Re: Why and How to move from Win to Linux?

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Date: 8 Jun 2004 04:25:37 -0700

Jack McGovern <jack@kwjhdwedjw.invalid> wrote in message news:<fhm8c01bpa8mcm7ivkpgpg204ubg2k887t@4ax.com>...
> Sorry, this has probably been answered earlier, but googling left me
> with such a vast number of hits that I sort of "collapsed"...
>
> I'm a middle manager of a company with approx 200 employees all using
> Windows 2000 or XP with typical office applications like MS Office but
> at the same time more uncommon software for project management, hr
> management etc. All servers run Windows NT / 2000 server (I think...)

There are lots of alternatives.
 
> I'm not an IT guy, but a few of my subordinates has told me that I
> should bring on to the top management that maybe we should move to
> Linux for both servers and workstations.

Its a good idea. You get a virus-free, stable, easily manageable
environment that isn't tied up with constrictive licensing issues. Oh,
you save a lot on that cap-ex budget too! 200 x WinXP + 200 x Office
Professional 2003 + Lots of Client Access Liceses + Microsoft Exchange
and you're getting into $100,000+ of spend. But of course, you don't
have to just chuck everything out. There is no problem running *both*
Linux and Microsoft Windows.

> I admit that we are experiencing a few stability problems with the
> current platform, and they have told me that it would drastically
> improve if we change to Linux. Is that really true? Where can I find
> documentation of this?

Yes, its really true. Ask an ISP about the average uptime of a Linux /
UNIX system compared to a Windows system. Eg:

http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/isp.avg.html
 
> The move itself; for the server's part I guess it won't be a big
> problem (will it? can somehow all data on the servers just be
> "incorporated" in the new Linux installation? Mail, user's documents,
> etc.) but how about the workstations? How would we execute a move from
> Windows to Linux on 200+ workstations without creating several days of
> downtime while installing Linux OS and Linux software and converting
> user files (not just documents etc but user accounts etc.) ?

Depends on the specifics. Downtime can be avoided by running systems
in parallel, migrating small components at a time. Obviously it is
good to have a test environment. I'd set up a lab to get some use
cases as well so you know what to expect before it happens. Build your
own distro (very simple, and no problem with licenses!) and you can
either deploy via CD or network install.
 
> And finally, will all employees have to be trained in using Linux
> before they can use it, or will most of them recognize the user
> interface from Windows and thus keep doing the basic stuff and get
> trained for the more advanced tasks later?

Fortunately the Linux environment can be highly customised. KDE can be
made to act very much like Microsoft Windows (double-click to activate
an icon, little X in the top-right of a window). Keybindings can be
made the same (alt-f4 to close an application, etc). It really depends
on exactly what your desktop users are doing, but as long as they are
happy with moving a mouse that controls a pointer on the monitor that
interacts with pictorial representations of functions, they'll be
fine.
 
> I hope someone could help me out a bit here...

There are loads of helpful people :)

> Thanks,
> Jack

No problems

• Previous message: Ken: "How to know cd tray position"
• In reply to: Jack McGovern: "Why and How to move from Win to Linux?"
• Next in thread: Dave: "Re: Why and How to move from Win to Linux?"
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