Call him Vlad. He’s the top dog in Orlando’s Small Business Server IT Pro Association… runs a large global enterprise-class network of Microsoft servers… and holds a fistful of Microsoft certifications, including MCP, MCSA, and MCSE 2003.
![[Vlad Mazek, Exchange guru]](http://www.trimmail.com/news/images/jpg_vlad)
A Microsoft evangelist who breaks and fixes thousands of servers and then goes around telling others how to do it as well. My focus is on keeping messaging and communications secure.If my face looks familiar, chances are, you’ve seen me present at a local Microsoft event. I’m at all the Microsoft (SST) shows in Florida usually wearing a blue ExchangeDefender shirt talking about security, hackers, spam and helping folks figure out their Exchange.
No doubt about it. Vlad is a true-blue Microsoftie, through and through.
That’s why it was somewhat surprising to see this on Vlad’s blog:
Woohoo, bigger and better than ever. Over the weekend I finally threw away Google’s Blogger service and ported all of my posts and comments over to my own servers. The upside is that there are a whole lot more features and things I can do with Vladville now that I could not do with Blogger. The downside: spam. I feel its a good tradeoff and I am sure it will be easier to handle than all the downtime and mistakes Blogger used to make.So here it is - fully powered by WordPress on CentOS Linux 4.3. There is still a Windows 2003 box behind the SBS Show for media streaming but that will soon either disappear or be upgraded, I have not fully decided how I’ll be streaming future media content off Vladville - but you can bet there will be a LOT!
Dumping Blogger… check. Moving to WordPress… check. Apache over IIS… check. CentOS over Windows… ch… Whoa! Stop the tape!
Sensing a news story, your humble correspondent asked the Windows warrior, “What the heck?”
Vlad explained:
Well the frontend box was always Linux, it was just powered by Blogger so it was a plain Apache. We used Windows + SQL 2000 for the backend and distribution of the SBS Show which gets like 40-60,000 downloads per episode so we had to get crafty about distributing it.But with the upgrade we just decided to standardize that end of things on Linux/Apache.
“So,” we smirked,”You’re saying crafty heavy lifting demands Linux.” (Hey. We always smirk.)
Not so fast.
Vlad says, “We migrated to Linux purely because of the costs. Despite popular belief, Microsoft does not give its MVPs free production software.”
Anybody listening in Redmond?
With 40-60,000 downloads per show, you might think Vlad’s headed for cable TV. When questioned to that effect, Vlad responded, “Ever heard of the phrase: You have a face for radio?”
As the attached pic demonstrates, he’s too hard on himself.
Vlad’s current episode is Managed Services with Mobitech. Let us know what you think.
Email Battles Backgrounder:
- Survey of Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Reviews: Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!; Email Battles; 12 April 2006.
- Hardcore Microsoftie: “Anybody purchasing ActiveX driven software should be fired.”; NewsByte; Email Battles; 07 April 2006.
- Microsoft Employees Rage As Internet Explorer Ship Sinks; Email Battles; 03 January 2006.
7 comments
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April 18th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Mike Adams
Speaking of cable TV, did you know your TIVO runs Linux (http://www.tivo.com/linux/linux.asp)
Google and Amazon also run Linux. Nuff said
April 18th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
BJ Gillette
You know, I was just bragging to Vlad about how the changes to our site had brought off-topic comment spam to zero.
And now you’ve gone and made a liar out of me.
Guess I forgot to knock on wood.
April 19th, 2006 at 12:30 am
leonardo
The saying goes something like this:
Do as I say, not as I do.
I think its quite serious for someone promoting microsoft to do it over another platform, and worst of all, when this is at the server side.
Its not the cost that made them use Linux, its the cost/benefit ratio, as in every sensible operation.
Congrats Linux! You got one heck of a user.
April 19th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Scott Alan Miller
Although Microsoft does not offer their MVP’s “free” software it does offer production software to its partners at fractional cost compared to commercial sales that is licensed to be used in situations such as this (the license is a little tricky but not bad.) Vlad is basically saying that Linux is cheaper for a Windows MVP to buy and manage than Windows is, even when the number of machines necessary would be available through the partner program at near zero cost (near zero is, of course, a relative term.)
It has always been widely held that the lowest TCO was earned by the systems for which you have the most in-house expertise. I am not saying that Vlad does not have Linux/UNIX expertise but he obviously has Windows expertise in spades. What statement does this make about the cost/performance of Windows when it doesn’t make financial sense in the strongest of Windows shops?
April 19th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
scott_R
I still wonder how MS decided on the sales pitch, “You’re too dim to use Linux, so use MS products instead”. This guy’s case isn’t unusual, I know quite a few MS admins who run mostly F/OSS for their personal use. The usual reason for keeping their users on MS products is job security. No one wants to have to justify their employment, and MS bugs offer a constant reminder that these admins need to stick around. It’s sad really, all the time spent on useless reinstallation-type work, instead of infrastructure improvements.
April 20th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Wortly Web Walker
The thing you are not considering is that this is one of the best of the best. Vlad is not a beginner. Vlad actually knows more than one OS inside and out. Vlad is NOT typical.
What you get with Winders iz thu ease of use and everything “in the box”. What you simply DO NOT GET without paying $$ for is that in any totally free version of Linux.
So you see, if you are totally a Linux OS nutcase, then you could with low TCO do this sort of thing, but without eons of experience you’d spin your wheels. I’ll bet if Vlad measured his hours in dollars, then his TCO would be high. But for the 5-9’s 99.999% who are LESS mental-OS Giants like Sir Vlad of Microsftie-ville you would get a huge time-factor, on top of the real cost of a non-free Linux OS.
Granted it’s getting better all the time. But I wounder if Vlad used a LAMM or LAMP stack?
LAMM= Linux, Apache, MySql, Mono
LAMP= Linux, Apache, MySql, Python (or Perl or one of the other Ps)
I bet he’s using Mono to do CLR to the Winders Werld.
Dan.Wygant.org, Senior dotNet Software Developer @ Trideum.com
06′ 05′ 04 MVP Windows Server 2003 - Customer Experience
INeta.org (User Group) Membership Manager for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
Founding Board Member for Culminis.com
Founder VSdotNetUG.org HUNTUG.org
Founder HowToVS.Net SIG
April 20th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
BJ Gillette
When you think about it, Vlad’s Linux work makes terrific sense:
1. Microsoft says it’s going to support mixed Windows/Linux networks.
2. MVPs who don’t roll up their sleeves and learn Linux may be left behind.
Thus, Vlad’s on the cutting edge of a crew that will feel free to select the best tool for any specific job.
That will probably turn out to be a boon for MVPs, and a double-edged sword for Redmond.