new hotness?

Thu Feb 19 17:13:37 MST 2009

You caught me.  I know this seems like flame bait so I will try not to stoke
the fire too much
1) You are correct about Knopix, but their are a number of specialty live
distros I have used over the years, including one base on widows xp. That
said these are primarily used for diagnostics and recovery not for every day
use.
2) For virtualization I am still a fan of VMware and have never found a
compelling reason to change. However, if you are looking to cram your server
full of less robust, but just as secure, containers OpenVZ really does look
like your product.  I have never been in this situation so I can not say how
it performs in an enterprise environment, but from what I have seen I like
it; but not as much as standard VM solutions.  Then again, to me Free as in
Beer is almost as good as Free as in Freedom; for many people here this is
not the case. The nice thing about VM ware is that if all you need is simple
virtualization, you can use their free products, but if you need the power
of this mid rang and higher end products you will not find anything better
and I can almost guarantee despite the upfront price your TCO will be lower.
Again, this is just my opinion based on my experience and I know their will
their will likely be a small flame war and so I apologize.
3) SmartMail does not look to be a true exchange substitute.  Perhaps I did
not see it in my quick look at their site, but the beauty of Exchange is the
collaboration components. Even simple items like shared calendars, tasks,
contacts, public folders, etc. are the core of exchange.  Not only that it
is an amassing platform for custom plug-in development extending it's
capabilities far beyond a simple mail server.  Exchange really attempts to
be the perfect PIM.  And, as buggy as it is I have not found a substitute
that is remotely close.  Though I have been tempted by some projects like
hula or a grouping systems like Zimbra, Suger, etc. together to take over
the functions of exchange, the cost was just way to high and the return was
negligible over exchange.  If all you need is mail, run postfix/SquilMail
and be done with it.  If you need other functions but can not afford to run
your own exchange server and BES just outsource your email to Google. Sure
Google is no substitute for exchange either, but it is a bit closer and it
is basically free.  And I take some exception at the "Exchange is hard"
stereotype.  Sure it is convoluted and patchy, but so are all Microsoft
products.  IMHO Exchange is no harder the any other MS server product. ;) 

Ok, now that I have dove in here, let me get the fire suit on before I get
roasted alive :)

  _____  

From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of Lisa
Kachold
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 3:56 PM
To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Subject: RE: new hotness?

No technical professional today can afford to not become familiar and
proficient with KNOPPIX including checking out the excellent O'Reilly
Knoppix Tools books that provide s-hexy solutions that defy nix arrogance to
trancend Microsoft, Apple and web systems tricks.

As for Linux based toys and tricks (as well as alternatives to Microsoft)
you might try:

OpenVZ: http://wiki.openvz.org/Main_Page

Virtuozzo was built upon OpenVz which is a great FREE Open Source Linux
based Windows and Linux virualization suite should you want to play with
multiple integrated web systems on one server.  Unlike VMWare OpenVZ has
great ROI cost (free) as far as bridge overhead and disk memory
requirements.  

A great cheap tool built upon OpenVz that uses Microsoft (Intead of Linux)
to create multiple virtual systems is Virtuozzo:   
http://www.parallels.com/products/virtuozzo/

Virtual Linux platforms are wonderful for a development web environments
that can host for development QA or Disaster Recovery.

I also recommend Vmware ESX server (now available for free download) which
allows you multiple virtual machines, including Solaris, Linux of many
versions, and Windows.   

Unlike "Open Sores" purists, I will play with an implement anything and you
can benefit from the experience with these Virts!

Also, for those professionals locked securely with one foot in a Gates World
and the other in Linus Land, check out SmarterMail: 

It's a wonderful and very cheap alternative to Exchange/Webmail that allows
for IM/iPhone access within range, Blackberry portals, mass marketing mail
plugins, domain keys and DKM (for ensuring deliverability) and really
reliable spam scraping and virus controls via that oh so horribly "difficult
to manage" Microsoft-ish interface.

https://www.smartertools.com/SmarterMail/Features/Windows-Mail-Server-Softwa
re-Webmail-Exchange-Alternative.aspx

obnosis.com <http://www.obnosis.com/>  | wiki.obnosis.com
<http://wiki.obnosis.com/> | (503)754-4452
PLUG <http://http//plug.phoenix.az.us>  HACKFESTS <http://uat.edu/>  2nd
Saturday Each Month at Noon - 3PM

> Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:51:55 -0700
> Subject: new hotness?
> From: cryptworks at gmail.com
> To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> 
> I have been looking about for the new hotness as it were. and
> wondering what dis has something really groundbreaking that makes it
> worthwhile to look at.
> 
> I guess part of me is tired of the flavor of the month distributions
> that are esentially something else with a new look and a slightly
> different package base or whatnot.
> 
> for example Fedora Directory Server is very interesting to me, because
> whether we like it or not this will be a windows heavy world for some
> time. but what else is there that i cna really sink my teeth into. or
> even whats worth doing that with?
> 
> My personal list of Distributions i have spent some real quality time with
> 
> Ubuntu/Debian
> Fedora/Red Hat new and old/Centos
> Suse/Opensuse
> Gentoo
> 
> and a few other that more or less were a repackage of one of the above
> 
> -- 
> A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
> rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.
> 
> Stephen
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