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Originally Posted by sonnguyen
I'm working to move our Windows system to Linux for a small private company with 40-50 computers include servers and workstations.
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I'm not clear whether you are trying to transition the servers, the workstations or everything. (Or, one after another. Or your workstation first, and then use that to convert the rest of the organisation to your idea.)
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And i would like to hear from you what distribution of Linux is suitable for my case.
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You need to define whether you are trying to do servers or workstations (or both) first. You might even find that it makes sense to use one distro for servers and a different one for workstations.
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I have some experience with CentOS and Fedora, also tried Ubuntu, OpenSuSE, PCLinuxOS. What important to me is how to manage all client through a server ( same as ISA server in Windows environment).
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Can't make any comment about ISA server as I don't know it.
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Second mention is friendliness of the OS because office user doesn't know well about IT.
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If, by this, you mean that the ordinary office end user doesn't have much idea about IT, but you have someone or a small number of people who are IT experts, then that's one problem. If you mean no one in the office is an IT expert and/or you are the closest thing the office has to an IT expert, that's quite a different problem.
Oddly, end users tend to be influenced (unduly influenced, IMHO) by how pretty their desktops are, how configurable their desktops are and whether they have the stuff to make their work easier. (And not by security, lack of crashes and stuff that gets 'techies' interested.) And while a configurable desktop is nice, you shouldn't overlook the other stuff.
You need to worry about how the existing infrastructure would transition (exchange server and outlook, as the most obvious example; but also what about advanced users who have invested significant effort in Microsoft Office to make their work easier?).
If you don't have the resources ( = people with competence, or at the very least, time to go on training courses) to cope with learning more than one distro but you still need to suport both servers and desktops, I'd look at the SuSE offerings. There are other options, but SuSE does do a good job at both ends of the spectrum. If you are happy with different distros in the server room and on the desktop, I guess most people would go with Ubuntu on the desktop and Debian in the server room, as most end-users tend to like Ubuntu (I don't; but then I'm a kde user, and kubuntu hasn't been as thoroughly developed as the gnome version). You could also consider Mepis or PClos on the desktop and ReHat/Centos, SuSE in the server room. Or a smaller distro on the desktop, if you are re-using older hardware.
If you don't have an IT expert, I just wouldn't do it at all. Most of the worst security issues that I hear of are caused by an 'enthusiast' who thinks that his competence and knowledge in IT is greater than it actually is and who doesn't have the time to devote to the training and keeping his infrastructure safe from emerging threats. Do you want to be responsible for that?
You also have to ask why does the total organisation want to do this; not why do you want to do this, but what is the gain for the organisation. And you have to bear in mind that in most significant change programs, its the social/interpersonal/political aspects that cause more difficulty than the purely technical aspects.
