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Open Source Software in a Windows Environment?
brennan73 asks: "Like many people, I work in a Windows NT/2000 shop that has absolutely resisted bringing *nixes into our environment. Everyone has their reasons - my boss has resisted because it would be more difficult and expensive to find a replacement admin if I leave, since said replacement would need to be able to administer both Windows and *nix boxes, which I can understand. But I'm still curious...has anyone out there replaced major pieces of Microsoft software with open source equivalents in a medium-to-large business environment, while still running on the Windows platform?"
"Like many people in such shops, I've just about had it with IIS's security problems. I'm also highly unimpressed with Microsoft's new licensing schemes. In other words, between security and money concerns, I can see good reasons for businesses to look for alternatives to Microsoft's standard offerings, for apps and utilities if OSes are ruled out by management.
So, I'm thinking of replacing IIS and Office with Apache and StarOffice for Windows, and I'm open to other examples on both servers and the desktop. Why did you switch? How painful was it for both you and the users? Any experiences that anyone could relate, even failed experiments, would be great."
while not an open source solution, you might be able to get everyone on Exchange w/o losing *NIX
If someday they (management) want the developers to switch to Windows so that you too can use Outlook/Exchange, first explain why you have to keep *NIX (in terms they'll understand, of course). If they insist, try one of those Windows emulators or Windows Terminal Server products so that you can retain your *NIX goodness while you can use the emulator or WTS to handle your Exchange needs. I think there are some very good emulators available out there cheap (or even free), but WTS may cost more than what it's worth for just using exchange.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
As long as the
GPL = Viral
so shall
Microsoft = ( Microshaft | Micro$oft | Corporate-greedy-bastards )
Keeping
Obviously this guy doesn't know what he is talking about.