UNIX v Win2k

[Chris Cox]

Sasso, John IT wrote:

 > Although I'm a UNIX bigot and believe that Internet info services such as
 > DNS should be run on UNIX boxes, I have to second Barry's point. 
Having a
 > UNIX box with a GUI interface with all the bells 'n' whistles to 
manage BIND
 > is not sufficient enough for a non-UNIX (Windows) administrator.  It 
is not
 > uncommon to have to do troubleshooting, performance tuning, security, and
 > other config mgmt of the UNIX box that requires knowledge of the OS 
itself
 > and, at times, the internals.  GUIs don't do everything for you!  As one
 > needs to learn how to crawl before one can walk, one should 
understand how
 > to manage a UNIX box at the command-line/text file level before resorting
 > entirely to GUIs.
 >
 > Despite my UNIX slant, I agree with Barry.  If your business does not 
have
 > anyone with UNIX experience (and assuming it cannot afford to hire 
someone
 > with such experience), then sticking with BIND on a Windows box (or 
Win2K's
 > DNS) may be better - for the sake of managing the servers.


Sounds good... certainly the exact kind of reasoning that Microsoft
is counting on.  However:

1. People who do not understand DNS should not administrate it.
2. Many DNS issues (I would argue) would take a VERY sophisticated GUI
     (one that I believe DOES NOT exist).  Otherwise, you are probably
     going to have to greatly limit what the server can do.

I have not met an MSCE (or whatever) that knew "beans" about DNS.
And if they did, I imagine they would eventually get frustrated
with Microsoft's limited view on DNS and eventually move to BIND
(even BIND under Windows).

Btw... I was thinking of turning Microsoft's feature... the one
where any DDNS client can store whatever they want into the inverse
zone and possibly building some kind of instant messaging
app on top of it. :-)  (are we sure we want Microsoft to handle
DNS and DHCP issues?)

Chris

-- 
Christopher J. Cox, LCA, LCI
Sr. UNIX Systems Administrator
Sterling Commerce, Inc.
469-524-2320