Linux on laptops can be hard trying to get everything right such as wi-fi...

Linux on desktops = easier than windows

Installing new programs on Linux = hard to me I'm still hoping to learn.

When I installed Slackware on my laptop it went very well. I just had to install some drivers for the touchpad and add keybindings to the volume keys. The only problem was that there are no stable drivers for my video card but I hope I can fix this when I install Gentoo on it later this summer.

The thing (for me) with Windows on my machines is that I get bored. I install it and then what? I like Linux where I can configure and tweak the system. There is nothing that I can do with Windows.

My employor would like to migrate desktops to Linx. Two factors stop us.

I work for a small college where we have to make available to students all kinds of sofware that instructors find and think is cool. We have 30 to 40 different programs that we support for our students, and all of these programs run on Windows only. This alone makes migrating our desktops from Windows to Linux impossible or we would have done it long ago. (Our machine room has several Linux servers.)

Second, Microsoft has momentum with its Office products. The computer information systems faculty insist, and justifyiably so, that student be taught how to use MS Office. Employers are using MS Office and expect graduates to be able to use it.

Tom O.

Maybe you should try running the programs with wine (haven't any experience with it myself though)

The office problem isn't a hard one: OpenOffice has the same look-and-feel as MS Office has, so migrating from one to another shouldn't be a big problem.

I don't know if they'll bite, it WOULD save money but they have to re-school all the admins and that would cost money. But if you look to a longer time period though, it would save a lot of costs. So I would say, give it a try and let's see if he will bite (if he does, a lot of other casino's will follow )

Perhaps you could also make reference to the security angle as another factor in Linux's favor. Paying for all those admins to maintain and secure the Windows boxes has got to be a non-trivial expense, plus running Windows exposes the casino to increased system vulnerabilities. Furthermore, Microsoft is constantly yapping about TCO, but what I'd like to know is how much of that TCO is directly related to dealing with all those wonderful trojans, worms, viruses, "critical" security patches, etc, that are out there. To say it another way, the portion of TCO on a Linux system to deal with things like MyDoom, Sasser, Nimda, etc, etc, is zero -- what's the corresponding figure for Windows? Clearly, it not only is non-zero, it's not negligible either.

In any event, even if your boss is skeptical about Linux, I'm hoping that you at least get permission to run a small pilot program, just to give your proposal a fair shot. If nothing else, you can say point blank that due to licensing fees, every Windows machine in the place would cost at least an estimated $400 over a similar Linux box (based on the assumption that XP costs about $150 and Office Professional costs about $250) and depending on how many boxes you have, that could add up pretty quickly. Good luck with it -- J.W.

Actually, I don't know enough about Linux to be qualified for such a job. In any event, if they were to ask me who I thought would be good for such a pilot program I would have recommended someone from this site.

The main thing was doing something like this would be beneficial for the company. maybe even save a few people's jobs in the long run due to the possible money saved by using Linux.

Wow, this seems quite innovative and I'm sure that you could make your employers see the light of the day. How inexplicable that they use Windows XP?!! Perhaps u could use the help of local Linux User groups to guide you in your endeavor. It will be really cool if you achieve your purpose.

Getting some Windows apps running via wine alone can be quiet a daunting task unless you've got the time and patience to go through the exercise. Purchasing CrossOver Office provides a "working" solution that can work well even though it's not 100%.

OpenOffice 1.1.x doesn't look nearly as much like MS Office as 2.0 betas do and OpenOffice 2.0 should make the transition from MS Office a lot easier. However, we can't deny the fact that MS Office and Windows both provide features and functions that just aren't present or as mature in the Linux arena yet. A friend of mine is taking some computer classes, one of which is an Excel class. I installed OpenOffice 2.0 beta (one of the 1.9.9x releases I think) on her machine since she can't afford Excel. We could do some of her homework but not all of it AND we got farther with OO 2.0 beta than with 1.1.4, which I also installed.

Windows still has advantages in the online multimedia arena as well in the device support arena, especially when considering wireless devices. This is not to say device support or multimedia support in Linux environments is stagnant but it's just not quite at the level of XP and understandably so. There are simply more developers writing drivers for XP than for Linux, at this point. Even out that playing field and we might have a different discussion.

I run Slackware 8 w/ major mods at home and I plan on running Linux on my next PC. I'm toying with the idea of switching my mom's PC over to Linux but we'll see if I actually pull that trigger. She's running XP Home Edition now and is happy with it.

In any event, I think Linux has a bright future on the desktop and I'm dying to see what happens on the virus/spyware/malware front when Linux starts becoming more prevalent.

Peace....