Linux is steeped in myths. And like most technologies that offer an alternative to a de facto standard, these myths keep many business owners leery of moving from Windows to Linux. Busting some of these myths may change your mind.
If you're in the business of myth-making, the IT world is a good place to make your fortune. And few technologies are as steeped in myths as Linux. Myths are great entertainment, but if you run a small or midsize business and need to make sound IT decisions, they're confusing. And sooner or later, that confusion will cost you time, trouble, and money.
Before you decide whether -- or where -- Linux belongs in your business IT mix, let's bust some Linux myths.
Myth 1: Windows + Linux = Network Headaches
This Linux myth, like many, grew around a kernel of truth. At least it used to be true, but not anymore.
Samba was developed in the early 1990s to enable Unix and Unix-like operating systems, including Linux, to provide file- and print-sharing services for Windows client systems. To accomplish this task, Samba provides open-source implementations of dozens of Windows services and a dozen once-proprietary Windows networking protocols.
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For quite a few years, Microsoft took a dim view of the Samba team's work. The result was a nasty cat-and-mouse game: Microsoft would issue software updates that broke Samba, and Samba's developers would respond with their own updates, often within days or even hours.
Eventually, Microsoft's undeclared war against Samba -- and by extension against mixed network environments -- backfired. Antitrust regulators in the EU and elsewhere took notice, and the company's own customers, many of whom were using Samba themselves, complained more frequently. As a result, Microsoft didn't just quit breaking Samba; it published its Windows networking protocols so that the Samba team, as well as other open-source developers, could use them more effectively.
Microsoft may not be the most popular company among open-source developers, but there's no denying that its relationship with Samba has changed dramatically over the past five years. Andrew Bartlett, Samba's creator and chief developer, now claims that he has a very cordial relationship with Microsoft's own engineers.
How cordial? During the process of developing the upcoming Samba 4 release, Bartlett and his colleagues spent a week at Microsoft's corporate headquarters, working on compatibility and bug-fix issues. Microsoft also provided a copy of its Active Directory schema to the Samba team, which plans to introduce an Active Directory-compatible server in Samba 4 -- yet another major step that will simplify the process of managing mixed Windows-Linux networks.
Go To Step-By-Step: Moving Your Server To Linux
Next Page: Myth 2: Linux Lacks Business-Class Finance/Accounting Tools
