On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 05:36:09 -0700, Axel Dahmen wrote:
>
> The major software used on the Workstations is also available in the
> Unix World (Star Office, CD - Burning Software, Graphical Tools,
> Multimedia Software, Mailers etc.) and for the few programs which are
> not there is wine, which hopefully can handle the rest.

The applications are the only real "issue" with making the switch. As
long as you are happy with the *nix offerings, everything else in the
"conversion" is rather trivial.

> First of all there is the Question of the operating system to use:
> Should I use Solaris 9 X86 or RedHat 9?

Though you will hit holy wars on this from some people, you should really
choose the OS that you are more familiar and comfortable with. Some data
points:
- Solaris is really made for the Sun's Sparc boxes. Of course they have
he x86 port and their marketing may say different, x86 is by far a second
lass citizen in the Solaris world.
- Linux's "primary" platform is x86. Of course it's ported to nearly
everything including your toaster, it's most comfortable place is x86.
- Linux is going to support much more "PC" hardware and gadgets than
Solais will.

> The Operating Systems GUI should be easy to handle (for my wife an
> kids who are used to the MS Stuff).

Both support and "ship" Gnome. Sun's installation is very basic and ships
with very few applications and tools installed. Linux is pretty much
ready to go.

> Then, the next and for me most important thing is:
> What do I have to do / what software do I need to have an equivalent
> to the MS Domain Logon?
> I want to (keep, as I have it now) 1 passwd with the actual users on
> my central RH9 Fileserver (Samba PDC), so that I doesn't have to
> bother with local logins on the Workstations.

The answer for both Linux and Solaris is to use LDAP to manage all of the
user accounts centrally. Then you can share out the home directories with
NFS.

Good luck,
Chris