Advocacy of Linux as a File Server 1

[BobSheridan]

I'm not too sure if this is the appropriate forum for this type of request, but it shouldn't be too inappropriate either.

Can anyone suggest websites or articles that present a relatively balanced reason for using, or even not using, Linux as a file server? I'm looking for articles similar to this one:

http://db.riskwaters.com/public/showPage.html?page=154103

Anything that presents a balanced argument or reasonable discussion of reasons for possibly adopting Linux as the OS for a file server will do.

Thanks for any help provided.

 

[sostek]

The single biggest factor of using Linux as a filer server is total cost of ownership.

I've seen many articles that were obvious MS ploys to make Linux look like it is arcane and not the solution but I'll tell you it is very wrong.

We use Linux for 75% of our servers and enable things like SAMBA shares between NT, 2000 and Redhat, Debian and the like. Works like a charm.

Now, regarding TCO. Here is a perfect example... I had to buy a new server and got MS Win2K on it with Exchange even though I was only using SMTP/POP3. Yeah I know, could have used Senmail or the like but the powers that be said it had to be Exchange.

The server itself cost $5000 and that was with a tape autoloader. The Win2k server license for 238 users was over $15,000. If I had bought the enterprise version of Linux that RedHat is peddling I would have paid about 10% of that.

Don't get me wrong - Win adminstration is pretty easy and Linux has some catching up to do but the learning curve isn't that steep.

Try it with one server and see for yourself.

 

[ericbrunson]

Win adminstration is pretty easy and Linux has some catching up to do but the learning curve isn't that steep.

The counter side to that is, you have much more control over the features and behavior of the linux server software. This is at the cost of not having a point an click interface and no little paper clip to talk to you.

 

[nq]

I have just migrated a government department to Linux servers - 6 IBM servers with hardware RAID 5, etc running SuSE Enterprise, Oracle, Samba and Webmin. The money saved by using Linux instead of MS Server allowed me to buy another server. All day-to-day maintenance is done through Webmin on a browser - its GUI and easy to handle.
We run general file serving and a large Oracle db. The Oracle db runs about 2-3 times faster under Linux.

As was said in the previous post - grab a machine, load Linux and try it first.

Nigel.

 

[ericbrunson]

There was an article on slashdot discussing a paper written on this subject in the past two or three weeks. You may try searching there.

 

[LinuXelite]

Excellent article:

http://www.flexbeta.net/main/articles.php?action=show&id=81