Making Unix Play Well With Others

By Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2009-04-15

Gather together a bunch of people who speak different languages, and it is, believe it or not, possible to accomplish things. You'll just have to put up with what looks like a game of charades or long pauses while everyone uses different dictionaries. It's best to skip that sort of stuff when dealing with operating systems.

Linda Musthaler recently wrote about a man named Luis who's a senior Unix administrator. She stated, "Luis' employer has a mixed variety of Windows, Linux and Unix workstations. . . . These devices are located all around the world - some in main offices in places like Houston, London and Kuala Lumpur, and others in remote and inaccessible places like offshore platforms and vessels. What's more, a single user could have as many as five or six login IDs to access various applications at different sites."

To resolve these problems, Luis turned to Likewise Enterprise from Likewise Software.

It's now supposedly much easier to have everything communicate, see who has access to different things, and to either take away that access or grant it to more people. At the same time, individuals don't have to remember a half-dozen logins, and can instead just stick with one identity.

Since Unix doesn't exactly have a huge market share, Unix professionals should keep solutions like this in mind. Unix's footholds can be kept (and new ones may be established) so long as it's able to coexist with other operating systems.

About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.