3 ms·

Our school's IT department just upgraded the server we run Moodle (an open source CMS) on from Windows Server 2003 to Ubuntu Desktop. They used the desktop ver

Our school's IT department just upgraded the server we run Moodle (an open source CMS) on from Windows Server 2003 to Ubuntu Desktop. They used the desktop version of Ubuntu because no one in the 13-man IT operation knew how to use Bash. We hackers live in a gated community. I've seen people in shock when they find out someone doesn't run Linux as their main OS. I was flabbergasted to find out none of our IT folks knew how to use the terminal. tl;dr The double bell curve of tech talent is still in full swing.

mtowle 14y ago
What school do you go to? If you don't mind my asking.
- RKoutnik 14y ago
  Roberts Weslyean. Tiny college in Rochester, NY
rogerbinns 14y ago
It doesn't really matter that they used the desktop version. The packages are all identical. The kernels are compiled slightly differently (server kernels have longer time slices) but you won't really notice that. I lived through the era of Windows trouncing Unix. A major reason why it happened is because people were familiar with Windows on their desktop and found the gui tools easier to use on their servers. The various Unix vendors did start coming out with graphical administration tools, but many of them were pretty dire. Using Ubuntu Desktop on the server means they can use it on their desktops and become familiar. And maybe they will eventually graduate to using command lines, but they don't have to for a lot of administration.
- gnosis 14y ago
  "I lived through the era of Windows trouncing Unix." On servers? There was no such era! Windows never dominated the server market. Sure, there were some companies that were Windows shops, but most servers were and still are unix/linux. "A major reason why it happened is because people were familiar with Windows on their desktop and found the gui tools easier to use on their servers." This might be true for mom & pop shops where the servers were run by desktop users, but on the enterprise level where corporations could afford their own sysadmins, Windows is and always has been a minor player.
  - jrabone 14y ago
    Are you sure about that? Novell / NT Domains, then subsequently Active Directory has been a big part of every large corporation I've worked at over the last 20 years. Externally the web servers might be UNIX, but internally the infrastructure is heterogenous and the office stuff (authentication, email, etc.) lives on Windows.
  - dagw 14y ago
    Every major corporation I've run into in the past decade is deeply invested in MS Exchange and Active Directory and all the server infrastructure that brings with it. Sure the company home page might be served off a Linux box, but inside the company Windows Servers tend to rule.
  - rogerbinns 14y ago
    You'll find the small and medium business especially back then adopting Windows servers. I can assure you they were not adopting Sun (Solaris), HP/UX, Dec Alphas etc. SCO was fairly successful (Compaq sold about a billion dollars a year of hardware for SCO Unix), and a major reason was because SCO offered graphical administration. But Windows NT was killing that. (Note I worked for SCO but not in the operating systems group.) Even for the Enterprises you'd find widespread Windows NT adoption. Sure some core backend servers ran Unix but the servers users used were predominantly Windows.

mtowle 14y ago

What school do you go to? If you don't mind my asking.

RKoutnik 14y ago
Roberts Weslyean. Tiny college in Rochester, NY

rogerbinns 14y ago

It doesn't really matter that they used the desktop version. The packages are all identical. The kernels are compiled slightly differently (server kernels have longer time slices) but you won't really notice that. I lived through the era of Windows trouncing Unix. A major reason why it happened is because people were familiar with Windows on their desktop and found the gui tools easier to use on their servers. The various Unix vendors did start coming out with graphical administration tools, but many of them were pretty dire. Using Ubuntu Desktop on the server means they can use it on their desktops and become familiar. And maybe they will eventually graduate to using command lines, but they don't have to for a lot of administration.

gnosis 14y ago
"I lived through the era of Windows trouncing Unix." On servers? There was no such era! Windows never dominated the server market. Sure, there were some companies that were Windows shops, but most servers were and still are unix/linux. "A major reason why it happened is because people were familiar with Windows on their desktop and found the gui tools easier to use on their servers." This might be true for mom & pop shops where the servers were run by desktop users, but on the enterprise level where corporations could afford their own sysadmins, Windows is and always has been a minor player.
- jrabone 14y ago
  Are you sure about that? Novell / NT Domains, then subsequently Active Directory has been a big part of every large corporation I've worked at over the last 20 years. Externally the web servers might be UNIX, but internally the infrastructure is heterogenous and the office stuff (authentication, email, etc.) lives on Windows.
- dagw 14y ago
  Every major corporation I've run into in the past decade is deeply invested in MS Exchange and Active Directory and all the server infrastructure that brings with it. Sure the company home page might be served off a Linux box, but inside the company Windows Servers tend to rule.
- rogerbinns 14y ago
  You'll find the small and medium business especially back then adopting Windows servers. I can assure you they were not adopting Sun (Solaris), HP/UX, Dec Alphas etc. SCO was fairly successful (Compaq sold about a billion dollars a year of hardware for SCO Unix), and a major reason was because SCO offered graphical administration. But Windows NT was killing that. (Note I worked for SCO but not in the operating systems group.) Even for the Enterprises you'd find widespread Windows NT adoption. Sure some core backend servers ran Unix but the servers users used were predominantly Windows.