Re: [Linux-aus] Re: [ALLIES] Re: A Linux for Students project idea

[Del <del@babel.com.au>]

Evan Tait wrote:

> I'd like to know where you're getting your XP licenses from.  Because 
> $500 per, is a MAJOR rip job.

So, typically, where do you get them from and what do you pay?  Because
if you go into Harvey Norman and ask for an XP license off the shelf,
that's about what it costs.

> Servers are a mixture of Windows 2003 and Linux (gentoo) and a PC-BSD 
> box i'm toying with.  The windows servers are used just for Active 
> Directory/Domain Controller, File Storage and backups, and  Citrix 
> Server.  The Linux machines are for WWW, Mail, mediawiki, mambo, and 
> other misc services.

And where do you get your CALs?  Or, like most organisations, are you
running illegally?

One of the major licensing changes introduced with the Windows 2000/
2003 series servers (from NT and past work-alikes) is that with NT you
only had to pay for a CAL to access the server as a file share.  If
you just used the server for printing, or just used it as a PDC/BDC
for authentication, then you didn't have to pay for a CAL.  Now that's
no longer the case -- with Active Directory you have to pay for a
Windows Server CAL for all authenticating clients.  So, if you have
Linux desktops and a Windows server then you basically end up paying
for a Microsoft CAL for each of your Linux machines.

So that means pay up for your edubuntu and gentoo/citrix desktops.
The servers too if they authenticate to ADS.

One thing you may want to consider is switching to samba for your
file and print services (obvious choice) and also move to something
like Fedora Directory Server for authentication rather than ADS.
You can run FDS as an authentication back end to samba, giving you
multi-master, multi-domain controller capability and better LDAP RFC
compliance than ADS, while still being able to support both Windows
and Linux clients, and without the high cost of CALs.

--
Del