Thank you Carroll for your response. I think the desktop is being looked at closely and I am happy to say that other than a specialized accounting package all of the other software we use is not Windows specific. Most of the apps used here are in the process of being ported to the web. Another big task used heavily is connection to the S/390 Mainframe and that will not be a problem under Linux either.
My question now focuses on the stability of Mandrake as a server platform. We are now testing it and I have personally been using it since the first box shipped. I have personally run into problems with it in some area's and when I worked for a dot.com last year we tried to run it as our web server and in our tests at the time other Distro's did circles around it. So, the big question is, in your experience or anyone's--would you TRUST it in the enterprise server arena. Talking real world here, not what ZD-MSNet say's, but has anyone put it to a real day to day test under heavy loads. Thanks, -Scott On Wed, 19 Dec 2001, Carroll Grigsby wrote: > If the definition of "desktop" is restricted to ordinary office usage -- word > processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, accessing mainframe applications, stuff > like that -- then Linux is ready today, as evidenced by the many recent > stories about various organizations that have de-fenestrated themselves. I > personally have a lot of problems with the so-called experts in the tech > media (ZDNet comes to mind) who keep saying that if it isn't exactly like > MicroSoft Office, nobody's going to be able to use it. Nonsense! Any fairly > bright person who is accustomed to MS Office should be able to use StarOffice > with very little effort. (And if they aren't bright enough to do it, then > perhaps they aren't bright enough to remain on the payroll.) Sure, some > of the geegaws have different names, or they look different, or the pop-ups > are organized differently, but the real differences are really very small -- > certainly no greater than making the transition from WordPerfect and Lotus to > Word and Excel, and yet lots of us did just that during the great Microsoft > putsch of the late 90's. > > However, if the definition of desktop is expanded to include all of the > various computer-based activities that actually go on in an office, the > answer depends on exactly whose desktop we're talking about: Not everyone in > the office is doing the same thing. Case in point: Prior to retirement last > spring, I was a product design engineer and, along with two other guys, spent > most of the day using AutoCad and Pro Engineer. There were also four or five > manufacturing engineers who used AutoCad LT in their work. Problem: There are > no Linux versions of these products, nor do they work under wine or win4lin. > (OK, that's not entirely true. I understand that win4lin will run AutoCad > LT.) And, although I'd like to be proven wrong on this, I haven't found any > suitable Linux equivalents to either of these programs. Meantime, over in the > the HR area, they were running a specialized application program (mandated by > corporate) that was also windows-specific. And then there's the MSDS database > that was on everyone's desktop -- again, windows only. And so it goes... the > problem isn't with the office suites, it's the specialized apps that are > going to give you troubles. > > It's always easier to identify the obstacles than find the solution, of > course, and I hope you'll be able to pull it off -- it's a worthy goal -- but > there are some big obstacles out there. I promise to back you up until your > nose bleeds. > > Best regards, > Carroll > > > > --
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