Abstract

Our computing environment consists of hundreds of UNIX and NT-based computers. We have a coherent UNIX software installation model that scales comfortably to hundreds of machines. We have spent a great deal of time in the last year learning to understand the software installation and support mechanisms for a similarly large NT infrastructure. In this paper, we examine the underlying requirements for large-scale software installation support, and compare and contrast the NT and UNIX environments, identifying strong points, weak points, and issues.

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