Re: Locking Down Users

> The so-called 'PC revolution' apparently happened because users wanted
> a DOS box they could control themselves, rather than a mainframe login
> under the supervision of the IT department. It would seem that revolution
> has been reversed by now. 
> 
> Of course, this thread has little to do with Linux any more.

Though the concepts come up a lot, depending on where you're discussing
use of Linux. So many comparisons of Linux vs Windows, and therefore
Linux suitability, assume that you wish to follow the Windows model and
"Personally Yours", yet Linux's roots are UNIX and central resources.
These studies like to talk about the cost of running a whole Linux
corporation - on Samba! They then talk about the difficulty of managing 
huge networks of client machines. 

Why use Samba in a wholly Linux corporation?  You'd be on NFS and NIS -
or all logging in remotely on X terminals. Tools such as rdist or 
Linux Diskless Client make managing of the client machines easier.
Boot off network, and forget about it.

The total cost of ownership drops dramatically in this case as you have
central installation, management, backup, upgrade. You get resource
sharing, which Linux is designed to be good at, and more efficient use
of available processing power. Machine on desk dies - drop in a new one
from stock, jobs done in no time. My Windows machine at work is dead,
and IT are taking ages to replace it. I also miss the ability to log in 
anywhere on the Windows network. 

The big fear against "Personally Yours" is what happens if the central
machine goes down. So you get a decent support contract for it, or support
it well in house. Maybe you have a failover plan or clustering.  Its One
machine, not hundreds or thousands.  Anyway, if we lose our database
server or network router, noone here can work anyway. I've worked on
mainframes, and downtime was very rare. University ran a clustered HPUX
setup with X Windows login, and I don't remember any complete system
unavailability apart from weekly backups in my first year which they
were doing without downtime by the time I finished there.

 - Richard

-- 
   _/_/_/  _/_/_/  _/_/_/ Richard dot Corfield    at    ntlworld dot com
  _/  _/    _/    _/      Fortune Cookie: Moderation in all things.   --
 _/_/      _/    _/       Publius Terentius Afer [Terence]
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