Forum Home
PC World Chat
Thread ID: 120619	2011-09-17 06:26:00	Transitioning from Windows to Linux. Woohoo!	baabits (15242)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1231904	2011-09-17 22:48:00	Whatever software you put in front of your users, it should be fit for purpose. 100% the business is there to make money not make users happy (to a certain extent) We use Zimbra at work and it works very well, but the fellas who cant get away from outlook use the connector and it works but i wish i never showed it to them.	Gobe1 (6290)
1231905	2011-09-17 23:40:00	Maybe, but if you try to make them use something they hate, you're probably not going to make much money.	Agent_24 (57)
1231906	2011-09-18 00:19:00	The biggest problem would be ignorant users who just hate change, rather than the distro itself. Milkster1976 seems determined to prove you are correct there too ;-) I presume you're fully against the change I look and feel going to Win7 from XP then milkster? Granted a business is there to make money, but if staff put up too much of a fuss, and then undereperform, sack their asses. They're there to work for the company, not the company work for them. There are many others who would take a job if somebody else didn't want it. We've been rolling out a lot of Linux servers since I joined. It doesn't take a lot of experience, and its easy to see the massive benefits. A basic web server VM uses less than 1/4 a gig of rAM, and cost nothing to get up and running for utilization as a documentation wiki. Same thing in windows requires a license and 4x the resources. We've even investigated the possibility of rolling out Linux desktops, considering IBM provide Lotus Notes for Linux, that would work fine. Aside from that we've been giving technicians a combination of iPads and Android honeycomb tablets, the learning curve was literally zero. Yet using a Linux desktop has this "stigma" associated with it thanks to ignorant people like milkster.	Chilling_Silence (9)
1231907	2011-09-18 00:29:00	Well if that "hate" is based on the issue of them not being able to play flash games on the net or infect all their friends/co-workers with the latest joke/trojan going round, then maybe you weren't making much money anyway ;)	fred_fish (15241)
1231908	2011-09-18 01:01:00	Really? You must be doing something very wrong. Even I can install Flash on Ubuntu a lot faster than it would take anyone to build a system from scratch, and I wouldn't consider myself a Linux expert at all. How did you struggle? 10 and 11 have given the option to install all the restricted packages as long as you're connected during the installation	baabits (15242)
1231909	2011-09-18 01:05:00	Hmmm, non-LTS release ... 6 monthly upgrades planned for? Yes, thank god upgrading our entire pc stack is only one command now rather than performing upgrades and worry about things breaking... I'm actually a huge fan of the regular six month release cycles and believe it's pushing innovation. One note though, we've turned Unity off in favour of the Classic Ubuntu desktop- Using the computer is no longer a skill as far as we can see, if you can understand English and learn how to click and hover over icons to read what they do then you're well on your way click Applications then click Office then click LibreOffice Writer.. well done!	baabits (15242)
1231910	2011-09-18 01:13:00	oh my god let me know how cost effective this ends up being ( have to excuse me but 200 users moving to lyniux who knows how to use lyniux i can build a system from scratch including stripping and building a Microsoft operating system faster than i can install flash player in ubuntu and i am not a stupid person.) p.s. just using up my post woohoo post 10 may be i can edit my profile... p.p.s being a Microsoft techie there is a reason lyniux is a free os hehehehe sorry but really Well we have a team of four (Manager, Administrator (myself) and two support guys (one of them is a guru programmer)) and everyone bar the manager is a confessed unix junkie. We're probably going to be cutting about 90% of our software budget, as our database is MySQL. In fact, what we are left paying for is PaperCut (which is included thanks to Ricoh anyway and runs swimmingly on linux and mac), Adobe products + Final Cut for the design department and nothing else. The budget cuts have meant that we can now get the RUCKUS units throughout the office that we've always wanted and we're also looking at taking another full time staff member on board and investing in HD Video Conferencing. We've added another server into the mix as a terminal server (weehoo, no licensing costs) and turned all of the Celeron PC's into thin clients (there were only about 20 or so if I remember correctly) but it sure beats having to replace all PC's in the building in three years. It raises another interesting question- Everyone except for myself has MCSE/MCP and Cisco training (I did a BCS), but we're not actually taking that into consideration this round. We're looking for a uni grad who is talented in programming, as we've got access to the source code of everything now and can make our own changes to tweak the OS, tailoring it for our users. As far as we could see from the Beta builds, Windows 8 is going to represent an even bigger learning curve for the majority of our users. If there is any appropriate time to make the switch, now would be it :)	baabits (15242)
