Alfredo writes:
>Everyone knows that the Mac and the HP3000 work "straight out of the
>box" whereas all flavors of Windows, Unix, Novell, etc. need a lot of tweaking,
>fiddling, wall climbing, and hair tearing.
 
There are signs of hope in the Unix world, though. In October, I bought a
new motherboard for my PC, and just for the experience of it, built up a
second PC out of the old (386/33) motherboard and some odds and ends for
I/O. I went to the bookstore and got a Linux book-plus-CD for $30.
 
Much to my surprise, Linux booted first time on the "old-new" box,
configured itself for the hardware it knew about, and ran flawlessly. It's
been running ever since and currently acts as a SLIP-connected
dial-on-demand Internet router, email hub, Web server, DNS nameserver and
Unix development system. Funny, that PC is more reliable by far in its
Linux encarnation than it ever was in its DOS/Windows encarnation.
 
I'm beginning to think that Intel boxes with Linux might become sort of a
"Swiss army knife" of the back office. For under $1000 -- maybe for $0, if
you were about to scrap an old PC -- you can have a single machine that
acts as router, firewall, terminal server, netnews server, print server,
email hub, web server, file server, or does any number of the dozens of
little jobs that need to be done in a small- to mid-sized computer
installation. All this software is FREE. Sure, NT Server will do all those
jobs too, as Denys is about to remind me. But NT Server is $700 or so, and
doesn't appear to be any more reliable. Of course, Linux is still a Unix
clone and wshs 2 b tlkd 2 lk 1. But these jobs don't require a loquacious
computer, or even a polite one; just a dependable one.
 
-- Bruce
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Toback    Tel: (602) 996-8601| My candle burns at both ends;
OPT, Inc.            (800) 858-4507| It will not last the night;
11801 N. Tatum Blvd. Ste. 142      | But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
Phoenix AZ 85028                   | It gives a lovely light.
[log in to unmask]                 |     -- Edna St. Vincent Millay