Naturally, I absolutely have to put in _my_ $0.02. :-) At 03:56 PM 04/10/00 +0530, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote:
But the point of all this is: Do not expect a smooth ride if you're planning to move to Linux. No distro I've used so far has worked without extensive customisation, and I've *never* gotten things running the first time I tried.
I've got news for you -- Do not expect a smooth ride _ever_! Any kind of undertaking like this will have hassles. You were able to get things working without having to pay through the nose for outside support. There is no guarantee that things would have worked properly out of the box with a turnkey commercial solution. So your anecdote insn't necessarily a point against Linux per se.
<snip>
Do not try to be smart ass and get Linux running in your company. Make sure that you either have a qualified team that will be available *all* the time, or out source the job to a company like FreeOS.com (Prakash Advani incidentally, was originally responsible for convincing Gourav Jaswal to put crn-india.com and later chip-india.com on Linux instead of buying another expensive license for PostMaster). Trust me, it will save you a lot of pain.
Again, what you're saying is that complicated jobs should be left to professionals. This actually counts more against NT. With all the eye-candy, some clueless newbie will get the idea that he can implement a solution and then dig himself into a real hole. I know, because the number of times that I've had to rescue somebody from a problem of his own making is _not_ funny!
Frankly, if you are a clueful newbie, I'd recommend Linux simply because the support is better. There is a wealth of info available on the net to help you solve your problem. If you're running NT or worse, one of the proprietary unices, useful support is only available at a premium.
Biju