Novell's acknowledgment that Linux is part of the enterprise will make the lives of network admins all over the world easier.

Rodney Anderson; Manager, Software Support and Training
White Systems
Rod.anderson@fkilogistex.com

Most IT pros who are experienced in administering Novell, Microsoft and Linux servers would agree that NetWare is much easier to maintain, upgrade and run.

There are fewer weird glitches with Novell's products than with Microsoft's. With Novell, you set it and forget it. Also, Novell has a far superior knowledge base and documentation to consult whenever you do encounter a problem. Novell's ConsoleOne is an easy-to-learn administration tool, and NDS beats Active Directory hands down for ease of administration and directory replication.

As for Linux, it is making great strides but still leaves a lot to be desired in ease of administration. Far too much tweaking needs to be done to make a server secure. Webmin, while a step in the right direction, requires a lot of work.

The Linux community needs to learn some lessons from Microsoft and Novell. Wizards are important. GUIs are important. Consolidated administration consoles are important. Clustering, firewall, caching and driver installation demand improved ease of implementation.

I know that Linux diehards would slap me silly for thinking Linux should be user friendly for administrators. I am sure they'd point me in the direction of several pods, forums and discussion groups on Linux administration. Don't bother, guys. Linux should, and one day shall, out of the box be easy to install, administer and use--for more than basic tasks.

Jim Blake; Owner/President
The Wizard Computer Studio
Jim.Blake@twics.ca



Red Hat Red Flag
Christopher Beers says he installed Red Hat 9 Linux on a 200-MHz machine with 64 MB of RAM and 2 GB of disk space ("Latest Red Hat Delivers Key Apps," June 13, 2003). He was very lucky. I tried to install Red Hat 9 on a Dell Optiplex with the same processor and memory and 9 GB of disk space, and at the end of the process I got the following message: "You are trying to install on a machine that isn't supported by this version of Red Hat Linux." Then the install aborted. To make matters worse, by this time it had wiped out Red Hat 6.2, the prior installation.

If you check www.redhat.com, you'll see that Red Hat no longer certifies specific machines as Red Hat 9-compatible. The company provides only a list of certified components. If any of your components do not appear on the list,

I would be very wary of trying to install Red Hat 9.

Patrick Sharkey; President
PLS Computer Systems
psharkey@intergate.ca



Business Sense
At first glance, Mike Lee's proposition in "Business Certification for IT" (June 13, 2003) seems to make sense. IT pros do need some degree of business acumen. But the issue is far more complex.

First, no certification beats real-world experience. We are now seeing a backlash at certified "professionals" who are able to pass an exam but have no real experience whatsoever. Most of the high-salaried MBAs who were hired brand-spanking-new right out of college several years ago are now gone because they could not outwit an experienced data-entry clerk in the spare parts department.

My second point concerns organizational differences in IT departments. In midsize to large IT departments, there is specialization and stratification that necessitate viewing the issue of required business knowledge quite differently. For example, in large organizations, a LAN manager probably will never need to know a credit from a debit. However, she may need advanced project-management training. An individual database programmer may not need project-management skills, but he may need to understand accounting practices and the flow of orders through the corporate structure.

An IT manager needs more of the administrative skills related to budgeting, and personnel and project management, plus knowledge of other departments' roles and goals. And, of course, IT managers need political skills.

You might think I'm against the type of certification Mike Lee discusses, but I'm not. For a person who's just jumping in to the IT business or has just been promoted, certification can be a nice way to say, "At least I understand the theory," before gaining the experience he or she needs.

John L. Petry; Manager, Information Systems
Hi-Speed Checkweigher - A Mettler Toledo Co.
john.petry@mt.com



Clarification
The distinction between user administration and access to Web services was unclear in our Sneak Preview of Service Integrity's Sift ("Sift Shows Potential," August 7, 2003). User administration is lacking, but access by Sift to Web services is controlled via integrated Windows authentication and is configurable via IIS.



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