Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 11:25:43 +0930 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: abelits@phobos.illtel.denver.co.us (Alex Belits) Cc: info@pagecreators.com, isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD and NT Message-ID: <199707230155.LAA04715@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.970722115258.13936A-100000@phobos.illtel.denver.co.us> from Alex Belits at "Jul 22, 97 12:14:07 pm"
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Alex Belits stands accused of saying: > On Tue, 22 Jul 1997, Rod Ebrahimi wrote: > > and would really like to use FreeBSD on our systems. One of the reasons we > > are skeptical and would rather use NT is mainly setup time > > Even if FreeBSD required more time to install than NT (it doesn't) > the choice of the operating system for a large HTTP or mail server > that should be running for many years based on its *INSTALLATION TIME* is > the most wrong thing, ISP can make. It's like to choose the car closest to > the dealer's office because it takes less time to walk to it. This is salient. > > One of my questions is are you > > familiar with any people and/or firms that have experts that will help us > > through our setup in the Southern California area? > > If you can't do it yourself using the documentation that is supplied > with the system you are not qualified to operate an ISP of any size. It's > impossible to be as much clueless about system to need someone's help > installing it, and then operate a complex network environment that an ISP > requires. You need to permanently hire a sysadmin (even the most clueless > one, but who knows how to configure network). There are a lot of people > who can do this job, but definitely _not_ as one-time installation. Place > an ad in some local newspaper, and they will answer immediately. This is _very_ relevant, and a major cause of grief for new service startups. You _must_ have in-house expertise, or a _lot_ of money to pay contractors with. Attempting to establish yourself without strong, dependable networking expertise is extremely foolish. Alex is virulently opposed to the idea of using NT for your platform; I would add a couple of points which might help stiffen your resolve. I note that you're already interested in FreeBSD as a platform, so I'm not going to try to slag NT unnecessarily. - You have no control whatsoever over the software that you would run on an NT system; if you don't like how it behaves, you're stuck with it. By contrast, all of the tools for BSD systems are available in source form. There is a vast amount of collected experience with these tools available in terms of customisation and day-to-day operation. - The support community for FreeBSD is diverse and awake 24/7. It won't ask you for a credit card number. It won't lie to you to save its face. If something is broken and hurting your business, we take it personally. If you want something fixed Real Fast, it can be done. If a new security hole is found, you can be sure that it will be fixed quickly, and the tools required to close it made available immediately. - If you don't like the toolset you've chosen, you have plenty of migration choices which don't abandon your investment in data or expertise. - FreeBSD will perform significantly better on most systems than NT. This can be a significant factor in the early days of a startup business where capital has to be carefully watched. In addition, there is a great deal of user community knowledge regarding hardware. -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[ ]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[
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