Ubuntu, OSX, Windows Desktop environment help

[LoGiCa]

I'm getting out of the current company I work for as a 2nd line technician and have been approached by another company that wants me to interview for the Linux Admin job they have.

I have to answer some pre-interview questions of which some are quite vague and could be answered in several ways.

I want to get this right so I'd like to get some other opinions on what they are asking, the first three questions really.

Question one could be answered with, SAMBA (smbfs),CIFS,VM's

Maybe I'm out of my depth with this job but I do have a fair amount of experience with Linux, OSX, Windows.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Pre-Interview Questions - Linux Desktop Administrator

1. Which technologies would you use to handle a desktop environment that consists in
equal parts of Mac OS, Windows and Linux desktops? Please list at least 6, and indicate
any which you would need to research further before implementing.

2. List three general ways in which you could address security in the age of cloud
computing? (from the standpoint of enterprise IT systems)

3. How would you handle offline access to shared drives on Mac OS X laptops? Are there
any situations in which this could result in data loss? (Answer in three sentences or less)

4. What system or methods do you currently use for tracking software licenses? Please list
two pros and two cons of this approach.

[eriktheblu]

The questions are fairly open ended; there could be a variety of correct responses.

If CIFS would do the job, but you like SAMBA better, answer with SAMBA.

If you think the best security measures involve steel doors on the server room and epoxy in the terminals' USB ports, answer that way.

[mevun]

I think question 1 wants you to list 6 areas where compatability problems arise and technologies used for them. So don't just list 6 different solutions for network sharing. Think about one or two technologies for email, document standards, authentication, printing, etc. so that you can come up with 6.

Not sure about question 2 since I'm not sure what an enterprise IT system means. I think the answer depends on whether the interviewing company is providing a "cloud" for their employees (i.e. employees log into virtual machines and do their work) or is the company going to use a "cloud" from another company and want to host IT systems like payroll, email, and shared documents on it. I would guess the latter in which case you'd probably mention things like requiring encryption (via VPN?).

Question 3: I don't know anything about Mac shared drives, but I suspect there are widely known solutions/issues leading to the rationale for a 3-sentence answer.

Overall, I would guess that if you answer without any obvious goofs, you'd move onto the actual in-person interview stage. They probably just want to weed out the worst candidates. Good luck.

[lisati]

The best answer is probably the one that shows the interviewer that you either know the answer, or that you would be able to find out in sufficient time to get the job done reasonably quickly and proficiently.

edit: closed for staff review. Is this "homework"?