Re: Anybody using a "real" Linux domain?

From: Robert Heller (heller_at_deepsoft.com)
Date: 05/27/05 

Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 13:17:03 +0200

  Bill Davis <bdxxxxx@hooya.moc>,
  In a message on Thu, 26 May 2005 19:25:55 -0400, wrote :

BD> This is not a request for a cookbook answer of "How do I ...?" I am just
BD> wanting insights from folks who may have done the following.
BD>
BD> I assist the full time techie at a fairly small school district, part
BD> time. They have 99% windows desktops, 5 Novell servers and a coupla of
BD> windows 200x servers.
BD>
BD> Due to some disguntled vendors, the school board (all of whom are
BD> definitely NON-techie) has been convinced by the local legal staff (all
BD> one of them) that Microsoft is right in their claim that a windows license
BD> is only good for the machine that it was sold for. That is, if you throw
BD> the machine away, you also have to throw the license away.

Yes, this is in the *fine print* of the EULA. The license is
'non-transferable' -- you cannot transfer it to a new machine. (Newer
versions of MS-Windows will balk if/when you only 'upgrade' your
computer, since the installer takes a 'snapshot' of your hardware
configuration.) It is not even legal to sell a used computer complete
with the M$ software, *unless* you have all of the paperwork AND
original media and all copies. If you don't have all of that, your are
*supposed* to wipe the disk clean. It is illegal for a corporation to
donate used, working computers to schools, etc. unless they wipe the
O/S off the machine. *Microsoft* will sue! (*Microsoft* *has* sued
organizations who have taken older (donated) computers and made them
available for impoverished school children.)

BD>
BD> To me that is total BS. If I buy a refrigerator for my house, then later
BD> move to another, can Sears say that I have to leave the box behind and
BD> purchase another one for my new house because the "license" for that
BD> icebox is only good for the place to which it was originally delivered?

It IS BS, but it is *legal* BS. If *Microsoft* sold your refrigerator,
you would indeed have to leave it behind when you move... Listen to
your lawyer, he knows what he is talking about -- you really don't want
Microsoft's legal staff landing on your doorstep...

BD> Not as long as Texas allows the ownership of shotguns, it doesn't. I have
BD> pointed out that we have a documented legal license for every PC that
BD> windows is installed on. However, board members don't put legal advice
BD> from a techie over that from a lawyer.

But if you toss one of these PCs (because it has died or is too 'old'
(slow, not enough memory, small disk, whatever)), you have to toss the
'documented legal license' for that machine away and *buy a new one*
for the replacement machine. Note: Microsoft *won't* sell you a new
Win2K license. You would have to get a *new* WinXP license or a
Win2003 Server license (many, many dead heads of state). As I said
above -- you may have to get a new license even if you only upgrade the
machine (eg new disk, more memory, faster CPU/Motherboard). And
Microsoft *new* licensing system may mean that you have to get new
licenses every year, *even if you don't buy new computers*.

Note: software 'licenses' are not *prof of ownership*. You don't *own*
the software, you only have a 'license' to *use it*. Since you don't
own it, you cannot sell, trade, or otherwise transfer ownership of it --
you can't sell or trade or transfer something you don't own.

BD>
BD> But, there is a good side to the above crap. Since we can either buy
BD> textbooks or new windows licenses, the textbooks won out and we have to
BD> find a cheaper way of doing business. Guess with what?
BD>
BD> We have been gradually installing Linux in areas where a single function
BD> can be identifed and removing that function from whatever Winbox it was
BD> on. Such as our Proxy and Surf filter (That saves over nine thousand
BD> dollars a year), firewalls, SANs, programming labs, web server, etc. The
BD> process has been slow enough that we can take our time and make sure that
BD> the new solution works as good or better than the one it replaced.
BD> Desktops have to wait till be handle the servers. But everything that has
BD> gone before can almost be considered to be standalone applications.
BD>
BD> Now it is time to plan for the next big leap. Replacing the Novell and MS
BD> server domain that covers the 5 campuses. No small thing, because Novell
BD> does a lot and it does it well and it does it without worms and viruses
BD> and 5 critical patches a week. I have been researching domains using SMB,
BD> LDAP, Kerberos, etc, etc, and obviously Linux will do the same thing - I
BD> am just not sure how well. In our Novell books and docs, domain
BD> management is the bulk of the text. For Linux, domains are mentioned in a
BD> couple of paragraphs at the end of a miscellaneous chapter. The few LDAP
BD> books I have found are too vague to help much and are unsatisfactory.
BD>
BD> So, anybody out there driving a one-logon Linux domain, as opposed to just
BD> a bunch of servers? I would like to know your opinions along with what
BD> you are using.
BD>
BD> Thanks
BD> Bill Davis
BD>

                                     \/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: heller@cs.umass.edu
http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || heller@deepsoft.com
http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153

        

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