1	   linuxnewbie.org.gif 
     2	   
     3	                                      Wednesday, 05-Jan-2000 11:06:40 EST
     4	                                                                         
     5	   Why I chose Windows NT over Linux
     6	   Written By: Skippy
     7	   
     8	   INTRODUCTION
     9	   I'm an information technology professional with several years of
    10	   experience. I earned my MCSE early in 1999, as a means to help further
    11	   my career. I'd been fiddling with Linux at home for only a couple of
    12	   months, at that time. In the months between then and now, I've learned
    13	   an awful lot about Linux. I'm no expert - not by any stretch of the
    14	   imagination - but I'm pretty comfortable with what I need Linux to do.
    15	   
    16	   I should qualify the statement above by stating that I'm not an expert
    17	   with Windows NT, either. I've got a certificate that says I passed six
    18	   exams successfully. I do feel competent with NT - more so than with
    19	   Linux, actually. I see a lot of strengths and weaknesses with both
    20	   products, and advocate each in their own capacity.
    21	   
    22	   I recently obtained a new job - designing, installing and supporting a
    23	   network for a medium sized company with _no_ information technology
    24	   infrastructure currently in place. A network engineer's dream come
    25	   true: the chance to build my own network from the ground up. I am
    26	   responsible for all of the technical decision making - desktops,
    27	   servers, office suites, email packages, security, backups, training.
    28	   Everything.
    29	   
    30	   As an MCSE, I can spit out a recommended Windows NT domain model in no
    31	   time flat. One PDC and one Exchange server at the main facility, a BDC
    32	   at the remote office, and either Windows 98 or Windows NT Workstation
    33	   on the desktops. However, the organization is a non-profit, and since
    34	   I have some experience with Linux, I wanted to evaluate the viability
    35	   of an Open Source solution. Further, the licensing costs of Microsoft
    36	   products can be nicely side-stepped with a Linux implementation.
    37	   
    38	   CLIENTS
    39	   Although I have experience with Linux, my users don't. And I don't
    40	   have enough experience to feel comfortable supporting 50+ users with
    41	   things like X Windows (which I can barely get to run myself!). So I'm
    42	   fairly adamant about installing a Microsoft operating system on the
    43	   client desktops. These days, most users have a PC at home, so the
    44	   familiarity of Windows 9X, or the similarity of Windows NT
    45	   Workstation, works in my favor.
    46	   
    47	   If I had chosen a Linux solution for end user desktops, then I would
    48	   need to evaluate an office suite. The bulk of my users will be using a
    49	   word processor, a spreadsheet package, some email, and the occasional
    50	   presentation. StarOffice 5.1 comes to mind as a free, robust, capable
    51	   package. But the catch is that StarOffice is only free for
    52	   non-commercial use. Since we're a business, we're still obligated to
    53	   pay for licenses to use the software.
    54	   
    55	   If I'm going to pay money to use a software package, then I want to
    56	   ensure that there are ample support resources available to me in order
    57	   to support my end users. If someone experiences some bizarre anomaly
    58	   with Microsoft Office 2000, I can quickly consult TechNet, or the MS
    59	   Knowledge Base, or ask any number of people (professionals and lay
    60	   people) who use MS Office regularly. If an issue arises with
    61	   StarOffice, where do I turn to for in-depth support information? How
    62	   long will it take me to get comparable answers? How long will my users
    63	   have to suffer downtime while I chase down the limited support options
    64	   for StarOffice?
    65	   
    66	   Further, Microsoft makes the Office Resource Kits available, allowing
    67	   me to really customize my Office installations, as well as provide me
    68	   with some helpful troubleshooting tools. To the best of my knowledge,
    69	   no such thing is available for StarOffice.
    70	   
    71	   And finally comes the issue of training. If I were to install
    72	   StarOffice (or any other Linux-based office suite), who can I hire to
    73	   conduct professional training sessions for my users? I can only think
    74	   of one place in Columbus, Ohio, who might be able to accommodate me on
    75	   this, and the lack of competition suggests that pricing may be higher.
    76	   Otherwise I'd have to conduct in-house training for all of our users.
    77	   And if I'm busy training users, how much other work am I free to get
    78	   done?
    79	   
    80	   NETWORKING
    81	   I was familiar with Samba from my own Linux network at home, but only
    82	   for workgroup based sharing. I eagerly started learning as much as I
    83	   could about Samba, and its capacity to act as a Windows NT server. The
    84	   connectivity itself was easy enough to implement. After a couple of
    85	   false starts, I was quickly using my Linux test server to authenticate
    86	   domain logons from my laptop. I configured the Linux box as a WINS
    87	   master browser, and network browsing was working just fine.
    88	   
    89	   My first real snare came when I tried to change my network password
    90	   from my Windows 98 laptop. The change would never take. I did a little
    91	   more researching (scoured the included Samba documentation, asked my
    92	   local users' group, etc) but found no evidence that password changes
    93	   from a Windows 98 client were supported. I'm told that Windows NT
    94	   Workstation can accomplish this necessary task, but I have not tested
    95	   it myself.
    96	   
    97	   After a little more poking around, I realized that Samba had no
    98	   capacity to expire passwords. The Linux logon account would properly
    99	   expire if I were to try to log on from the server console, but Samba
   100	   happily authenticated expired accounts without complaint. This is,
   101	   quite simply, unacceptable. One of the main components of network
   102	   security is password security. One component of password security is
   103	   mandatory password expirations. If my network can't require users to
   104	   change their passwords every 45 days, then passwords are nothing more
   105	   than a formality.
   106	   
   107	   I began to toy around with the idea of implementing some sort of
   108	   kludge - a counter in the logon script, maybe - to get the Linux
   109	   system to force a password change. But the more I thought about it,
   110	   the more concerned I became at the amount of obfuscation involved with
   111	   such a process, and the fact that it could foul up. The Linux user
   112	   account had one password, and the Samba account had a password. They
   113	   should normally be synchronized, but the fact that there was a
   114	   possibility that they could become disparate was bothersome. This
   115	   meant that a user could, for example, authenticate a logon but be
   116	   denied email access. Or vice versa, conceivably.
   117