Serious investigations into UNIX and Windows

Micheal Patterson micheal at tsgincorporated.com
Wed Oct 27 09:22:17 PDT 2004


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Danny MacMillan" <flowers at users.sourceforge.net>
To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm at toybox.placo.com>
Cc: "Micheal Patterson" <micheal at tsgincorporated.com>; <TM4525 at aol.com>;
<stefan at swebase.com>; <freebsd-chat at freebsd.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Serious investigations into UNIX and Windows


> On Wed, Oct 27, 2004 at 02:24:04AM -0600, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> >
> > ...
> >
> > You take any inexperienced Windows 'administrator' (and I use the
> > term loosely) block diagram out your network, give him a bank check
> > and tell him to go duplicate it.  You wouldn't see more than 2% of them
> > be able to do it.  So much for Windows being 'easy'  It's only easy
> > if you know what your doing.  But, then again, so is UNIX.
> >
> > Ted
>
> I agree.
>
> Microsoft concentrates on accessibility, reducing the apparent
> complexity until it can be readily (or at least much more easily)
> grasped by people who would be otherwise unable or unwilling to
> do so.  They excel at lowering the entry-level requirements for
> performing computing tasks.  Hence Visual Basic, Windows Server
> 2003, Exchange Server, &c.
>
> These programs are very discoverable.  You don't need to have a
> good understanding of what you're doing in order to get them to
> work -- the program itself provides sufficient hinting through
> the user interface to guide you through the process.  Suddenly
> ANYONE can be a programmer or system administrator!
>
> The problem is, =only= the entry level requirements are reduced.
> Or, rather, Microsoft enables you to deal with the complexity
> gradually instead of all at once.  It's a great approach for a
> world where people hate reading the instructions on how to put
> together their barbeque.  Unix is more the other way; if you
> don't understand what you're doing before you begin you are going
> to be doing a lot of reading.  You SHOULD do the reading on the
> MS side, too; you just don't have to.
>
> I don't disdain the Microsoft pointy-clicky approach.  It is
> easier to use because it provides psychological tools to help
> manage complexity.  However, when things don't work you still
> have to do the learning you were able to defer at the beginning.
>
> I'd say if all you ever need is the first 80%, less skill is
> required on the Windows side than the Unix side because
> Microsoft has made an effort to make that 80% accessible.
> After that you'll need someone equally skilled as on the
> Unix side.  The problem is, most people on the MS side who
> are at the 80% mark have 20% of the "required" knowledge
> (the rest being embedded in the tools).  Everyone on the
> Unix side at 80% had to absorb 80% of the knowledge to
> get there.  So when you need the next 5%, you're more likely
> to find competent help in the Unix world (at least that's
> been my experience).
>
> -- 
> Danny
>

You've stated what I should have said in my first message actually. Toe to
toe, with all of the additional applications that are provided by MS for MS
Servers, in a hybrid network, yes. Windows is more time consuming to
administrate than Unix. I will concede that. However, for the sake of those
new to the network admin career, Windows, in the beginning, is by far easier
to master and manage. For example,

Take 4 servers, put Windows 2k / 2k3 on 2 of the servers, then turn around
and place Freebsd, Linux, or any flavor of *nix on the remaining 2 servers.

Then tell someone that you want the 2 windows servers to share user data,
replication, dns, and web. Then have that same person configure nis/nfs,
bind, and apache on the *Nix servers. Now, tell me how, you can consider
that the *Nix systems are easier? To us they may be, but look at the target
market that MS is aiming for in all of their products. At least with
Windows, you'll have the nice little Admin menu first appear to get them
started. What do you get with a *Nix box?

--

Micheal Patterson
Senior Communications Systems Engineer
405-917-0600

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