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94 Comments
- Ademos, on 10/12/2009, -2/+26Some smart IT advice without being too bias or fear-based.
- aobtd, on 11/15/2008, -7/+23I'm going to install linux on my sec computer today
- atdigg, on 11/15/2008, -1/+14How do you know that? Usually IT department is the first to use/promote Linux, most of the times the pointed haired bosses don't know that the server already runs on Linux.
- DangerCollie, on 11/15/2008, -1/+13All good suggestions and a couple more I'd add. You can leave a Windows kiosk machine in a department that has Windows only software. I found that motivates them to find an alternative better than using Wine, which has problems of its own.
User acceptance if there's a process that supports more than one OS. If you give Linux users some freedom to customize their desktop environment but lock down Windows, you'll have less resistance moving away from Windows. When they start seeing the cool applets and screen effects, they'll be asking you to move. Locked down Windows is actually a pretty sucky desktop from a users perspective.
At our office, once people had a choice, I was surprised how fast they abandoned Windows. Except the sales staff, they stuck with Vista laptops. - benitojuarez, on 11/15/2008, -2/+13It takes years for large corporations to switch operating systems, what with all the QA testing needed for their applications. hell my workstation is still on windows 2000. xp didnt see heavy adpotion until 3-4 years after its release.
- lukasmach, on 11/15/2008, -2/+12Don't forget to install Solitaire. I mean - you don't expect your employees to, like, work all the time, right?
- Dochtuir, on 11/15/2008, -1/+9He will have a prize at the end of it all.
- moduc, on 11/15/2008, -2/+9If the IT department doesn't know how to learn Linux, your company either is screwed, or the IT department will be screwed by you (you're hiring new people).
Linux is so easy these days for the IT level people, there is no excuse for not be able to support it. - smotpoker, on 11/15/2008, -1/+7"If the IT department doesn't know how to learn Linux" - Learning to use Linux is not substantially harder than learning to use any other OS (personally I found it much easier). I think anyone can do it, just some people are more stubborn than others :P
"or the IT department will be screwed by you" - If they are too incompetent/stubborn to learn/do what serves the company best, they are screwing the company, not the opposite, IMO. Like you said, there is no excuse for not being able to support it if they have a week or two notice (more than enough to learn general administration of any OS) - moduc, on 11/15/2008, -2/+8Actually, this is just plan not so smart. Here's a better advice:
1) Find out what kind of software requirements and policy requirements your company has
2) Setup some Linux computer on top of VirtualBox or some VM with the required softwares and policies
3) Have selected people (employees) using the software
4) Study the cost, benefit and interview the users
5) Fine tune the software stacks
6) Make a final decision
If you do things methodical like that, chance is high is that you won't screw up. If you jump head first, after a long costly debate and study, you'll fail.
Real experiment will give you much better result. Slow roll out gives you a better control of damage if there is anything.
One thing you have to assume is that there will be set backs. It's how you deal with setback and how prepared matters. - inactive, on 11/15/2008, -5/+11Why dont you try migrating to Windows from another platform? Hell, why dont you try UPGRADING windows on any platform. I bet you would run into more disasters just upgrading windows than migrating from windows to linux.
Micrating from anything to windows...now THAT would be a disaster no matter what you do. - jgtg32a, on 11/15/2008, -3/+9As much as I love Linux this article is obviously targets to a very small organization (less than 250), I work for a large corp with 8k+ users and my God if we change anything the users will freak out.
- amoeba, on 11/15/2008, -0/+5umm, a few inaccuracies, adobe reader _is_ available for linux, though there are of course alternatives and removable media - never had a problem with it.
- aobtd, on 11/15/2008, -5/+10of course!
- izelpii, on 11/15/2008, -1/+5Not true. Big corporations (+10k) are already migrating to Linux.
Everybody doesn't see the BIG issue:
Windows XP has arrived to END OF SUPPORT.
Corporate Environment needs corporate support. So, everybody needs to move, either to Vista, or to something else. - inactive, on 11/15/2008, -3/+7Well - no wonder.
Sales people usually (96%) have a very small amount of grey matter (3% think - 56% B.S - 41% vacuum).
Not that they can not make lots of money ... they do so easily assimilate with the rest of the brainless flock. - izelpii, on 11/15/2008, -0/+4Macs are not for corporate...
