News from PANUG/BizNix - March 4, 2003 http://panug.org - http://biznix.org NETWORK SECURITY The PANUG and BizNix user groups are hosting a 2-day course on Network Security on March 11 and 12. The practical course focuses on security issues and problems that YOU can solve. It covers a wide range of topics. For details, visit the PANUG or BizNix Web sites or access the course information directly at: http://www.alcpress.com/courses/intsec1.html MICROSOFT BUYS CONNECTIX (aka The OSs That Would Not Die) by Alan Spaeth A few interesting (and related) points popped up at me in a recent article in InformationWeek. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030221S0034 The most obvious thing is that Microsoft has bought Connectix so they can add Virtual Machine technology somewhere down the line to the upcoming Windows Server 2003. This is apparently intended in large part to allow companies to run NT-based apps in a VM on Windows Server 2003 even though MS will have already dropped support for NT itself. One point Information Week doesn't make is that this may also be a "quick fix" bandaid to app compatibility problems with Windows Server 2003. I find it amusing that MS is apparently willing to support NT running in Virtual Machine software under Windows 2003 Server but not NT running directly on hardware! MS would rather support a more complex implementation of NT than the standard one they're used to supporting. This speaks volumes about MS's strong desire to sell Windows Server 2003 and their continuing difficulty in killing off NT Server. Some other interesting things are in the article's graph labeled "Upgrade Opportunity" showing the MS OSs reported as used by companies. Keep in mind that these "results" are from 325 respondents at companies that have already decided to adopt Windows Server 2003 (out of a likely highly unscientific total "sample" of 719 respondents). On the NOS side, although about 90% report using W2K Server (not surprising for shops already committed to moving to Windows Server 2003), about 75% are still running NT4 - this may include both Server and Workstation. On the client side, an unknown amount of the 75% running NT4 may be NTW instead NTS, about 60% of companies are still using Win98, and about 35% are still using Win95. And while about 90% of these truly committed MS shops report using W2K Pro, only about 75% of them report using any XP. It's important to remember that having even one PC running an OS would make that company show up as using the OS. This point applies across the board, from NT 3.5 to XP. I have to figure that the real rates of use for the OSs MS is desperate to kill are even higher than those above. After all, Information Week excluded the results from the 55% of their "sample" that hadn't already committed to implementing Windows Server 2003. Another article in InformationWeek appeared that is based on the same survey: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030214S003 This sheds some interesting light on those respondents selected as the basis for InformationWeek's "Upgrade Opportunity" graph on Microsoft OS use. Fully 45% of the total 719 respondents had no plans to ever buy or install Windows Server 2003. 10% said they didn't know. Everyone else was counted as a "Windows Server 2003 planned adopter" and included in the "Upgrade Opportunity" MS OS use graph. The 45% considered "planned adopters" turns out to consist of only 3% planning to implement Windows Server 2003 immediately on release, 9% within 6 months, 17% within a year, and 16% at least a year after release. Perhaps even more interesting, 50% of the total survey respondents said they planned to implement Linux in the next year. By comparison, only 45% were considered "Windows Server 2003 planned adopters" and an even smaller 29% were planning to implement Windows Server 2003 within its first year of release. As before, we have to remember that a respondent saying they use or plan to use an OS shows up in the results exactly the same whether it's one machine or many. The respondents used for InformationWeek's "Upgrade Opportunity" graph may be more weakly committed to following the MS path than I'd thought. It'd sure be interesting to know what the MS OS use rates are without first excluding, as InformationWeek did, the results from the 55% of respondents less inclined to doing things the MS way. FUTURE COMBAT SYSTEMS submitted by David May Boeing's Future Combat Systems has chose Linux as the platform for it's future systems. An excerpt from their announcement: Q) COMPUTERS - What Operating System will FCS use? Windows? VX Works? Lynxos? Linux? Other? A. FCS C4ISR has selected the Linux OS. http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/ic/fcs/bia/faq_c4isr_conf.html from Slashdot: "Last week, I left my 2 XP CDs on my dashboard in plain view. Someone broke into my car and left 2 more."