Comment Re: We actually looked at it (Score 1) 57
Exactly. On Linux you can automatize system administration very well with FOSS. Yes, you have to use different tools, but, for example, SSH-ing into a box with certificate-based authentication when it is up is trivial. Scripting that way is trivial. Even a doing a full installation (on top of a minimal one) this way is trivial. Doing updates this way is trivial. All with the security mind-set that UNIX was designed with from the start.
We were successfully managing 1,500 Windows and Mac desktops with exactlyone Windows Admin and exactly one Mac Admin, along with a DBA/Report generator person to help admin staff get the reports/data they needed.
We had absolutely zero interest in SSHing into individual desktops to run scripts - managing the desktops with Group Policy was a simple, well-known mechanism. I don't mean this as a disparaging judgement, but your comments are really about today, 15 years after the fact - I'm talking about the state of the systems in 2010, not 2025, and your comments make me think you've never seen how a well-run windows shop is administered.
You missed his whole point. You don't need third party software to administer an unlimited number of Linux boxes, you can script it with built in tools that can connect and manage the box. For Windows admins who want to manage Linux there is also GUI tools.
I'm not even going to mention that you can migrate the OS and all the installed software onto newer hardware remotely and have it run for 30 years by multiple migrations and regular software upgrades.
Windows is PITA to manage but I guess it's what you are used to.