From the commercials, I think they are for artists/black shadowy people dancing to hip tunes in fashion. - Murdats, on 11/15/2008, -3/+7i think he is expecting a front page article, after all don't we front page an article whenever somebody switches to linux?
- init100, on 11/16/2008, -0/+3"I work for a large corp with 8k+ users and my God if we change anything the users will freak out."
So in ten years you will still remain on the same outdated platform? - getoffmybridge, on 05/05/2009, -0/+3sarcasm 2.0?
- izelpii, on 11/15/2008, -0/+3Agree
1, 4, 6, 7
Disagree or shouldn't be part of a list called "avoid migration disaster"
3, 8, 5, 10
Plainly not correct
2,9
1. Will that proprietary, mission-critical application run on the new platform?
Good point. I agree completely on this one, and is definitely the first and main concern.
2. Which desktop are you planning to use?
Absolutely irrelevant question. Pick either Gnome or KDE, regardless of Windows / Mac experience. Better advice: Pick Gnome. All KDE applications will still run, and you have the help of the Ubuntu community, which is the biggest at this point of time for Linux.
3. Is your IT staff up for the task?
Definitely they should be, if they want to migrate to Linux. I wouldn't suggest to migrate to Mac if I never used it. Necessary, but obvious.
4. Does your corporate headquarters get a benefit from Microsoft?
Ok, agree too, but is missing another thing. Using free software has also the upside of having a bigger choice of software to use, free of charge.
5. Do your employees use a lot of removable media?
If we were in 1996, yeah.. makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, this point is irrelevant. I do have 10+ years of experience... and definitely, this was an issue long ago, but not anymore.
6. Is your hardware supported?
This should be No. 2 or No. 1. Altough Linux has by default way more support than any other operating system, it can be tricky to configure certain devices.
I never found a device that ultimately I couldn't install, but sometimes it can takes days of research, in forums, even with a lot of experience, specially for cheap hardware.
7. Are you using Active Directory?
Necessary, but in most of the cases, it is not going to be a problem.
8. Do you outsource your helpdesk support?
This is not an issue, is just a decision point. If you want to migrate to Linux for END USERS, you don't pick Debian. You pick a distribution for end users. Right? The parallel in the Windows world would be... "If you are installing Windows Server to all your end users...", to which a smart IT guy would reply.. ha? why server OS to the end users?
And to pick a End User distribution, you account corporate outsorce support.. which makes this point innecesary.
9. Are you subject to licensing fees for software?
This doesn't make sense to me. How is this a tip to avoid a disaster? If you're paying for licensing contracts, why to you need to stick around Windows?
10. Do some of your employees fit the Linux user experience more than others?
Again, this is a good point to consider, but not for "avoiding a Linux migration disaster". Right? This can help you to choose a unit to do a satellite migration, for example.
Still, nice article. - kreatr, on 11/15/2008, -2/+5minesweeper ?
- TypeEE, on 11/15/2008, -1/+4I am surprised that you get 10 diggs on telling everyone that you will install linux.
- JonForTheWin, on 11/15/2008, -2/+5The proprietary application where I work runs on a Redhat server and is accessed with an SSH client. We're already good to go.
- steviesteveo, on 11/15/2008, -0/+3Yeah, buried for your misspelling of "2nd", the only accepted three character contraction of second.
Cool, you have two computers and one of them will eventually run linux - you should write an article and submit that to Digg. - centran, on 11/15/2008, -0/+3they don't need solitaire... the will have tuxracer instead!
- Cupantae, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2Don't worry, I got it. It just wasn't funny
- mohtasham, on 11/16/2008, -1/+3OSX? lol. Does OSX support older hardware? I bet it only work in apple computers.
- Fr33th0t, on 11/15/2008, -0/+2If you don't know the answer to that question, then why comment to this thread?
Seriously, you would be well served to load Ubuntu--or just about any other major distro--and run only it for a few weeks so you don't look so stupid. - izelpii, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2I meant money... budget = money in my mind most of the times.
You're talking about a small corporation. Thinking about replacing 20 machines with vista... is low budget. When you talk about corporations, this doesn't mean 20 machines, instead, 20k machines. The cost per license per machine adds up to ... let's say 1-2 millions $, taking into account 50-100$ per windows + office.