1231911	2011-09-18 01:23:00	Granted a business is there to make money, but if staff put up too much of a fuss, and then undereperform, sack their asses. They're there to work for the company, not the company work for them. There are many others who would take a job if somebody else didn't want it. We've been rolling out a lot of Linux servers since I joined. It doesn't take a lot of experience, and its easy to see the massive benefits. A basic web server VM uses less than 1/4 a gig of rAM, and cost nothing to get up and running for utilization as a documentation wiki. Same thing in windows requires a license and 4x the resources. We've even investigated the possibility of rolling out Linux desktops, considering IBM provide Lotus Notes for Linux, that would work fine. Aside from that we've been giving technicians a combination of iPads and Android honeycomb tablets, the learning curve was literally zero. Yet using a Linux desktop has this "stigma" associated with it thanks to ignorant people like milkster. Exactly- We're not telling the staff that they have to learn everything that they know again, it's just a cosmetic change. The inner guts of using the machine doesn't change. A word processor is still a word processor, just things are in different places. By presenting it to the staff this way, they've managed to find their way around it with little to no problems. Our virtual server is utilizing KVM technology and not costing us a cent. Take that to VMWare and tell them where to shove it.	baabits (15242)
1231912	2011-09-18 01:43:00	Yes, thank god upgrading our entire pc stack is only one command now rather than performing upgrades and worry about things breaking... I wouldn't give up worrying just yet ... :) I'm actually a huge fan of the regular six month release cycles and believe it's pushing innovation.Fair enough, although Canonical has history of unilaterally introducing some fairly radical and not particularly well tested changes in it's regular releases. I would have thought something a bit more conservative and predictable (i.e. slower moving :lol) like 10.04 LTS or Debian Stable might be a better fit for an enterprise rollout. But then, it's you doing it not me :) so good luck. One note though, we've turned Unity off in favour of the Classic Ubuntu desktop- Using the computer is no longer a skill as far as we can see, if you can understand English and learn how to click and hover over icons to read what they do then you're well on your way click Applications then click Office then click LibreOffice Writer.. well done!Agreed, anyone that can't drive a Gnome desktop within 5 mins of sitting down in front of it should not be employed in a job that requires using a computer anyway...	fred_fish (15241)
1231913	2011-09-18 01:55:00	I wouldn't give up worrying just yet . . . :)Fair enough, although Canonical has history of unilaterally introducing some fairly radical and not particularly well tested changes in it's regular releases . I would have thought something a bit more conservative and predictable (i . e . slower moving :lol) like 10 . 04 LTS or Debian Stable might be a better fit for an enterprise rollout . But then, it's you doing it not me :) so good luck . Agreed, anyone that can't drive a Gnome desktop within 5 mins of sitting down in front of it should not be employed in a job that requires using a computer anyway . . . Well actually we did begin by installing 10 . 10- but the upgrade was so painless within our testing environment that we decided to go ahead with it anyway . Debain was a consideration but going from XP -> Linux meant that we wanted the experience to be as polished as possible and Ubuntu was the best fit . So far, I have to say I'm happy with the results looking at the stats- We've had 35% less calls over the last two weeks than normal and the itsupport email address is never backed up anymore . EDIT: One thing that I would add is that while canonical do usually introduce some radical changes within the OS (Unity, Social Networking Integration etc) there is always a way to go back and it's usually pretty easy as well . In this case, it was just choosing the correct envrionment at login :)	baabits (15242)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9