On Sunday 04 March 2001 16:52, Shaun Cronin wrote:
> G'day Y'all,
>
> If the PHBs pull their proverbial out of their proverbial I soon will be
> working on a project of removing all our old windozw boxes (200 odd
> machines) and "upgrading' to Windows 2000. No before you say "What does
> this have to do with Linux?" let me continue (and I hope this is
> appropriate for the list as it is more of an advocacy issue rather than
> software/hardware).
>
> As an intellectual exercise I asked myself "Could we dump windows all
> together and move straight over to Linux?" which leads to another questions
> which is "How does one introduce Linux into a Microsoft dominated network?"
>
> Regarding the first question, the answer I came up with is that it could be
> done. But it wouldn't be easy and almost not worthwhile. Our users use
> Novell 5 (with Zenworks 2), Notes for email, require AS/400 connectivity
> and use various closed source software for banking etc. The basic desktop
> could be replaced by linux. Run Notes under Wine, use xt5250 for AS/400 and
> Linux can talk to Novell (at least I had a linux box happily running under
> the old Netware 3.1).
>
> Where everything falls down is that we have a large number of third party
> solutions that are Microsoft (accounting, business intelligence etc).
>
> And this is were I see the problem for introducing Linux into a corporate
> environment. It is rare to find and IT Manager that is "Linux Friendly."
> Part of the reason is that Microsoft orientated solutions are dominant. The
> other factor is ignorance obviously is related to the first factor.
>
> So there is this problem. To be honest, with the current setup, I can't see
> us moving over to Linux on the desktop anytime soon. This is not about
> whether KDE/Gnome is ready but that to do so would require major changes in
> the network infrastructure to give our users to same level of services as
> they have now.
>
> The solution I feel is in introducing linux as a backend solution first
> while at the same time suggesting open source/linux solutions as an
> alternative for problems/needs that subsequently arrive. Recently we moved
> our proxy server from Microsoft to Squid and thus was created the first
> linux server on out network. Also, I've introduced MRTG as a network
> monitoring tool (and if the network admin will admit there is a problem on
> the switch with SNMP maybe I can get it up and running). I am also
> considering putting VNC on some of the servers.
>
> Sometimes, when advocating linux, the answers to introducing linux to the
> workplace are a tad glib. Yes Gnome and KDE are great desktops but
> corporate environments are far more complex than a home users PC. Of course
> I could be wrong.:-)There may have been instances where a company has made
> the switch from Windows to Linux on the desktop succesfully. Of course with
> enlightened managers and clueful network/sys admins it could work.
>
> In the real world the variables are complex. Due to Microsoft's
> dominance I don't see linux becoming part of the corporate desktop soon
> other than isolated instances. However I am not preaching doom and gloom. I
> think that there will be a time when it will be a viable alternative. They
> way I see it happening is to first break Microsoft's stranglehold as the
> prefered OS for third party solution. Adopting open source/linux solutions
> is the key here. Show the PHBs how it works, impliment and get the servers
> away from Microsoft.
>
> While I am more or less thinking out loud any comments are welcome.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Shaun
As an "enlightened" Manager of Infromation Systems, I have been moving
systems over to Linux for 3+ years. The key to opening corporate doors is
money.
We need to hire another IT guy here just to help us figure out MS's licencing
scheme. Good thing for us, most of our back-end servers are now Linux. And
that's how we infiltrated the corp. We would bring up the new servers
running Linux/Samba, and *not* pay MS. We get kudos all around: users like
it because it stays up! management likes it because it saves money.
As to the desktop, We just started to infultrate this year. mainly with QA
and with some of our brighter interns. The reason: they get the older boxen
that are less stable. The boxen are almost unusable with MS, but not with
Linux.
At every turn, we hammer home the fact that Linux saves our Corp money...
Jon Carnes
MIS - HAHT Commerce
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