A.P. Lawrence

SCO OpenServer-The Windows Network Solution

Order (or just read more about) SCO OpenServer-The Windows Network Solution from Amazon.com

You don't hear much about Advanced File and Print Server. I think there are at least a few reasons for that, including that the product is usually not understood and that for most folks the functionality of Visionfs is all that they need.

If you don't already know, Advanced File and Print Server is effectively Windows NT 3.51 running under SCO Unix. It's not Merge, and it's much more than Visionfs: it actually functions as a (3.51) NT domain controller, PDC or BDC.

If that were it, then the unpopularity of this product would be deserved. However, as the authors of this book point out, there are advantages to having this run as a Unix application, for example being able to administer the domain completely from a Win95 desktop.

However, many of the "advantages" touted for this product are honestly just the advantages you'd get with NT. Actually, I'm not even sure that each of them can't be done with readily available add-on software, including the administration aspects.

True, if you already have a SCO box and need an NT PDC or another BDC, this may be a sensible way to do it. But even I, SCO bigot that I am, can't completely swallow their idea that you'd want to do this just to have a domain controller. There is also the fact that this is an NT 3.51 version, and NT 5.0 (which will radically alter the concepts of PDC/BDC) will be out fairly soon.

If you are even thinking about running AFPS, you probably want this book. Otherwise, don't bother.

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