> On Thu, 2 Nov 1995, Brian 'MegaZone' Bikowicz wrote:
>
> > It is being discussed. There is some demand for it, but since UNIX is the
> > preferred OS, and much more powerful anyway, demand from the UNIX userbase
> > is much, much higher.
>
> Then those of us who would like to have RADIUS for NT either have to get
> together and do it on our own (a possibility) or simply scream louder. I,
> too, would like to hear about anyone working on an NT port of RADIUS. NT
> is where the real $$$ is at, whether we like it or not. I know I don't,
> but in order to stay long-term employable in this business, I'm going to
> have to get very comfortable with NT.
Considering NT has sold only 600,000 units compared to OS/2's 11 million
or to the 30 million seats connected to UNIX systems, I fail to see the
logic of your statement.
> There is far, far more financial
> resources devoted to making NT the "one" enterprise networking OS.
This sounds too much like the "one true religion". I have faith that the
world is ready willing and able to support diversity in network OSes just
as diverstity of religion, culture and language is supported.
> $$$ is what counts, unfortunately.
But not development $$$. It is the consumer and the corporate customer
whose $$$ count and those people are not won over very easily. In
livingston's case they have stated that the $$$ are behind UNIX, i.e.
their customers are clamoring for better UNIX support and not for NT.
This is all rather ludicrous though. What if Livingston sold a box called
a RADIUS server? Would you buy one to do authentication for all your
Portmasters? Is suspect that yes you would since it does not have the
words "general purpose computer running an OS that competes with NT"
etched on the side. In fact, anyone can easily and cheaply build just
such a box by taking an old 386 with 4 megs RAM and 100 meg hard drive,
install Linux from a CD-ROM (or FTP Slackware from the net), install
RADIUS and set up a script to ftp a user list from your NT network and
rebuild the /etc/passwd file every hour. Voila! Problem solved. Who cares
what OS the special purpose RADIUS server is running. In fact this
solution works just as well in an OS/2 shop or a Mac shop as well.
Michael Dillon Voice: +1-604-546-8022
Memra Software Inc. Fax: +1-604-542-4130
http://www.memra.com E-mail: michael@memra.com