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Linux desktop does not mean more support
By jelly | March 13, 2008
One of the biggest things I was worried about with switching certain users over to Ubuntu linux was they were not going to be able to do anything and would constantly be bothering my IT department with questions of how can I do this and how can I do that. So far this has not happened. The user has not been prevented from doing his job, and so far he hasn’t needed to ask how to do anything. We made sure all of his critical aps would work before we made the switch so that was easy. And we did pick the easiest employee, one that basically only needs Internet, Email and then to open some basic office documents.
We also gave them a brand new computer, so everything is very quick, which obviously makes them happier. Spent the money I would have had to spend on windows licenses on hardware. The other added bonus is something I never even thought about.
Everyone in IT will admit that the biggest thing that hurts users computers and the best way to hurt security practises is people loading unapproved applications on their computers. This doesn’t happen nearly as often when they are running Linux. People could install aps but almost all of them are safe and they don’t install them as much because as of now they are not comfortable enough doing so. Sure soon they might be comfortable enough in the Synaptic that they will start installing applications but I feel safer with those being installed than some random .exe file that they found on the net.
The next step for our Linux project. I’m planning on switching over on Friday after the new video card goes in, then I’ll test all the applications that our next users are using, providing that I can get them all running flawlessly I will order another computer next week and probably the following week switch another couple over.
I do still have a couple that are going to be stuck on windows as they are running applications that I cannot port over. These applications are.
1. UPS Worldship, I’ve seen a couple of people have tried it in wine but I dont beleive sucessfully. I will look into it further when I get up to that user.
2. Solidworks, obviously this user is stuck, its a windows ap and thats that
3. Graphic designer. Is saw yesterday they got photoshop CS3 running in wine but this users woudl need Photoshop, Illustrator and many others, until adobe releases linux version hes stuck.
4. High end excel users, I’ll have to wait and see but I have one finance person who does amazing things with excel I really don’t think open office will allow it, but we will look. I could run excel in wine but then I’ve already purchased the office license so whats the use.
Topics: Linux Desktop |
March 13th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
You are obviously committed to using Linux. Many people have this expectation that Linux should be a drop in replacement for Windows. When something, anything, doesn’t work, they say “Linux is not ready for mainstream users”. The reality is, if they had tried to install XP or Vista with the same expectations they would have come to the same conclusion. You have some tough obstacles to deal with. There is a “clean sweep” solution to the Windows only dilemma, install a virtual machine. I have never done this or even used one myself, but from what I’ve read they’re not rocket science and once they’re running, switching back and forth between Linux and Windows is a mouse click away.
I can understand how your finance person can do amazing things with Excel. I used to teach adult learners in night school how to use Lotus 1-2-3. I hardly touch that anymore. But recently I did some volunteer work for a non-profit. I did a lot of work with Excel, mostly importing data from their database and working it with the spreadsheet. I try my best to avoid working with Microsoft computers. My personal assessment of Excel is that I wouldn’t trust it with important data. It works, but if you could see how it was put together you’d drop it in a second. Your finance person may not have any choice but to keep using Excel for now, but he should start working with Open Office Calc anyway, perhaps on new projects. It’s a solid piece of programming. For basic to moderate spreadsheets it’s a one to one replacement for Excel. More complex spreadsheets will require some tweaking. As far as the macros, Star Office from Sun has a converter built in.
I don’t know if any of this helps, but I admire the effort you’re putting into Linux and blogging about it is even better.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
thank you for your input.
I have talked about installing VM so that I could have Windows as a fall back but the problem with that is it doesn’t fix my biggest reason for doing this, which is purchasing new licenses for Windows OS and Office. There is some very cool applications however that even allow you to run Windows Desktops and Linux desktops together.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-Linux-Symbiosis-Not-a-Dream-Anymore-59314.shtml
Another option which I did post about is if its an ap that needs to run in a windows environment, but also isn’t run very often I will just install it on one of the windows server, I can’t get rid of all of them, and have users RDP to that box use the ap and then log out, saving the file to a samba share.
I will look at the finance person to see what can be done. Right now I am prioritizing the easier migrations first, once I have them out of the way then I’ll move onto the harder ones.
One of our big benefits is our main, OE, accounting package is written in house in java so its easy to migrate it over. The only problem we had with it was the tray.dll file for putting an icon in the system tray.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:12 am
[...] jelly wrote a fantastic post today on “Linux desktop does not mean more support”Here’s ONLY a quick extractHigh end excel users, I’ll have to wait and see but I have one finance person who does amazing things with excel I really don’t think open office will allow it, but we will look. I could run excel in wine but then I’ve already purchased … [...]