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Date:      Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:54:24 -0600
From:      Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com>
To:        User Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Replacing Windows with FreeBSD (was: my brother is making me learn FreeBSD...)
Message-ID:  <20080321225424.GC67561@demeter.hydra>
In-Reply-To: <38031.125.214.252.140.1206032495.squirrel@webmail.superhero.nl>
References:  <000001c88a5c$82d01b40$887051c0$@com> <59945.203.127.42.92.1205999937.squirrel@www.superhero.nl> <47E21DD1.9000806@skoberne.net> <9136.203.127.42.92.1206002915.squirrel@www.superhero.nl> <47E2336A.5050207@skoberne.net> <20080320163946.GB26515@demeter.hydra> <38031.125.214.252.140.1206032495.squirrel@webmail.superhero.nl>

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On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 01:01:35AM +0800, Gelsema, P (Patrick) wrote:
> On Fri, March 21, 2008 00:39, Chad Perrin wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 10:50:34AM +0100, Nejc Å koberne wrote:
> >>
> >> So you are saying that merely setting up an OpenLDAP server with proper
> >> DNS
> >> configuration and Kerberos authentication could replace Microsoft AD
> >> controller?
> >> How about a group of controllers with all the failover features? Group
> >> policies?
> >> Are you sure you could do that just with a "bit of tweaking"? If there
> >> are
> >> Microsoft
> >> specific features, than FreeBSD can't do anything Windows server does
> >> and
> >> more. I
> >> am really skeptic about joining a Vista into such a domain. I would
> >> really
> >> love to
> >> see ONE guy who achieves that. To _completely_ replace Windows server
> >> with
> >> all its
> >> features with FreeBSD Anyone?
> >
> > Full AD parity is expected with the release of Samba 4:
> >
> >     http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035-6053709.html
> >
> > WINS capability is already available in ports with the samba4wins port,
> > by the way.
> >
> 
> WINS is required mostly for Browsing networks, Master browser selection
> and Netbios connections (the infamous 13x ports). However Microsoft is
> really trying to get rid of Netbios connections and only have made it
> available for backwards compatibility. If I aint mistaken port used for
> file connections is somewhere in the 400 range.
> 
> It is definitely not required for a full Windows Domain and for file-sharing.

True.  I'm just not sure how that's particularly relevant to what I said.


> 
> > In addition to that, as I pointed out in another email, FreeBSD can
> > *easily* provide all the same functionality -- though MS Windows clients
> > may not support all the necessary protocols and client applications
> > needed to take full advantage of that functionality in some cases.  In
> > fact, FreeBSD supports software that does a far better job of being a
> > server or client in an MS Windows network than MS Windows does of being a
> > server or client in a BSD Unix network.
> 
> <snap></snap>

I'm sorry . . . does that mean anything?  You've lost me.


> >
> >> The most important thing: we are talking about ordinary users not a
> >> bunch of
> >> math professors who want to run every application from a shell. And
> >> those
> >> users
> >> want to use things nicely. For example, let's look at the mail system.
> >> You
> >> could
> >> put a Postfix+amavisd-new+spamassassin+Horde+postfixadmin+ ... bla bla
> >> stuff on
> >> your FreeBSD server (I actually run this on many servers). But in that
> >> webmail,
> >> you are not able to manage your spam quarantine for example - you have
> >> to
> >> logout
> >> of Horde and login to Maia Mailguard (before you have to install that
> >> too),
> >> which
> >> is complicated for users. The problem of "mail" is then cut to so many
> >> little
> >> pieces that it may affect user efficiency. The problem with
> >> concatenating
> >> so many
> >> opensource products is that it is hard to make them work together like a
> >> charm.
> >> Microsoft usually (!) provides that (naturally, because it produces all
> >> those
> >> pieces).
> >
> > You don't have to run everything from a shell with FreeBSD.  What do you
> > think this is -- 1994?  Even manpages can be accessed with a GUI
> > application.
> >
> > Microsoft does *not* provide everything people need.  When someone uses a
> > piece of software that isn't produced by Microsoft, chances are good that
> > any MS software will have been designed specifically to make it difficult
> > to interoperate.  Meanwhile, a lot of open source software interoperates
> > very well.  Sure, if you limit yourself to nothing but MS software, you
> > might get really good integration -- but that's at the cost of reduced
> > security (thanks to lack of privilege separation and the ubiquitous use
> > of IE's rendering engine for pretty much every single application
> > Microsoft produces) and refusing to use a lot of software that Microsoft
> > doesn't offer.
> >
> 
> I find it really hard to change, finetune settings on windows. Changing
> default ports eg. The standard tools provided are limited and there is no
> default. THink about netsh and net commands.

Funny . . . I don't seem to have these problems.  Have you asked for help
here?


> 
> Also security wise. You need to give more permissions to an account to do
> something than you should on Freebsd. Chrooted applications for instance.

Say what?

. . . as opposed to MS Windows, where about 50% of what someone needs to
do on a given day requires escalation to administrative permissions?


> >>
> >> I really am a FreeBSD guy, I run it for more than 6 years now and I like
> >> it
> >> a lot.
> >> But I learned to be reasonable and not to say that it is in every way
> >> superior to
> >> everything else in the world.
> >
> > When did anyone say that FreeBSD was "in every way superior to everything
> > else in the world"?  You must be reading a different discussion than the
> > one I've been reading.
> >
> 
> My point exactly.

. . .

You lost me again.


> 
> >>
> >> Still just talking, not fighting.
> >
> > I'm just offering a perspective and asking a couple of questions.
> 
> Thanks for your insight. I have been spending a bit more time on this
> topic than I normally would on a topic. It is really that I dont have the
> time otherwise I would have tried to work out to replace all the
> functionalities provided by MS with Freebsd ones.

It took me a while to get around to replacing all my MS Windows
functionality with Linux functionality -- but it just sorta happened,
naturally and without real effort, over time.  I found myself using
Debian GNU/Linux more and more, and using MS Windows less and less.

The migration from Debian to FreeBSD was pretty much an overnight affair.
I got a new laptop, installed FreeBSD on it, and haven't had to look back
since.  Everything I need it to do so far it does as well or better, with
the exception of support for Flash newer than version 7 -- and, really,
that's not a big deal at this time.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Kent Beck: "I always knew that one day Smalltalk would replace Java.  I
just didn't know it would be called Ruby."



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