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Anatomy of a Successful Enterprise Linux Distro?
phenix asks: "With the new release of Novell Linux Desktop, and the upcoming release of Sun JDS3, I am curious to hear how these two suites, and their underlying enterprise infrastructures (JES and OES) compare. Specifically, I am interested in their ease of management/deployment in these areas: directory services, productivity (office) applications, centralized application serving, centralized document storage, groupware, and remote application installation. All of these, of course, without the use of Windows products like Exchange and Windows technologies like Active Directory. Is there a better alternative?"
http://www.novell.com/products/openenterpriseserve r/beta.html
Open Enterprise Server is now shipping. An evaluation version will be available from the product web site on March 15, 2005. You may choose to download the public beta at this time or return when the evaluation is available.
The Java Enterprise system is available for download in its entirety as a CD Image (ISO) or Compressed Archive
You're all just mad because i didn't mention Red Hat.
/... readers who have tested these yet; meanwhile, please comment on these companies past performance with their products (JES, SuSE Enterprise, Red Carpet).
Seriously though, the question really has nothing to do with the distribution, I'm concerned primarily with the infrastructure provided by Novell and Sun to support and implement the distribution.
I'd love to test these myself (and will), but nothing is more informative than real-world users who have done a real-world implementation; I'd be very surprised to hear that there are no
I'm not looking for Windows clones, or Windows compatibles, and am rather disturbed that both Novell and Sun seem to be touting their "Exchange connectors" as one of their key features.
I can think of one big reason not to do this: Oracle.
Some enterprise applications have very rigorous support and compatibility matrices. Unless your idea of running Unix servers is just playing around with apache, you will likely have some serious support considerations.
In this case, RH and Suse enterprise are the only options if you happen to be in the US or Europe.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
For authenticating against an LDAP directory or kerberos key store, is there anything other then PAM for Linux to handle it?
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
That level of network integration is all fine and good until you start to contemplate their network security. They are the lowest of the low when it comes to this.
Of what use is an easy to use network if that network is down or is being hijacked to host warez?
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Ubuntu.
This is the first linux distro that I've recommended to my mom, and to my brother-in-law, who has used Windows exlusively. My mother's experience was that the web browser worked without any configuration when she booted up, and my brother-in-law was happy that his wireless connection on his laptop also "just worked." Sun and Novell could learn a lot from some of the open source integration efforts, but they have the advertising budget, so we can guess who will get al of the press.
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Ok, so I work for them... BUT you should definitely look at Xandros Business edition as a desktop, and xDMS as a deployment solution.
"Be glad you sailed for a better day, But dont forget there will be hell to pay" - Dave King/Flogging Molly
Make Printing or CUPS work. Period. Don't make me fuck with it. Just make it work. And have more drivers than 10 yer old HP laserjets.
1 .23bmourning_becomes_electra" does not help me in the fucking least.
Have an installation proc that CLEARLY tells you what it requires of your disk partition and CLEARLY tells you what it's going to ignore.
Get mouse support in X to work better. Seriously, anyone who who builds a distro where the installation fails because of a fucking minor mouse configuration glitch in X should be shot.
We don't need 4 or 5 6 windows managers. We need X term, K, and a lighterweight one like fluxbox or ICEWM but not both and absolutely either put all of the same apps in all the menus or strip them all down to minimum.
Create the ability to change screen res on the fly w/o forcing a shutdown/restart of X and PLEASE indicate that settings you have already stored will not work if in fact they will not work.
Application installation apps need to have clearer discriptive lines of WHAT they do. Calling something "Monkeysoutmyass+glb.flx.x86windget.v.11.110.9.1.
Put applets that manage devices in ONE PLACE. ONE. not two not three. ONE.
You need:
one office suite
one IM client for AOL/Yahoo. etc.
one IRC
one image management app
one burner
one real/quicktime/etcetera
one file manager
You need to make the appearance of the filesystem in the file manager MORE simple not LESS simple. if that means making a linear type arrangement like windows then so be it.
Make applications uninstallers obvious.
While that might be true or not I don't believe most of those that used Linux as anything similar to a primary OS switched (back) to Windows. If anything they moved to other alternative OS.
Linux is not Windows
I just participated in a test pitting Win2k3 vs Red Hat ES3 vs SuSE Enterprise 9. The test was for useability and functionality.
Windows came out on top by a mile. These 2 distros are nowhere near a mature state. The included (gui) tools are atrocious, incomplete, and often break the service so bad that it's easier to reinstall than to repair. Yes, functionality can be established from the command-line, but if you could do that you wouldn't be buying a packaged enterprise distro.
Directory services are a nightmare to configure in linux, and these 2 distros are certainly no exception. Neither distro comes with a gui tool or scripted install procedure, and the testers and I couldn't figure out how to get kerberos and LDAP to work together. Novell's tech support was useless - they said they support installing the service (from RPMs) but not configuring them. The manuals in both distros were totally useless.
The lack of centralized management tools in linux was the biggest downfall. The sysadmin has a LOT of work to do writing scripts and delegating authority to subordinate admins. What the distros really need is a management console like AD/MMC to administrate objects, groups, security policies, profiles, permissions, etc etc etc.
Stay away from enterprise linux products for now. Roll your own. There's no substitute for know-how.
Apple seems to have it all figured out as far as enterprise unix is concerned. I wish a linux vendor looked at what makes OSX work visually and (without blatenly copying) at least implement whats going on. A single well thought out control panel to configure the computer and user environment. Menus using universal sets of words to describe thing instead of the thrown together menus currently used. Stuff that just works. And for godsakes get rid of 90 percent of the stuff the average home user does not need. There is way to much stuff in all the linux distros. Install a base User OS. Don't give them a million options. Don't let them choose to install all the developer stuff. The average person sees the ability to add more stuff and thinks its there I must need it. Give them a good base install. and make them do something else to get more stuff.
The desktop needs
One web browser, one office suite, one email program. Thats it. The computer should detect and print to most USB printers, not require the user to setup or turn on cups....
Again look at apple. What makes there products strong. Its there ability to get rid of all the crap and deliver what most people need. As long as every linux distro tries to make hackers and geeks happy there distros will never serve users.
For the love of god, please stop using meaningless phrases that include 'enterprise'
'Enterprise infrastructure' has no meaning. Yes, it has possible meaning; No, it is not well defined enough to use in this context.
This language is invented by salesmen to sell expensive stuff to pointy haired bosses. We should not use this language here.