If I only had mod points... Thank you, it is nice to see another intelligent being alive here.

Isn't it only a problem if you return to Earth or another planetary body?

Awesome info thanks for sharing. Wish I had mod points left for you.

I've seen this happen as well too.

I seriously doubt the OP will be able to justify the move the OSS. Your Microsoft rep will drop the cost of all your software purchases with a Campus Agreement to below what it would cost your university to use OSS.

OSS isn't free. There is the costs of training and implementation... and finding well qualified employees to run your systems will not be easy on a education budget. Don't forget support costs!!!

I'd highly recommend calling your Microsoft rep and start negotiating. I doubt you'll be able to justify OSS to management. What you will be able to do is get a campus agreement and provide software to your whole campus community and pick up premier support for your sysads for close to what you are already paying.

I will warn you that you are moving into Microsoft's subscription model doing this, but you will win concessions by doing this.

If you always end up at home the net work is zero.

Gee thank you for the informative post. I'm sure Java has ways to compile to native machine code and other tricks to optimize run times...

But the nice part about .NET is optimization is built into the system. No need to be a guru, your hello world application will be compiled to native code. Not to say your crappy code is optimized... but that is a completely different story.

.NET is typically faster than Java because code is compiled into native machine code after the first run and doesn't have a VM in the way.

There are compilers for PHP to help boost performance above what you saw in your testing.

I've had the privilege of meeting Jeremiah Grossman at a security conference. I'd recommend reading several of his white papers and then decide if you want to call his company up. I doubt they are cheap, but the best rarely is.

http://www.whitehatsec.com/home/index.html

Does it not seem odd to you that the only competitor for Windows file sharing recommended here is a open source clone of the same technology they are trying to replace?

There is a reason why Windows servers are so popular and it is no one makes directory services, file sharing, group policy, and email/calendaring as easy as Microsoft. Microsoft has been so successful at creating these services and making them simple to administer that most open source projects try to emulate/replicate/duplicate what already has been done.

So stay up on your soap box saying how much better the open source version is...