Meanwhile, several packages can help you integrate Linux into a NetWare environment. MARS (Martin Stovers NetWare Emulator) lets Linux emulate a NetWare 3 (bindery) server; we implemented it with little trouble. Caldera and Novell have been working on porting NDS, along with some supporting components, to Linux. At press time, OpenLinux v1.3 could support a replica of the NDS tree and serve as a NetWare/NDS client, but NDS was not yet integrated with all the services. OpenLinux v2.2 solves this by introducing PAMs (Pluggable Authentication Modules) that support NDS, letting any "PAMified" service use NDS as its authentication mechanism.

An amazingly powerful tool, PAM allows for the separation of services from the underlying OS authentication mechanism. For example, with a PAMified version of the Apache Web server, users can be authenticated using a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) server rather then the standard .htacess file. Using the many PAM modules available, authentication for services can be directed to LDAP, NIS (Network Information Services), RADIUS, NetWare, NT Domain controllers or any other mechanism supported by PAM. The power of PAM gives integrators and ISPs a flexibility unmatched by any other OS.

By supporting Apache as the Web server of choice, Linux joins the ranks of more than half the world's deployed Web servers. According to the most recent Netcraft study of more than 5 million systems, Apache commands approximately 56 percent of the total Web server market.

Combine Apache with the back-end support of C, C++, Perl, Python, tcl/tk, Java, php and a legion of other languages, and the Linux/Apache combo is a hard act to beat in terms of overall flexibility and functionality. Caldera also ships Netscape's Fastrack as an alternative to Apache. While Netscape Enterprise Server is not yet available for Linux, Netscape has announced that Linux has become one of its three core platforms. Again, usage parameters should be considered when looking at deploying Linux as a Web platform. Organizations firmly committed to development suites, such as Microsoft's InterDev studio, are in for a tussle if they use Linux as the back-end Web server. However, those with the resources to embrace more standards-based solutions in their development efforts will find Linux to be quite functional, and often superior.

Database Support Still Immature
One of the most significant events for longtime enthusiasts is the release of Linux versions by the large database vendors. In the grand scheme of things, however, this is a baby step. While Linux can really haul ass as a file or Web server, scaling individual Linux servers to massive levels can be a chore, and in some cases, an impossibility. For example, the support for terabyte-sized file systems that has long been the norm with traditional Unix platforms is not possible under Linux. Although journalized file systems are in development, they're not yet available. And support for threading and SMP is still new. We were able to recompile our 2.2.5 kernel for SMP support without incident, and while it proved stable, the simple fact that we were playing with makefiles and compilers would have been an issue in itself for some administrators.

Clustering is another area in which Linux lags for mainstream corporate needs. The Beowulf project hit the mainstream this spring by matching the world record holder, a Cray T3t-900-AC64, in the PovRay benchmark test--a computationally intensive rendering application. IBM constructed the Linux cluster using 17 Netfinity servers and Red Hat Linux. Linux clusters have been popping up in education and aerospace research facilities for some time now. A few production Linux clusters even rate among the Top 500 most powerful computers in the world (www.top500.org). Organizations seeking raw, high-end computational power won't find a more cost-effective solution. But Linux clustering is little more than academic. Web services, databases and general high-availability services that would benefit from Linux clustering haven't matured yet.

There's another large hole in the supporting cast for the enterprise backup space. While Linux has an assortment of backup solutions, large backup packages, such as ArcServe and BackupExec, still lack Linux support. This creates a major disconnect, as Linux servers can easily plug into existing NetWare and NT deployments for file sharing. However, administrators trying to unify their backup strategies may be out of luck when deploying Linux. We tested some of the more solid backup solutions, including EST's BRU package, and while BRU performed flawlessly, it is a separate backup solution--it wouldn't let us tie into our enterprise backup systems.