NethServer comparisons with other similar products

Sure, @vhinzsanchez just tell how can i help you.

I’he added some features in Table :slight_smile:

Thanks @Nas! @mabeleira, I’m not very knowledgeable with Linux, I just know enough working my way mostly through GUI, I’m a Windows guy trying my hands in Linux. I’ve just had an idea of side-by-side comparison of other similar UTMs or SMB servers as there have been several comparisons scattered here.

I should also say that I just don’t have the luxury of time for a complete comparison. I’ve started this because of the above reason, I wanted comparison which will include all in one place. It may also be used as a basis of NS to add some features if some would request because others have it :smile: . I’ve, however, enabled comments on the spreadsheet should you so wish to ad something. But if you do have some considerable amount of edits, I would suggest to PM me your gmail account so I can add you up as collaborator.

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@JOduMonT, thanks, I’ve already incorporated your suggestions and inputs. :smile:

my gmail is mabeleira add me and i’ll be glad to help you.

Just a quick glance and there’s quite a few features that should be checked but are not in the free version of Untangle.

I too don’t understand why UTM’s are included, but then I wouldn’t be inclined to bind a UTM and office server in the same package, not when it’s silly easy to run them side by side in a vm host. Even if I was going to use NS as a gateway, I would not use it as an office server.

@fasttech, I do understand that UTM and office features should not and must not be mixed together. Others without budget “might” deploy this kind of solution however discouragement effort we put into it. But a better implementation is to separate UTM with office/collab features on different server…preferrably both NS :smile:

What I’m trying to accomplish here are feature listing for easy comparison of similar products. As I noticed, there are some comparisons requested and some already done but is scattered. Lacking time, knowledge and skills, I am asking for inputs from community to chime in.

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That’s real! We know a lot of people who are used to have a unique installation… So I Iike your document, structure

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That’s another great comparison for an infographic. What do you think @SkintArtist and @apradoc ?

I think that’s a great idea, although I don’t think I am the best one to ask because I have limited use if any with most of these products. I did try to use Zentyal several years ago.

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I do agree with most of what your saying, but you have to remember that the regular user (lame-man) like me mostly cares if it can do what they need it to do with minimal effort. How it works on the back end is over looked as long as it does not brake every five min’s : )

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Correct, however, atleast we should have had a warning message that best practice is not to have security appliance with other features. BTW, regular user wouldn’t built himself a UTM, a hobbyist or junior IT (which, in some cases, can be considered hobbyist) perhaps, but not a regular joe.

Is there anyone who can help with Koozali features? @telekomiker @panzerphreak @jfranco @flatspin @kieronrob @Bluelake @i_combo

@alefattorini, i used SME before, so templatesystem is similar. Main difference IMO is the softwarecenter and the GUI of nethserver . I’m using almost the same features in nethserver as before in SME. Proxy, firewall, openvpn, squidguard, samba shares, snort, virtualbox. But in SME you have to install everything follwing the instructions in the contrib of the feature and always on commandline. This is not as comfortable as with nethserver-softwarecenter. The GUI of SME is really old-fashioned. IMO Nethserver is faster with updates because of directly centos mainstream updating. AND with SME you always have to reboot after updating.
Main advandage of SME is the really good documentation of the contribs themselfs.
But @stephdl knows SME best i think.

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Yep, a little bit and you have highlighted some bugs that I would solve for sme10.

The worse will be the Server-manager

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So you’re stating that NethServer is better just thanks to his software center and new fancy GUI :slight_smile:

How can we improve this part? We have already a page for every module, or not?

Hi @alefattorini it’s not only that. It’s the hole package.
But the software center is the biggest difference. No command line. No reboot because of everything.

Why I liked the documentation of SME was, that they were often somehow a mixure of documentation and howto. I learned a lot by reading those.

The admin manual of nethserver is straight and short. For a newcomer maybe sometimes to short with to low information about how to use the module. Maybe it’s an idea to give a link from manual to how to, if a how to exists to this topic.

And I didn’t look into the manual for some time. Now I did and recongized, that there are a lot of new topics. Some month ago some of them were not existing yet.

By the way: there is no direct link from the community platform to the documentation and the wiki with how to section. Is this possible? Now I have to go to nethserver.org to get to the manual. I didn’t find the link to the wiki. Of course I have bookmarks for them. But how to get to the wiki if I loose it?

To give an example: Sometimes you need database commands. In the manual is no entry about database commands. There is a database tutorial in the wiki. But the wiki lacks a matrix about database values.
Look at this https://wiki.contribs.org/DB_Variables_Configuration . This is very detailed, but also really a lot of work of course.

Please don’t get this as criticism. It’s just a difference I note. I’m still a fan of nethserver! :heart:

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Yes, now it’s possible!

Upgrade to new version of Discourse - #14 by alefattorini

Thanks for the hint. I had to do a Ctrl-F5 in my browser to make them reapear. :slight_smile:
Now they are back! Thanks to @alefattorini ! :+1:

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Agree, we need to complete our great manual with step-to-step howtos. Some people are doing a lot of work in this direction @enzoturri @dnutan @Jim and others.
Check user_guides [NethServer Wiki]