LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Richard Russell <rarussel@lincoln.college.adelaide.edu.au>
  To  : linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
  Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 02:14:54 +1030

Linux as an NT Server replacement

Hi folks...

Just wondering... is there anything that people commonly use NT Server for
that a Linux server _can't_ do? Or that would be difficult to tranfer from
NT to Linux? Particularly here, I'm talking about a small office or
workgroup server rather than the main server for a large organisation...

As far as I can see, NT Server is primarily used for:
1 File & Print serving (SMB -- standard)
2 Web Serving -- intra/extra/internet (HTTP -- IIS/Netscape server)
3 Web Proxy (HTTP Proxy -- some MS or 3rd party product?)
4 Firewall (Standard or add on?)
5 Email (MS Mail/Exchange/Notes/etc -- are these particularly different to
POP/IMAP/SMTP? Do they do anything Linux mail can't do?)
6 News (Notes/something else? -- again, same question)
7 SQL Database (SQL Server, Oracle, etc -- If pure SQL is used, these should
be replaceable by mySQL or PostgreSQL fairly painlessly, right?)
8 DNS (standard ?)
9 MS Office server stuff (I know nothing about this, but can Linux do it?)
10 Other stuff -- MS BackOffice, etc (can Linux do everything worth anything
or not?)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of this can be done by linux -- the
following products pop into my mind...
1 Samba -- can this do everything? Is anything important still missing?
2 Apache -- this will do everything apart from things like Frontpage
extensions and asp, right?
3 Squid -- will do everythign
4 ipchains -- everything
5 POP/IMAP/SMTP -- functionally equivalent, but potential minor migration
issues
6 as for 5
7 PostgreSQL/MySQL should be almost equivalent, although a simple swap may
not be possible -- any comments?
8 DNS standard
9 no idea
10 no idea

Basically, the question I am asking is "is there anything functional that is
stopping the adoption of Linux as a server in a small office or workgroup?
what about larger offices and enterprises?"

thanks heaps for your input, and please, no NT/Linux flame wars -- just the
facts, or pointers as to where to go to find the facts...

rr