From: "Joe Barr" 


The following rather excellent rant is circulating the Internet today:




This is a message to clients of Terminus Network Services to apologise for
the unscheduled downtime that has been experienced earlier today, and to
advise that the problem has now been resolved.  The downtime is believed to
have resulted from a denial of service attack against our network caused by
a worm (or virus) that spreads using a security bug in Microsoft SQL Server
software.  Although our network does not use any Microsoft software, the
denial of service attack can affect other Internet-connected devices.  A
new router is now in place to replace the device that was affected by the
attack, and rules have been put in place to deflect future attacks arising
from the Microsoft SQL Server worm.

As an aside, we would also like to take this opportunity to caution all our
clients against the continued use of Microsoft software, particularly on
servers.  The security record of Microsoft software is, on any view,
appalling.  Two years ago, independent IT consulting firm Gartner
recommended businesses to immediately cease using Microsoft's Web server
software, stating "Using Internet-exposed IIS Web servers securely has
a high cost of ownership... Nimda has again shown the high risk of using
IIS and the effort involved in keeping up with Microsoft's frequent
security patches."  Regrettably, many businesses have ignored
Gartner's warning, as the latest crippling network attacks demonstrate.

In our view it is no longer necessary, and you should have no confidence
that it is safe, to run any Microsoft software on your network.  Please
consider using the following mature, high-quality open source software to
replace your current insecure Microsoft-dependent network:

TO REPLACE THIS                         CONSIDER USING THIS
- ---------------                         -------------------
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server           Linux (and Samba if needed;
or Microsoft Windows NT                 http://au1.samba.org)

Microsoft SQL Server                    PostgreSQL Object Relational
                                        Database (www.postgresql.org)

Microsoft Exchange Server               Exim (http://www.exim.org)

Microsoft Internet Information          Apache (http://www.apache.org)
Server

Microsoft Office                        OpenOffice.org
                                        (http://www.openoffice.org)

Microsoft Internet Explorer             Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.org)

Until recently, it is fair to say that the use of open source software to
completely replace proprietary software was not a real option for most
office networks.  Now, that is no longer true.  Many businesses, schools
and government departments are turning away from Microsoft right now.  The
Federal Government is in fact holding a seminar next month on how
departments can make the switch.  When you switch to Linux, you can also
forget about being forced to upgrade, or paying annual licence fees. 
Worrying about software audits can also be a thing of the past.

Australian research shows that the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a
Linux-based office network is 34% lower than an equivalent Windows network,
including the cost of hardware, software and support. Additionally, Linux
is immune to almost all computer viruses.  Although bugs and security flaws
are found in open source software, since code is peer-reviewed by thousands
of paid and volunteer programmers around the world, the bugs are typically
found and corrected within hours, rather than days or weeks.

Another concern that was previously raised about making a switch to Linux
was that support is unavailable; for example some of our clients ask us,
"What if Terminus Network Services goes out of business, I wouldn't
know where else to turn!".  This need no longer be a concern, with the
establishment of the Society of Linux Professionals (WA)
(http://www.slpwa.asn.au), a professional association for Western
Australians using Linux and other open source software to provide
technology solutions.  Many highly qualified consultants are members of
this Society.

Linux is now incredibly easy to use, even on the desktop.  If you can use
Windows XP, then you can use Linux, and you don't need to sacrifice any of
the functionality that you now take for granted.  Exchanging data with
Windows users is not a problem either, since modern open source office
software such as OpenOffice.org is able to import and export Microsoft
Office documents seamlessly.  You can even run many of your old DOS or
Windows applications, if you really need to, by using the open source
Windows emulation software, WINE.  (Alternatively, you can run
OpenOffice.org and Mozilla on your existing Microsoft Windows machines.)

Last week, Australia's annual national Linux Technical Conference was held
in Perth.  In attendance were speakers and representatives from
organisations such as IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard (who are
all investing heavily into Linux), along with some of the world's leading
open source developers including the original developer of Linux, Linus
Torvalds.  I presented a paper at the conference, and came away with the
strong impression that the ascendancy of Microsoft has reached its peak,
and that open source software such as Linux will begin to attain dominance
in a matter of years rather than decades.

Although this may seem like a lengthy diversion from the main topic of this
message, which was to advise you of the cause and resolution of our network
downtime today, I do seriously recommend that you consider whether you can
continue to afford running Microsoft software on your network.  If you
would like to discuss the available alternatives, I would be happy to
discuss them with you.  Please also feel free to obtain independent advice
from Linux Australia (http://www.linux.org.au) about how more and more real
organisations are making the switch every day.

- --
JEREMY MALCOLM  Managing Director, IT Manager, Terminus Network Services
Web sites: http://www.terminus.net.au http://www.linuxconsultants.com.au
Disclaimer: http://www.terminus.net.au/disclaimer.html.
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