You can’t spell Windows without WIN.

Setting up the new office (including some rack servers), I have come to truly appreciate not just how EASY a Windows server installation is, but truly how mature and stable Windows is compared to Linux.

Wanting to install the same setup as our offshore partner, we installed Fedora 6, the Sun JVM, Apache, and Tomcat on our app server.  We had already installed Windows server 2003 on two other machines – one for a doc server, and one for a SQL server.  These installs went flawlessly, all patches were easily applied, and the servers are humming along, doing the jobs they were selected to do.  Notice I didn’t say “the jobs they were DESIGNED to do”.  Windows servers can easily fulfill a number of different roles easily.  If only it were that easy with Linux.

The install itself was painfully slow, the patches took FOREVER, and then the VIDEO didn’t even work right.  I had to monkey with it for hours before it actually was even usable.  Once I got to installing the Sun JVM, I had to actually call in an expert – my buddy Josh.  He made reasonably short work of installing everything, but even he couldn’t get it all working exactly right (to be fair, he had limited time to stay – onoy about four hours).

Now I understand that Apache is a great platform – and that Java on a Linux box works just fine – that is why we selected it to use as our platform for thousands of clients.  But come ON.  I’m a pretty knowledgeable guy when it comes to things computing.  If I can’t install the server software, how in the WORLD would anyone ever consider using it for a vanilla user on the desktop.  And now with Vista coming out, it would appear that Microsoft is safe forever on the desktop.

You heard it here first.  Or second.  OK.  Millions of people have said it.  Whatever.