random Question, Linxu VS SBS2003/8

VeNT

VeNT

VeNT

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I was just wondering if theres a way I could do everything thats in SBS2003 with a linux distro without killing myself in the process
main things I'm after are
Active Directory (ie logons/domain)
Exchange (email, shared claender)
File Shares (with permisions)
Print server (maybe with printer pooling)
backup etc


just wondering how complex it would be to setup (ie worth my time?)
 
saw a link on the novel site for linux small business server (Suse) but all the following links where to enterprise (way overkill!)
ideas?
 
As far as exchange goes, for most smaller business uses (i.e. the target market of SBS) Zimbra or Scalix (now owned by Xandros) fit the bill. Both have MAPI plugins for Outlook allowing you to use calendaring, tasks etc. Zimbra also has native OTA (over the air) ActiveSync available (Scalix requires the use of the troublesome NotifyLink).

We started using Scalix a while ago and then switched to Zimbra for a variety of reasons and it works beautifully. The other benefit is that it comes with a Mac OS X iSync plugin so that any people using macs can benefit from full sync with apps like iCal.

It also comes with a local install of OpenLDAP so you can make samba etc. authenticate against it for single-sign-on purposes (we have our subversion repository auth against it for this purpose).

You'll find that, whilst more upfront configuration is required over the "plug and play" of SBS it's ultimately a much more flexible solution in the long run.
 
philjohn said:
You'll find that, whilst more upfront configuration is required over the "plug and play" of SBS it's ultimately a much more flexible solution in the long run.
Click to expand...

As compared to Exchange and AD...it might be as flexible but I don't think it's more flexible in any way. As you pointed out it's a lot more complex to configure...
 
bigredshark said:
Even if you do it's complex to be honest, I have an RHCE, do I think I could set up SBS in half the time it would take to get equivalent functionality on Linux? Yes I do...
Click to expand...

Sorry I disagree...

Ok you have a RHCE, how many actual hours is that spent using linux in some description? I still think getting the things the OP wants done is no harder or complex in linux than in windows. a small amount of time reading and he would be up and running in no time. I use linux everyday and to be honest cant understand why people seem to struggle so much. things are done differently but that doesnt make them any more complex.
 
NicNac said:
Sorry I disagree...

Ok you have a RHCE, how many actual hours is that spent using linux in some description? I still think getting the things the OP wants done is no harder or complex in linux than in windows. a small amount of time reading and he would be up and running in no time. I use linux everyday and to be honest cant understand why people seem to struggle so much. things are done differently but that doesnt make them any more complex.
Click to expand...

Thousands it would be fair to say, I built itanium based name servers and plenty of other advanced stuff for an ISP environment. I could do it just fine and I'd do it far better than any SME likely would.

But faster than I could run the setup wizard in SBS? No chance.

And you still don't get the full AD/exchange/group policy integration you get with SBS. Linux is just fine for some things but there are situations where windows does the job better and easier.
 
SBS definately. Agree with bigredshark. It's so easy to configure just using the wizards. From that you get a domain. You also get the benefits of exchange which are far too extensive to list here.

I'm sure you can get LDAP on linux but I wouldn't want to try and configure. I have around half a years experience using it in various flavours but I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near an expert and it would be a daunting task to get the same functionality of SBS on linux.

SBS on the other hand is a few hours to setup and get running then another hour or so configuring group policies and exchange.

So easy you'll kick yourself if you go down another route.



M.
 
Well it's a couple of thousand at most and it's an investment which will last you until you 3 years or so (unless you grow rapidly in which case you won't mind so much). When I did work with SBS a lot of small companies seemed put off by the price, which surprises me, you've got to be hard up not to find £2k over 3 years....
 
tbh, I've been playing around all day with different linux distros
I'm not lost at the command line and I'm happy to work without a GUI when I need to but I really think this would be 110% faster with a GUI and less apt-get.
gonna talk to boss again, either I spend a month setting up this server so its just right with linux or he gets SBS.
 
Boss: I want this lengthy list of Windows Server-only features so that all of my Windows-only clients can connect to those Windows-only services and make use of them using Windows-only applications, but I do not want to pay for Windows Server. Make it happen!

:p
 
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