At this point, you can afford to look other applications. We are only talking about end users. This could be worst in bigger environments. In my experience, doing a small consultant job for a 15k employee corporation, I saw the budget spent on windows and office was above 5 million $. When talking about that size corporations, you don't think on the Sunray whatever thing done with ActiveX (bad technology, bad choice anyway).
Functionality and efficiency, both have nothing to do with a migration to Linux, unless your applications are old client-server schemes, which should be obsolete anyway, when Windows XP becomes obsolete too.
I have already a lot of experience changing OS to end users with weak IT skills. They are the best target for migration. The most problematic users are the 10% Windows power users (if such a thing exist). Most users, 90%, will only have difficult changing from office to open office (same problems as when they upgrade from any office to office 2007), from internet explorer to firefox (where is the blue e?), and from outlook to anything else (evolution and thunderbird are way better, and all the people I migrate work better with them). Most users will be glad they don't have to deal with stupid viruses and other things. They will feel more secure, and will work better. I know I can work with Linux, my comment was directed to my experience changing many neighbors and friends to Linux. Most of this people didn't know the difference between Internet Explorer and the Internet... and all of them never went back, specially since their machines stopped getting infected with viruses. For me, less calls for help to reinstall their machines. Win-win. - wzzrd, on 11/16/2008, -0/+2Then you missed the next one: "Adobe Reader? Scribus.". That one's worse, because Scribus is not a reader, it's an authoring application. Whole different ballgame, not just a different league.
- steviesteveo, on 11/15/2008, -0/+2I think these figures call for a "citation needed", or more likely a "pulled out of ass"
Hmm, I think I'm going to suggest to wikipedia that they should make that a new tag for the extremely dubious claims with oddly precise percentages of things which are figurative. - maz2331, on 11/15/2008, -2/+4That is a big and valid concern, but also one that can be mitigated or eliminated with a proper technology mix. For example, it may be cheaper and easier to run the mission critical Windows-only apps on a Citrix server and publish the application for clients to connect to it.
Or, in-house applications can be ported to a new archetecture. The real difficulty with those apps is developing the business logic itself, not the actual coding. There is a cost, sometimes substantial, in porting, but properly done it can be completely portable.
My basic goal at all times is to minimize or eliminate vendor lock-in, so that we're never at the mercy of a vendor's policies. For example, if all your accounting data is in Quickbooks - how do you migrate to a different product if the version you are using is discontinued and the new one does not meet your needs? Answer: you don't, and you are screwed.
That said, Linux is no panecea either. Developing a corporate-wide deployment takes time and effort to get right. It's really more of a "tool kit" than a "product" that you just plug in and go with. - sibeth, on 11/15/2008, -1/+3guess not :P
- steviesteveo, on 11/15/2008, -1/+3I'm not convinced by your 6 step plan, do you have any empirical evidence for that working?
Your step 2 just doesn't sit in my mind - virtualisation is a fantastic way to leverage server hardware, but it's either unwelcome or unwieldy on the desktop - you either leave Windows as the parent operating system (which is hardly testing Linux) or you divvy up a remote system's processor and dumb terminal it. Neither is really going to tell you much about desktop Linux. It's far too easy to like virtualisation because it's cool rather than because it's the right answer in every situation - install it on a backed up system, it's just data.
Slow rollout is the only logical option in any environment which doesn't get a months long break - it's fine to convert a school over the summer holiday because that actually gives you a chance to do the physical work of but no one actually converts -every- computer in an organisation overnight, it can't be done. That's hardly rocket science advice.
You should never start doing something that might (you hope) afect an entire company without some sort of end to end plan - if someone asks you what the plan is half way through and you shrug and say "meh, we're playing it by ear, experimentation is the best way to work it out" you might be asked to experiment with someone else's company. Do research and study and debate before transitioning, that's where the main mistakes are made.
Obviously - total opposite in your own house / office / whatever - you're the boss, do what you like. In a big office that you don't own you should at least be able to give a reasonably detailed next steps summary if you're asked to by people higher up than yourself. - Fr33th0t, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1Scribus is not a suite for creating vector images. It is a Desktop Publishing application.
http://www.scribus.net/
Sheesh! - Denominator88, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1By running on Linux I believe you mean it uses the Linux kernel, correct? It's not an application, it's an OS.
