[ Thanks to Vince Foti for
this link. ]
“Alantro’s engineers use PC’s running Linux for their desktop
machines, and use high-end PC’s running Linux and HP workstations
for their computer servers. Using Linux provided a uniform
environment for the workstations and PCs. Linux was the hands-down
winner over Windows NT for Alantro’s application for several
reasons. The engineers are very familiar with the UNIX shell
environment; not so for NT. And all their tools are written in C to
run under UNIX….”
“It didn’t make sense for Alantro to buy software licenses for
engineers who work at home intermittently. The company set up a
virtual private network (VPN) so that remote users could have
transparent access to network resources at the main office.”
“Linux, along with other open-source, free software, such as
secure shell (www.ssh.fi) and pppd, permitted the company to set up
an encrypted, secure VPN between the engineers’ remote PCs and
office servers. Alantro first considered FreeS/WAN when
setting up the VPN, but felt that network system didn’t have good
support for systems with dynamic IP addresses. Alantro ended up
with a system similar to that described in the VPN how-to
(metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/VPN.html).”