Re: LINUX Workstations -- MIDRANGE-L

Paul Stagnoli wrote:

Greetings!

Actually Joel is right; it is better to take the plunge if you want to try
Linux. A Pentium II with a good video card and 128 meg RAM will work great
with any Linux distro. You should be able to find those "doorstops" anywhere
for cheap or free. Use a KVM switch and you don't need to waste the cash on
an extra monitor...

This of course depends on what you want to do. If you just want to access your as/400 and do office type work, that will do fine. If you are trying to predict the weather I recommend something with a little more power. My current work machine is a K6 450 MHz with 256M ram. Previous was a pentium II 220 MHz with 128M ram. Both are fine. The pII is now our main mail server.

If you have your heart set on keeping some windows programs, take a look at
http://www.codeweavers.com. Their product allows windows programs to run
natively in Linux. It's kinda spooky to see an IE icon on your Linux
desktop, but it works slick. Codeweaver supports Office 2000 and a version
of Quicken (I forget which). It has a 30 day trial period. There is also
http://www.winehq.org.

I would really recomment just using the linux software instead of the MS stuff. IE sucks (doesn't follow web standards and on windows is a security nightmare - on linux that isn't a problem), MS office is an over-priced bloated elephant that locks your data away from you. There are several web browsers on linux that more closely follow web standards and are easier to use (and run MUCH faster). Abiword and open office both have excellent, MS compatible, word processors. Gnumeric and open office also have excellent, MS compatible, spreadsheets. Gnucash is a personal finance program. And tn5250 (from tn5250.sourceforge.net) is the Greatest 5250 Emulator In The World (tm). (Note: I have a small bias in favor of tn5250).

You're probably out of luck with OPSNAV, but you could try loading it on a
Linux box with the Codeweaver product or WINE to see what happens...

True for now. Of course, we never run ops nav here - we use green screen for everything. So not having it is no big deal to us.

Since this thread started with a question about using linux and the iSeries together, let me mention some things about that:

1. Network security. We use linux to protect our network (and iSeries). It has firewall tools built in. Without any additional cost or software you can configure linux as a very advanced firewall. Since linux is not vulnerable to the many MS problems it is more secure and performs well in this role. Of course there are security and vulnerability issues but on a much smaller scale (i.e. no machine of mine has ever had problems - ever).

2. 5250 connectivity. More than one 5250 emulator exists for linux, including one from IBM. Of course, the premier emulator is tn5250 from tn5250.sourceforge.net. Again, I'm a little biased in favor of that particular one :) But in my experience it never crashes, starts up immediately, uses negligible resources, and is very full featured. It does lack some things, but adds others. It includes console, X, and gtk interfaces, a range of printing options including PDF and postscript, a seperate printing daemon which allows the print session to run continuously even after all users log off, a helpful mailing list, and even documentation.

3. Transparent iSeries filesystem integration through NFS. This is how networked filesystems should work. The users shouldn't be bothered to remember to map a drive or hunt through the network for a share. NFS allows you to mount an iSeries filesystem on your linux machine (or vice versa) in a transparent way. Users don't care (and shouldn't) where their data physically resides and shouldn't be forced to hunt around for the physical drive that holds it. Put the data where it makes sense according to your storage model instead of making your storage model bend to your network topology.

4. Minimize maintenance by using smart displays. Remember dumb terminals? Reliable, easy to set up, low maintenance, not prone to user error. Smart displays are dumb terminals with more capabilities. As reliable and easy and error free as dumb terminals but with a graphical display. Using linux as the server (or any unix) these smart display have available every application that the server does. This means email, web, office apps, 5250, etc., etc., etc. all without having to maintain anything on any display. All apps run on the server (just like a dumb terminal) but display on the smart display (just like a dumb terminal). There are no moving parts. They can just be switched off. You don't have to upgrade them. Need more power? Upgrade the server and everything instantly runs faster on every display. Users need new versions of software? Upgrade the server and every user instantly has the new version. Suddenly maintaining your network is as easy as maintaining your iSeries.

There is more. Whenever I sit down at an MS machine I usually feel like there isn't much I can do with it. Sitting at a linux machine I have office suites, powerful graphics programs, math software, games, several interface choices, music software, audio apps, web browsers, email clients, calendars, the most complete and advanced development tools in the world, web servers, mail servers, news servers, ftp servers, streaming servers, all kinds of networking software, 3D modelers, chat servers and clients, etc. and all this stuff comes with the CD!

Of course there are caveats as well. linux (and unix) is not windows. It doesn't work the same way. It is easy to use for most users. But you shouldn't expect it to work just like windows did. Administration is very different. The windows skills you have developed in running your windows machines may not be applicable on linux and you may be left feeling like it is hard and difficult to configure. Be ready for new and different experiences. If you are the admin of a serious installation don't expect to be proficient on it right away. For a single user who runs his own machine it will be easy and intuitive. For the webmaster, postmaster, network admin, security officer, or windows filesystem admin it will be very different from what they are used to. Don't try to learn how to run a web server, mail server, DNS server, and file/print server all in one day. Get used to it from a user's perspective first. Then tackle those tasks one at a time. Once learned, you will likely ask yourself how you ever put up with all the crap MS forced on you. You will find that admin'ing a linux machine is a breeze, particularly if you have a lot a machines to care for. But many of the things that make it easy can't be done with a talking paper clip and a click. Like the iSeries and CL, many of the best tools are scripts that have to be coded.

James Rich