- Fr33th0t, on 11/15/2008, -1/+2Not to mention telling them to use Scribus to read PDFs. Clueless doesn't begin to describe why the author needs to find a new niche.
- flinkebernt, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1Don't bother to read this article! It's written by someone not knowledgeable! He probably tested a linux livecd a couple of times and then decided to write an article about linux servers. He compares Adobe Reader (pdf reader) to Scribus (vector image creation suite). Don't waste your time at this as I did.
- Megatog615, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1Reynolds and Reynolds? :D
- steviesteveo, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1Same, actually. It's a fairly short sighted comparison - the GIMP does everything that people who currently use Photoshop can do with Photoshop but it doesn't do it exactly the same way and that's what will make your extremely expensive, highly specialised and highly experienced Adobe apps born and bred art team complain.
There's no reason to make professionals move from the industry standard just because it's free, they're professionals and really don't mind paying for a tool they use to work with.
At home, GIMP's great, it's lighter weight, free etc etc but it's not an exact switch.
The writer may know Linux but he doesn't know how the various industry standard programs work - people stick with them because they know how to use them to get the results they're paid to get.and because it's a common language between the people who work in the field. I don't really care how well Python extends GIMP when what I need is an Adobe Automation script, same with OpenOffice and Excel. - steviesteveo, on 11/17/2008, -0/+1I'm not sure about these posts - although an IT department that can't learn to support Linux shouldn't be trusted with a company's computer systems that doesn't mean that a department full of enthusiastic tinkerers is always as good as a well oiled, corporate and business like team who fix faults as they occur and do what they can to predict faults, being well backed up and having a necessary stack of spare parts lying around is a very boring IT unit but it's exactly what they're supposed to be doing.
I'd much rather employ IT staff who know enough to fix a broken Registry on an Exchange server rather than ones who spend their evenings playing with awk. The tinkerer is probably the better techie and his/her interest in technology would probably be very practical and interesting to hear but the actual support should cover what the company needs at that time, with extra skills for future expansion.
But needing to be able to support linux in a windows environment? Why? - JonForTheWin, on 11/17/2008, -0/+1In this case the business' freedom. As a business, you need to be able to have sovereign control over critical parts of your infrastructure.
- JonForTheWin, on 11/17/2008, -0/+1"And how exactly will Linnux be supported? Who'se that entity that will provide the patches?"
Maybe Redhat or Novell . . - izelpii, on 11/15/2008, -2/+3There is just one reason you want to do things in IT: budget.
Money is the only reason you want, or you don't want to do things in a corporate environment.
Your point is invalid: Windows XP is coming to End Of Support. So, you either upgrade or upgrade. This means millions of dollars in budget for Corporate environment.
There is the reason why, your comment, was valid in 2003 or 2004.. not now. - JonForTheWin, on 11/17/2008, -0/+1Nope!
- izelpii, on 11/15/2008, -0/+1For you both:
http://www.happypenguin.org/
you have clones of both games there :)
In any case, Ubuntu have them both by default - izelpii, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1Definitely, this guy doesn't know what he is talking about when he wrote
Gimp -> Photoshop, and Acrobat Reader to Scribus.
Either he never used the applications, some editor chopped wrongly his words, or he is rewriting other story from somewhere else.
Gimp is not a replacement for Photoshop, they are different tools, intended for different things.
If you need PhotoShop at a professional level, there is no replacement available. Use Crossover to use it under Linux, or used it in a virtual environment.
If you just need an image Editor, THEN you can use Gimp. Is a perfect tool for most basic-mid users.
For Acrobat Reader.. you can use Acrobat Reader for Linux. Duh!
Scribus will be a direct replacement for Publisher, if you want to say something about it.
I don't use it in a day to day basis, and I have to say, I never used Publisher. But I used Scribus for a couple of projects, in one working with some guy with Publisher, to do Posters, and it worked perfectly for me. - db113456, on 11/16/2008, -0/+1You know, small things do add up. If aobtd installs Linux, has a few questions maybe , uses it for testing, finds the applications needed for whatever, than there is a Linux user, and will receive all available support from the community.
Now about the article. There is also training, in a few weeks any employer can get significant portions of their IT department through a crash course on Linux Administration , installation and maintenance. it is not that difficult, and it is not that difficult to find a suitable course either. -
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