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Need help for class project. Dealing with opensource, linux etc.

W

Willoughbyva

Diamond Member
I am taking a management writing class. We all had to give ideas for group topics. Most people were doing things on social concerns. I chose to do mine on open source software. Luckily a couple of people were interested and we got to form a group to work on it. The people in my group do not know anything about opensource software so i have been trying to educate them with as much knowledge as I have on the subject. Btw the people in my group are in different geographical locations, so i can't just show them my Linux box etc.

We started off on openoffice and mozilla, but there weren't many statistics out there for how companies can save money. So I told them that we should include Linux since it is a big part of the open source community and there are published reports with statistical information given. Now we are at the phase where we want to price open source including Linux against Microsoft and maybe even Solaris.

The thing is I am not very knowledgeable about what different server programs/OS are and what to compare. I'll give you what I have and ask questions about what is available.

For a typical workstation
Open source = Linux distro (I'll choose Mandrake) download version.
MS= WindowsXP Professional

Open source= open office
MS= MS Office probably standard version.

For servers

Internet server

Open source= Mandrake with Apache
MS= WindowsXP Pro with IIS (is it together or is there a whole IIS operating system?)

Email

MS= Exchange
Open source= (I am not sure on this one I think it is Fetchmail and some other programs)
What do you guys recommend?

Database

Open source= Mysql
MS=?



What other types of servers are businesses using?


I know in some situations linux can have everything on servers (host) and let people access it through a terminal. (host/terminal) versus MS and server/client method? I would like to know what open source free software can do this. Is it just remote X running all included in a standard distro?

We are trying to keep everything opensource=free vs. MS, solaris, sco etc. where you have to pay for software. In our project we are going to be "consultants" (yeah I know we should really know this stuff, but it is just for a class and I really want to do this project) we would come in and see what the business has and suggest solutions with open source products. The reason I want to do this is because I really think open source/linux would save money and I like the open source model in general.

This has gotten to long, but I would appreciate any ideas and feedback you could give me/us. The main thing is the open source needs to be free as in no money. I know the Linux administrators are higher paid sometimes, but we are trying to pitch to companies (maybe even the school we attend in real life) that linux/opensource is a better solution.

Please no flames.
 
Email server for Linux would basically be sendmail. If you're looking for clients, it would be Evolution.

Databases for Microsoft would be Microsoft SQL Server, hands down.

I would also recommend against trying to work with Mandrake and Apache. I've never really liked Mandrake as a server distro, if you're looking for something to compare against XP + IIS, a much better choice would be either Debian or (IMHO, the better choice) Red Hat. That's the two you'll find most Linux servers running, and Red Hat is easier to use and more popular.
 
Thanks numark. I listed Mandrake because it is what I am familiar with. We're just getting started good on the project and can change stuff around pretty easily right now.

Thanks again.
 
Why do you automatically assume that open source equals free? What happens to your office if Mandrake goes completely belly up? Are you going to have the programers available to run with the source code and write patches for it?
 
Originally posted by: yakko
Why do you automatically assume that open source equals free? What happens to your office if Mandrake goes completely belly up? Are you going to have the programers available to run with the source code and write patches for it?
Click to expand...

If Mandrake dies there will still be Linux users who write patches for it, and you can use sources from other distros in it.

If Microsoft stops supporting a product for whatever reason you either have to change to a different product (upgrade or whatever), or you are stuck with it in the state they left it in.
 
Originally posted by: Ameesh
WindowsXp Pro is not a server sku

you could talk about Windows 2000 Server or Windows Server 2003
Click to expand...

And you could also try Windows 2000 Server + Apache too.

Ameesh, would you recommend using Windows 2003 Server for such a test before the actual release version is there? Any performance or other problems which appear may not be present in the final version and may therefor mess up the test, that's the danger.

If you don't mind using betas and are willing to overlook problems that are possibly caused that way it would be a good idea to look at the most recent stable versions of all the different OSes and packages you want to test with.

Sun has just announced they want to attack the professional Office market with StarOffice 6.1, of which the beta will be released this week most likely (if it isn't out already). Might be worth comparing those two, taking into consideration what is most often mentioned as disadvantage for StarOffice: Lack of a good replacement for Outlook.
 
Use RedHat. RedHat and SuSE are the largest commercial distros out there, and I don't see them going away for a while.

Search slashdot. They have plenty of articles on this posted over there.

If a comany is looking to release a product and they need an OS, one of the BSDs is probably the best way to go. They can close source it all they want without problems. Atleast OpenBSD, I don't know the license status of FreeBSD and NetBSD.
 
Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
Originally posted by: yakko
Why do you automatically assume that open source equals free? What happens to your office if Mandrake goes completely belly up? Are you going to have the programers available to run with the source code and write patches for it?
Click to expand...

If Mandrake dies there will still be Linux users who write patches for it, and you can use sources from other distros in it.

If Microsoft stops supporting a product for whatever reason you either have to change to a different product (upgrade or whatever), or you are stuck with it in the state they left it in.
Click to expand...

You assume there will be users writing patches for it and not switching to another distro. When MS discontinues a product you know there has already been something out for at least a year to replace it.
 
Originally posted by: yakko
Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
Originally posted by: yakko
Why do you automatically assume that open source equals free? What happens to your office if Mandrake goes completely belly up? Are you going to have the programers available to run with the source code and write patches for it?
Click to expand...

If Mandrake dies there will still be Linux users who write patches for it, and you can use sources from other distros in it.

If Microsoft stops supporting a product for whatever reason you either have to change to a different product (upgrade or whatever), or you are stuck with it in the state they left it in.
Click to expand...

You assume there will be users writing patches for it and not switching to another distro. When MS discontinues a product you know there has already been something out for at least a year to replace it.
Click to expand...

Well, nothing is stopping you from going from Mandrake to another distro... or getting new kernels and programs to work on your old Mandrake distro...

When it comes to databases, i would look into other databases than MySQL and MS alone, how about PostgreSQL for an OS solution and Oracle for the CS solution?
 
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