How can an application like SUSE 10.1 Linux Server support connections up to 100 Windows Vista/7 Workstations?

3 Comments

1. johntrottier says:

   5. September 2010 at 09:50

   The program that does the heavy lifting is Samba, an open source program that appears to Windows machines as a Windows server.
   Samba has the ability to manage user shares, public share and network security. It can act as a domain server and authentication system an well as a print or file server.

   The only limitation Samba has is computer power and memory. If you want to handle 3 or 4 computers on a home network, just about any old box from the closet, with some RAM added and the dust bunnies blown out will serve as a good base. Load your favorite distro, (I use OpenSuse) load and configure Samba, and set up your network drives. You are off and running, My latest box has been on line for about 3 years now, no muss no fuss.

   But if you are in a commercial setting with a hundred users, you are going to need more RAM and more horsepower than a used P4 can give you.
   So you get a dedicated server with a couple of multi-core processors, pack it with 5 or 10G of RAM, set up your RAID Array, load your OS and Samba and there you have it
   An industrial grade server.

   How can it do this? Because that is what Linux is, an industrial strength, multi-tasking, muti-threaded, multi-user, muti-processor aware OS.
   Remember that Lixux has it’s roots in Big Iron and Unix. This is where Linux shines, and leaves MS in the weeds
2. Eddie Waltz says:

   5. September 2010 at 09:50

   Because it is a network operating system. That is… kind of what they do.
3. Adrian says:

   5. September 2010 at 09:50

   A Linux server does not require the "CAL" licensing of a windows server, so it can host as many as you wish within reason. Linux has no limits on connections (using Samba for example).
   Default connections for workgroups is usually 10 connections for Windows, and a server requires licenses for 100 users (lots of $$$)