Network OS's (Was:Off Topic - Novell Contractor Needed)

[Jonathan Hutchins, Rune Webmaster]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy Fowler" <jeremy at microlink.net>

> First off, keep your replies to the group and learn to spell Novell
correctly.

Ok, how about if I just call it "NitWitWare"?  One "L", more or less,
doesn't change the facts.

> Have you even experienced the power of NDPS? Do you even know what that
is? It's
> Novell's Distributed Print Services and it is a God-send when networking
and
> managing Printers. You can automatically install drivers to a workstation
and
> set the default printer when a user logs in, you can move print jobs from
one
> printer to another in case a printer goes down, and you get Bi-directional
> feedback from the printers so you know what's going on. Those are just a
few of
> the many features that NDPS offers, compare that to NT print sharing and
see how
> it pails in comparison.

Um, gee, I can't see anything in your description that doesn't happen with
NT's printer sharing.

In any case, it does the job for the companies I've set it up for.

> > We've found NT to be extremely stable - the servers here have been
running
> > continuously since late 1998 without a crash, and the majority of
> > workstations simply don't have problems.  We had one rash of non-Windows
> > software crashes which we were able to solve by increasing the RAM to
128M.

> That is VERY hard to believe.

I really don't give a rat's ass if you believe it or not.  I work with it.
Are you expecting signed statements from all of the users here or something?

> Never really come into the TCP/IP generation... When is the last time you
worked
> on a Novell server?

1998, when I took 'em off line here.

Had to deal with some clients through 1999, but got rid of those too.

The plain fact is that Netware's TCP/IP stack never worked properly with
other systems, whether Microsoft, DEC, or various other Unices.  I've often
heard it proclamed by CNE's that Novelll was following The One True Correct
Standard, but if so they were the only ones, and it didn't work with other
systems without kludging.  There was a lot of talk at the Netware 5 rollout
about how they were going to fix all that, but the actual software fell
short as I recall.  It was about that time we stopped getting new orders for
Netware systems, so I didn't get to see how the subsequent patches dealt
with things.

> Maybe that's your problem, why don't you check out what they
> have today instead of viewing them as they were several years ago...

Last I heard they were still on version 5.x.

> Again, you are showing your ignorance... Your a victim of Microsoft FUD...

More like a victim of Novelllll field experience.  (I hope that's enough l's
to make up for the ones I missed.)