Microsoft

I posted a message in a forum about Microsoft software, I figured I would post it here as well to share it with anyone else who comes here:

For us end users that live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have the extra money to rent videos or order in very often can’t really afford to go out and spend thousands of dollars on Microsoft software and the hardware necessary to run it … We have to find other alternatives … I think the majority of these people sink a bunch of money into robust hardware and then look for the “copy that floppy” solutions for the software … In my case, “copy that floppy” isn’t going to fly running on the public side of the Internet, so I looked for other solutions that didn’t break my wallet and weren’t illegal …

When I started, I wanted to be “legal” so I purchased NT4 in November 1999 for $799 … 2000 came out in February, and guess what? I wasn’t eligible for the “upgrade” so I had to pay for that as well …

Shortly after Microsoft had an offer if you ran 25 domains (hosted) that you could join their Web Hoster Program … It included a FREE copy of Windows 2000 Advanced Server … so I took advantage of that, and this is what my Windows hosting is based on now …

Over the course of the last 3-4 years, I have had the trials and tribulations of running Windows in hosting environment, and getting the most out of their servers … Every other piece was a 3rd party piece of software because Windows didn’t support it in a hosting environment or it was too damn expensive …

The mail server I ran was $1495 for unlimited accounts/users and allowed the end customer to manage their mail server … Now, with the SPAM and virus stuff, the price has gone astronomical … That’s when I started into the FreeBSD for the mail solution … before that, it was just something to dabble with … but the attraction of the MySQL server vs. MSSQL server was there too … I have (and still) been using Access Databases on the Windows Servers … (Which I bought Microsoft Office ($600) just to get Access) …

Running Counter-Strike, I couldn’t afford the lag that the software firewalls put on that much of a demanding server, so I brought up a Mandrake box and ran the CS Server on that … No worries of meanies getting into there on a machine with no firewall … Actually, Mandrake ran Shorewall, but it really wasn’t necessary … It did stop portscanning though … Which is 24/7 …

The Windows boxes started failing in February 2003 so I had to move the DNS off of there cause when they went down, there was no access to anything here … Finally with your help [person who this message was directed], the cause of the “crashes” were determined to be ZoneAlarm, so I have built a FreeBSD Firewall … to maybe remove the ZoneAlarm firewalls from all of my Windows machines …

All of this happening over the course of the last years, and I came in very Windows proficient … Born of the IBM Mainframe and the early IBM compatibles … Coming from an environment where I was doing networking and C programming at home where the business I worked at had XTs and ATs, I had a lightning fast 386 … DOS was my utter friend … I was a BAT file master … I was also the communications specialist … getting leased lines up and modems talking to mainframe, minis and micros … and putting the VTAM entries in for all of them … Windows was fun to mess around in, but I really lost interest when they took away my booting to DOS, and running C:\>win when I wanted to … I was now forced …

I think realizing all of this makes me understand why I am so comfortable in a FreeBSD environment … although I could probably mop the floor with most MCSE’s certificates … I thought about getting one of my own, but I figured what’s the point? I am not up for a job or anything [that requires or demands this cert] … and knowing what I know about the value that an MCSE Cert holds, I would figure most employers would know this too … And, as we’ve already determined, I’m cheap … But I do have the Core 4 Sybex books and did plan on pursuing it …

So why do I type all of this? For [person with FREE access to MS software] … Realize that we don’t all have an MSDN subscription, and anything we want to “play” with we have to purchase … Free trials are bogus cause they’re never long enough … and if it works, and we’re into it, we have to buy it, and then, it’s a couple grand we’re looking at again … Not to mention the fact that we’re limited to one operating system, and for some, this isn’t acceptable … It’s why I chose C way back in 1991 … Mostly ANSI except for operating specific file system structures …

So this defines my “outperforms” statement in that Linux/FreeBSD is FREE to download, FREE to install and FREE to run … You’re also FREE to delete it and not feel a loss … It runs lightning fast on lesser hardware … To me, this is a very good product not to mention the stability that it brings my network … So much more so than the Windows machines … Maintenance goes on … “apachectl graceful” no downtime …. IIS? about 5-6 minutes of downtime … If a patch goes on something else, Windows = Boot … BSD? rehash; restart service … I am just seeing way better benefits in my line of work for the FreeBSD machines …

Corporate American can afford the inflated price tags and inflated hardware requirements … Americans can’t …