Just started my first IT job about 3 weeks ago. One of the projects they want is to investigate options that would avoid using Vista. A lot of my current position is really desktop support so when removing viruses and what not I'm handing the user my Linux laptop. So far the response has been good but I want to make sure that before I put a Linux box in front of any management that my bases are covered. What gottchas have managers used as an excuse or what should I look out for so that I don't get sabatoged?

So far the distros looked at are Suse and Ubuntu. I still need to figure out how to join Ubuntu to the Active directory and why I can't get the wep working. The wep issue is more for me since I doubt the execs using the laptops are likely to change over. After three days Suse would hang at the hardware dect phase of boot so it's out of the running for now.

well is the goal to not use microsoft or to do it on the cheap? redhat is about to release their new Global Desktop aimed for situations like yours. You have a very wide specturm in terms of a linux desktop, and running a linux desktop doesn't necessarily mean that you need to then spend your working life writing scripts and hacks to make them work correctly and nicely... I admit i don't really know too much about it, but I'd be sure that in terms of SMB deployment, it'll be a lot easier, but at a cost, which may well be worth it in the long run.

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS6584091276.html

Well I'm sure they would like both. Many of our users still have win98/2k boxes and I'm sure that if I could find a good solution that would run on a 500mhz box that they would be thrilled. They are planning to replace those boxes with brand new HPs. The users use Email, spreadsheet and AS400 client software so it's not like the need good hardware but if Linux is going to get a fair test I'll need to talk them into a few good machines at least. . It's been a while since I've played with Redhat but we have a Redhat Blade server so that might be a good distro to play with. I liked the Ubuntu solution because it's one cd, runs live and is easy for the user to figure out. I have been giving Live CDs to many of the users to take home in the hope of getting then used to the idea.

In a mixed business network, you might check out Xandros pro- it's not at all cutting edge, but works well with MS based networks (due in large part to their "agreement" with MS, which may or may not be a reason to rule them out....).

Only reason I even tried Suse is that my boss uses it on his home servers. I used to listen to Novell open audio and thought they really got it. So I would prefer to use Distros that have refused any MS bulling. I really don't see the need for it. If MS wants to play nice with others then just make everything standards based. In the end I'll end up with a few proposals and the guys with the wallets will decide.

Is that even possible?

Never played with active directory before but if some can be done it can be done with Linux. If it can't be done right now wait 5 minutes and someone will come up with a way.

yes, totally possible. samba is the tool that actually *joins* a domain, but it's often sufficient just to hook into ldap services for user authentication and such.

Ordering HP Desktops ? Why not order them with Linux ? http://apcmag.com/7034/hp_launches_red_hat_linux_pc


http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise...0-0-0-121.html

here2stay,

I would be cautious walking into this situation. Carefully review the criteria that management has presented and base your selection on the material presented. Traditionally Redhat has been a very successful provider of the corporate desktop, although I would consider SUSE for the Desktop aspect. It may very well be worth while to install OpenOffice.org onto the Laptops of potential migration participants and get their feedback. As well Novell, as much as the majority (myself included) dislike the Novell-Microsoft agreement it has provided OpenOffice.org (Installed with SUSE) great support for Microsoft formats. Just my 2 cents.

Regards,

On the SuSE machine you have, install the samba-doc package. It includes three Samba 3 books. Two of them "Samba 3 by Example" and "Samba 3 Howto & Reference Guide" cover using Samba in a network with Active Directory. The Samba 3 by example book goes through the setup step by step including things like mapping the network admin group to Linux. The 2 examples of a 500 and 2000 user network use ldap. The Samba3-Howto.pdf book has more information about joining an AD domain starting with section 6.4.

I'm not familiar with Ubuntu. SuSE has a configuration options for using an AD for authentication. Maybe Ubuntu has something similar. Using this may install the needed kerberos and other packages; configure PAM , the corresponding /etc/security/ files and smb.conf. With a client host configured this way, you should be able to use the same tools as a network admin member to join a Linux host as you would a Windows host.

The latest edition of "Using Samba" in the book stores has more AD and LDAP information then the version that comes with the Samba-doc package. The version in /usr/share/samba/swat/using_samba/ is NT oriented.

Also google for "ibm redbook samba migration". There is an IBM Redbook on the web that covers the issues and steps involved in migrating from MS to Unix/Linux. It covers samba, ldap and also migrating your email server.

Since I'm the new guy I really have not pushed for information but I am getting bits here and there. Turns out that they don't care about AD as long as we have another solution. So Redhat is looking better. I still haven't had time to get a Redhat test box up and running. They did say that we will be bringing in vendors and making some kind of transition over the next year. As to the comment about being careful. Yep that's a big part of why I posted here. So any gottchas that I had not thought of might come to the surface. Right now my main focus is 1. do my job 2. Evangelize. While working on a users desktop I let them use my Laptop. I've had 4 requests for CD's. In fact the other day we had one desktop user whos system was hanging. Handed him a Live cd showed him how to get to his docs and finished what I was doing. Got back with him latter and while he didn't like the wait he did want to keep the CD.

The Samba 3 by Example book has a couple of LDAP examples. If you don't have a very large network, then an NT style PDC may be enough. If you don't need windows hosts, you could use NFS instead of samba. You may want to look at the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard document on the www.tldp.org website. Many of the directories that Linux/Unix uses can be static and mounted on a central server. Having /usr, /bin/, /sbin and other directories mounted read-only increases security. If these directories are mounted on a central server, you have the benefit of applying updates centrally once. The home directories could be mounted on a NAS as well. IMHO this makes more sense then having a central (virtual) application server and using remote terminals. It gives you the same control but doesn't need as much network traffic.


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http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem...-Hierarchy.pdf

The beauty of community shines through again!! Thanks I'll look into it. Sounds very practical. By the way We have over 100 local users and will be expanding by 30% or so in the next year.

Strongly recommend you to try Suse10.3, it work with active directory out of the box. The wonderful thing is it support cache credentias as well (especially important to Laptop users). However I found that openoffice got something wrong when join into domain. I'd try it and for myself it us best distro for corporate environment(because you want to centralize manage it easier). Ubuntu is much better if you are administrator.

Regards
Ks