First, I’ll try to break down my thoughts on things just so you understand what fog IS vs. what it’s “aim” to replace things are.
FOG derived from a more affordable and faster medium compared to Ghost back in the day’s when it essentially ruled the roost. While there were alternatives to Ghost back in 2007 such as PING (Ping Is Not Ghost) and utilities that helped perform image capture, there wasn’t much of a simple means to perform the actions needed. This made imaging systems, useful, but almost everybody tied to using Ghost.
Chuck and Jian had a need for imaging systems but could no longer afford Ghost so they decided to write a tool to perform actions with a relatively simple interface. The initial release of FOG was intended to be more a “proof” of concept and was not expected to gain such a following (at least I don’t think it was).
FOG was created to Image systems using a simple interface. The idea of the interface was to be easily manageable without requiring the “admin’s” to get up out of their seats if possible. This is why FOG has a web based GUI vs some of the other more manually intense mechanisms.
It wasn’t until later on in the use of FOG by other people that FOG started becoming an Imaging Solution AND System Management solution.
To break it down, FOG is not a Virtualization system, nor is it a backup solution. It’s purpose in the realm of Information Technology is to allow you to create “clones” of one system and place those clones onto many other systems. These clones, while most still kind of use a Hardware Dependent setup, can be used on nearly any system you want. With the use of the FOG Client it can also be used to join systems to a domain, manage software installations or script operations through snapins, add/remove/manage printers, automate task actions, perform power management such as shutdown/reboot, wake systems up, and log users out. With the registration of systems, you can also maintain an inventory record of systems.
FOG’s intention is not to replace anything, but to be a more useful alternative to other imaging tools as possible.
