t one.
Please don’t flame me for this. I’m only pointing out one data point, mine but this is my experience with Linux.
I installed Linux as an e-mail server in my company. I used sendmail. Linux was free, I put in on an old 386 I had so that computer was practically free. I bought 3 or 4 $50 books about linux and another 3 or 4 about sendmail, uucp and nntp.
I set it up, it took 3 weeks for me to get it stable.
Price:
| Linux | $0 | |
| Computer | $0 | |
| My Time | 3 weeks * 5 days a week * 8 hrs a day * $50 an hour =$6000 |
|
|
SUBTOTAL |
$6000 |
A year later I got a budget and we "upgraded" to a Dell server and MS exchange version 5.0 (at the time). It took about 2 hours to install and 1 $200 call to Microsoft.
Price:
| Exchange: | $3000 | |
| Server | $3000 | |
| Time | 2hrs * $50 per hr = $100 | |
| Call 2 Microsoft | $200 | |
|
SUBTOTAL |
$6300 |
So, at least in my experience the price was about the same but there’s more.
You could argue that Linux actually cost more for the following reasons:
- I spent 3 weeks installing Linux instead of 3 weeks developing software. That put me 3 weeks behind schedule and 3 weeks of lost opportunities.
- My employees had no e-mail for 3 weeks. Lost productivity (or maybe that’s actually less distractions
- Linux crashed when one of the employees filled the hard drive by forwarding himself 1 gig of usenet porn. Add another 3 days of maintanence or $400 to the Linux cost (Linux doesn’t like a full hard drive)
- With Exchange, for the 2 hour install I got NNTP support both in and out, POP3 support, IMAP suppport and E-mail access from the Web. I also got very usable public folders and other goodies like electronic scheduling and stuff. Most of that I did not get with Linux. It may be available for free somewhere but finding it and configuring it would have made the Linux solution even more expensive. I did get NNTP working but since at that time there were no News/E-Mail integrated applications nobody used it and it is arguable not as capable as Exchange folders.
I’m not saying Linux is bad but until somebody provides a support line where for $200 a call they will QUICKLY solve my problems I’m going to stick with Microsoft. I don’t think that is likely to ever happen since there are so many different parts to Linux by so many different people I think it would be nearly impossible to run a company that tried to understand and support all that stuff. I do hope it happens though.
You may have to set up a specific computer using Citadel. I don’t trust any Virtual Machines/Servers so try it with a clean install of OS without VM. I have employeed this for several months and the SuSE server that is running (10.1) has been up without a problem for 100+ days with around 20 users connected to Citadel. This server also is a backup file, PDC, DHCP, and a few other services with client machines attached and other servers across the internet attached for Citadel.
Good stuff. Keep trying…
As a shortterm price, if you did muck around for three weeks I guess it did cost the same, It took me a while to learn linux as well. How come you were willing to spent $200 on a support call to Microsoft but never spent any $$ on a support person to help you with linux when you realised it was going to take a while?
Anyway if you were to project these prices into the future, you have now learnt to install a linux mail server, your time cost is going to go down dramatically, wheras microsoft are never going to lower their licence fees to you so that will stay at a fixed static cost. you will definately be saving several grand even just on your second installation.
So even if you did take that time to learn, your saving yourself lots of $$ in the long run.
But if its only the shortterm $$ that matters then i guess pointing and clicking all the way into gates pocket is for you.
i think your company needs to invest there money on a better admin
Hi
i do understand that this is an old article… 1998 i think? but seriously…
sendmail hasnt really changed that much since 1998, even in 2007…
either way…installing exim or postfix on a freebsd system is pretty much as old school as installing linux in 1998. what were you doing for 3 weeks????
the most ive ever spent on an internet/email/database/antivirus etc etc systems is about 5 days. no doubt, you’d definitely spend more money on a linux installer who doesnt know what he’s doing.. compared to setting up an exchange box.
An email setup realistically can be done in an hour on a linux box (excluding installation of course…)
I just wanted to tell you that you’ve managed to set fire in some people (often rude and classless folks who gets a kick out of publicly criticizing people other than themselves. They must not be blessed with any wisdom of any sort
) and create this feud between Linux and MS from an article 9 years ago!! Just saying thanx – I do enjoy all of the VARIOUS and diverse topics you touch up on! This thread was interesting to observe the dynamics of your readers! But I must say I disagreed with you on the ‘learning argument’! I’m a firm believer of ‘learning as an investment’ and I’d like to think it applies to almost everything in life.
I can’t understand how you could have this many problems. I work at a consulting firm and we have in the past, typically only installed Windows Servers and workstations. We recently piloted a Linux server which worked great and now we have gone from 100% Windows 0% Linux to about 60% Windows 40% Linux and we have had 0 of the problems you described. Our linux boxes are rock solid (compared to having to reboot a windows machine at least bi-weekly) Updates, software installs, and any change requires no reboot. I have had no need whatsoever for my Windows partition on my laptop since I installed linux and believe me, I am a newbie on linux. Mail works great, all my office apps work great, the whole system as a whole works great. I could only say those 3 weeks were not due to flaws in the OS, but flaws in the user.
Good luck my friend in your endeavors… you’ll need it.
Go back to 1995 when that setup was done and you won’t have such a smooth experience.
do you still have a job? If it took me more than an hour to setup a linux server running just about everything from sendmail to PHP I’d be sacked!! sound’s like you don’t have much technical ability but I understand this as many people lack computer know-how.. . it’s a Microsoft thing.. and another reason to get more people using more advanced technology such as Linux, BSD, UNIX. As a professional IT consultant in the UK/Ireland I’ve yet to meet a company that uses more than 10% microsoft products for servers and this fact is growing.. jump ship this boat is sinking!
I use MIcrosoft at work because they can’t see past it. I use Linux Xubuntu 8.04 at home becuase it works for my needs.linux does all of my computing needs at home with out the cost.I feel that MS has it’s place in a more complicated world of business, but is extremely over bloated for home use. Run what works for you!! I run Linux becuase it work for me.
For what you posted here, I can say you’re da man for telling the truth.
that 4 books you bought and 3 weeks learning linux were so valuable. It took me more than that to understand linux. Once you know linux, no joke, you can set up mail, webserver, dhcpd, samba…etc in an instant. Consider that a start of something new, than an horrible experience.
If you use linux, I guarantee you that in the long run, it wouldn’t cost you a penny. Linux will run and run until your disk got jamed and your cpu fan burned out. My webserver have not restart in 3 years, my users never never experienced server down. You gotta learn linux, sticking with windows and you will learn nothing.
There is no such thing as “learning linux” because it changes every year. iptables gets replaced by ipchains or someone adds selinux or decides the configuration files should be moved and reformatted from option,value to XML.
The point is it never ends. The stuff I learn about linux every couple of years is completely invalid 2 years later.