Vomit or Linux: your choice

By David M Williams
Wednesday, 27 February 2008 17:48

Opinion and Analysis

Imagine standing on the road. An oncoming car is heading rapidly towards you. You have a choice to move, or to stay. Now consider that in business you need to choose a server platform wisely but often Windows shops become entrenched because it is the status quo. A couple of user experiences show why you ought to think about it more.

Any sensible company or savvy IT operator needs to choose server platforms wisely. Indeed, you should consider each installation on its specific requirements and not simply go the safe route of the status quo. Sure, it was once said “Nobody got fired for buying IBM” but nowadays the platitude may as well say “Windows.”

Yet, whatever your religious inclinations or otherwise, you can’t deny there’s truth in Proverbs 26:11, “Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” You can find the extended version later on; II Peter 2:22 says something – presumably not related to open-source software – “happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”

I must confess to finding the imagery contained therein rather amusing. And when it comes to planning your network, are you like a sow who is washed and cleaned and then just goes and dips in the mud again?

Let me show a sensitive side: consider the poor girl who questions why she always falls for the wrong guy? (And, might I add, usually adding, “Why can’t I find someone like you?” to her frustrated platonic male friend.)

Yes, it’s true. Human nature can often lead to making safe choices when faced with a decision. Colloquially we call this “making the same mistakes” and “repeating the past.” Sigmund Freud labelled this “repetition compulsion” which psychiatrists describe as “the blind impulse to repeat earlier experiences and situations quite irrespective of any advantage that doing so might bring from a pleasure-pain point of view.”

I spoke with two companies in the last week who had similar stories despite being at quite different places.

The first company had a very small network of four Windows XP computers. They realised their present means of file sharing – by setting up ad-hoc shares on different desktop computers – was suboptimal. There was no effective backup strategy. Access security was poorly implemented. Desktop users could have their performance impacted by others working off their disks. Not to mention the ever-frustrating problem of a network drive failing simply because the owner of the relevant machine is away and his or her computer hasn’t been powered on.

They determined the key was an in-house file server. They realised they could make it a print server too. And host e-mail. Excitement was generated, and jaws salivated.

There were some catches: it had to be reliable. They had outsourced IT support but didn’t want to have to fix the machine itself nor hire anyone to maintain it.

What recommendation would you make to them? Please read on.

CONTINUED