What is the scope of Coexistence and interoperability of Linux
with other environments ?
These days, there are little to no limitations depending on where you
want go. Microsoft says this all the time. Before I post an answer,
Here's a little bit of information about myself:
Been working in the field of IT for about 3 years.
Obtained Information Systems B.S. Univ. Maryland.
Certified MCSE, Sun Certified Network Administrator, and Cisco
Certified Network Professional.
Currently work for the federal government in a hybrid Windows and
UNIX/Linux environment with over 300 workstations and 50 servers.
Windows and Linux can coexist using a variety of tools today. For
instance, users can log into the network using LDAP, and there are
numerous articles stating that Linux OpenLDAP can interoperate with
Microsoft's Active Directory (Naming Services) via central
administration. You can also use something called Samba which provides
the ability for UNIX systems to read and write on Windows network
shares and Windows machines to seamlessly see UNIX shares via "My
Network" under Windows. Restrictive permissions for UNIX shares are
set based off the Samba (Samba.org) setup for user-based and
machine-based accessability.
Samba can even be configured to see network printers. Some samba
implementations are being used to convert Linux machines to complete
Domain controllers for a network to replace NT4 Primary Domain
Controllers. With this implementation, users can't tell the difference
as to whether or not they are logging onto a Linux box or not.
In any case, every operating system as it's strength, with Linux being
stronger as some type of service such as web, file, firewall,
database, and development.
For Windows, you can use it for the same services, however, most
reviews show that there are too many exploits developed for the
Windows platform due it's widespread use and security vulnerabilities.
In my current environment, Windows is primarily used for users who
need to send emails, perform research, and compile office documents
using Microsoft Office and Microsoft Visio. Whereas the UNIX servers
are used for firewalling and web services. Where uptime is critical
you will find that UNIX seems to get the job done without the
headaches of maintaining Microsoft.
I also do some development for UNIX using perl. Perl can be developed
on Windows as well with a slightly different syntax, but easily
adaptable. Of course, with the introduction of C#, Windows has a
completely different closet of programming tools including the suite
of Visual * Languages such as Basic, Foxpro, C#, and Java. The .net
implementation on Windows is far more integrated than the use of C++,
C, or even Java. So as development is concerned, you'll find a
different use of programming tools than on UNIX. For web, you'll see
that languages such as PHP, and SQL are common, including ASP and
flash.
Ultimately, you'll find that the scope of having both Windows and
Linux in the same environment is entirely possible depending on your
needs and where you want to go. Each Operating System has it's
strengths, Windows on the front end,with UNIX at the back. |
