[ILUG] a few general linux questions

[John P . Looney]

On Mon, Dec 11, 2000 at 04:47:38AM -0500, odonovan_peter1 at emc.com mentioned:
>  -  Is its software packet filtering package, ipchains being used as a
> firewall by many companies or due to its limited security
>     or companies almost mandatorily forced to buy dedicated solutions like a
> Cisco's PIX

 It's being used by a company called Watchguard (www.watchguard.com) as a
"redbox" firewalling solution. IPChains is very, very good.

>  -  Is it popular as a fileserver through Samba or is NFS the perferred Unix
> solution and the mapping of drives/disk administrator 
>     the perferred option for windows. 

 NFS is the preferred Unix solution. I believe that SGI used to ship Samba
with IRIX as it's method for mounting Windows shared folders.

>  -  What about as a router, mailserver, web server, dns server etc.etc.?
>  How widely used and for what purposes is Linux becoming the industry
> standard ??

 Over half of all Compaq servers shipped last year run Linux. Telia junked
a load of Sun machines recently to run linux on their IBM mainframe, to
save money (it'll run dozens of virtual linux machines). ITG in Ireland
couldn't run without Linux. RTE are running their new 2500 user mail
system on linux backends. SOCC (www.socc.ie) are teaching computing
through Linux. 

 It's used for everything. And works. What more do you need to know ?

 To be honest, don't look at "what the people next door use". That's lead
to the way the industry is today. Try linux out in your situation, and
see does it suit you.

Kate

-- 
 When I say 'free', I mean 'free': free from bond, of chain or command: 
to go where you will, even to Mordor, Saruman, if you desire. " 
    -- Gandalf, paraphrasing the choice between Free and Non-free software