There are various ways to give your user community access to Linux
applications, without wiping the hard disks of their PCs. The most commonly
used ones are to give a user a second PC which runs Linux, to install a
dual-boot environment with Windows and Linux, or to install Linux into a
virtual PC environment such as VMware. But none of these methods provide a
smooth and transparent mixed environment because the user will need to
explicitly switch between the Windows and Linux environments.
Back in the old days, I managed mixed VMS and Unix environments. Although
these two are very different platforms, both supported X Windows. Using the
network capabilities of X, I was always able to create transparent mixed
environments, where users would have only one workstation, but ... (more)
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network protocol that
sends network configuration information to computers (and other devices) on a
network. It allows a system administrator to manage an IP address range from
a central location and to maintain network parameters for all systems from
that same central point.
DHCP is an internet standard, published as RFC2131. Implementat... (more)
Over the past few months I've had lunch with a lot of old friends who were
techies 10 years ago, but are now IT managers at large financial
institutions. Linux came up in the conversations with most of them, and I was
surprised by the misconceptions they have about the whole open source
environment. I ended up debunking the myths that seem to exist around Linux.
This is how most of my co... (more)
Earlier this year, I dealt with a small company with three users. They also
had three servers:
300 MHz web server running NT4 Server and IIS 233 MHz file server running NT4
Server 500 MHz mail and database server running NT4, Exchange 5.5 and SQL
Server 7.0
The services were split across three machines to spread risks. Through their
firewall, only the web server was fully visible from the... (more)
Herman Verkade is a UK-based, independent consultant who specializes in the management of large-scale heterogeneous environments. Over the past 22 years he has worked mostly with financial institutions in the UK, the U.S., and continental Europe.
Doug Warren
Bob Snyder
Alf Pilgrim
Per Sjofors
Kirsten Lytsen
Data Recovery Services
Colin Armitage
