Hi,

I have recently been put in charge of upgrading all the compupters in an office, setting up a network there, etc...but I would also like to migrate the employees to Linux from Windows (2000 and XP). If I did, I would probably install Ubuntu as I am currently in love with it, but I was just wondering if any of you know of any good references on how to convice them to move! What are the benefits of Linux over Windows? I have compiled a small list so far:

* More flexible
* More stable
* More secure
* It's free!
* Whenever in trouble, there are always the best forums ever, LQ!

I have searched LQ for similar threads, but please keep in mind that I am trying to convince office employees so I need to tell them why using programs like OpenOffice.org and Mozilla Thuderbird are more convenient than M$ Office and Outlook, and why it would be better for them to use Linux. Please help me on my quest to spread Linux! Sincerely,

J_K9

I don't think it all depends on convincing users. What type of users are these? What's their job roles? How savvy are they with computers and computer applications? Is migrating going to impact clients you deal with for your business?

I think a majority of the time it's not the employees you have to convince but the execs and business itself. If it's just simple word processing type applications the users need, it would be an easy migration to Linux for those interested. But to me this would be an executive type decision.

What if employee A who was hired because they had Excel skills to deal with spreadsheets was hired, but now all of a sudden you wipe their computer to install Linux on it and now this employee has to learn OpenOffice or it's equivalent to MSOffice?

Is it worth the company time and money you'd probably be losing since I'm sure if they only know excel like the back of their hand, why introduce something totally new to only cut their productivity. Sure they might learn fast but what if they don't? It could be a potential loss of an employee who was not hired to learn new technologies, etc.

I think there are many other factors instead of trying to convince employee A that learning a whole new system to do her one function she is paid to do would be hard when given that it's free or more secure and so on when that might be the last thing they're worried about. They're paid to come in, do their job and leave. Making a total move cause its free doesn't mean anything to a person who doesn't have to pay for it but the business does. Migrating a user cause its more secure, that means nothing to some people who depend on the IT department to ensure their computer is safe.

I would think, first introduce the idea to the big wigs, if they buy it tell them your plan to introduce it to those in the office who are willing, slowly migrating them. Take an employee poll and come up with more ideas on why it would benefit them, perhaps now or even in the future. Some would might be interested to know of an upcoming OS that might benefit them in getting a job elsewhere when the time comes, etc.

But to me, there are way too many factors to list.. work from the top down in the company to achieve a migration.

Thanks for your long post trickykid...I was thinking of giving each one a Ubuntu live CD before I did anything so that I could give them a quick run-down of the features and a quick tut on how to navigate it (even though they're not that retarded), and then they can go home and try the CD for themselves. If they like it, I could indeed ask them to vote in a poll to see how many of them would be willing to migrate.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to move them to Linux because the apps are free (and it is!), but because it is more stable and secure and the people in the office, while not complete geeks, are aware of security. The fact that there are too few employees in the company means that I'm basically the part-time IT Technician who comes in once in a while to help out, but apart from that we haven't got an IT department.

As the boss and people directly below him are mainly my close family, it wouldn't be very hard for me to show him Ubuntu and ask him whether he likes it or not. As I said, the employees would be able to try it before making any decisions about whether they would like Linux or not on their computers.

I would also assure them that using Linux would be fine by not only demonstrating its power and usability, but also by trying out all the devices in the office (i.e printers, scanners, etc...) and making sure they work with Ubuntu first. I was just wondering if you could give me some pointers on what I should show them to demonstrate Linux in the best way possible. Cheers,

J_K9

IMHO, show them the free alternatives running on Windows: Firefox and OpenOffice, for example.

Once they're used to them, they'll hardly notice (or care) when they get switched to using the exact same apps on Linux. . .

That's a good point 1&1.......I'll probably do that first and then give them the Live CDs to see if they can cope! Thanks,

J_K9

Actually, you may want to hold off on the live CDs for now. I would start with the open source Windows apps first. People need to be eased into stuff. Once they realize that these apps are equal or better in functionality to the software they were using before and management sees how they don't have to spend as much money on Microsoft Office licenses, it'll be easier to say, "Hey, if we move to Linux, people will still be using the same apps they've gotten used to (OpenOffice, Firefox, etc.), but we can also have better security and stability and not only be rid of our expensive Microsoft Office licenses but also our expensive Microsoft Windows licenses."

Moving too fast with Linux can scare people off. Also, not to question your job security, but even though you can support Linux well, how easy would it be for your supervisor(s) to find another techie who is well-versed in Linux support?

QUOTE ::
"........
Actually, you may want to hold off on the live CDs for now. I would start with the open source Windows apps first. People need to be eased into stuff. Once they realize that these apps are equal or better in functionality to the software they were using before and management sees how they don't have to spend as much money on Microsoft Office licenses, it'll be easier to say, "Hey, if we move to Linux, people will still be using the same apps they've gotten used to (OpenOffice, Firefox, etc.), but we can also have better security and stability and not only be rid of our expensive Microsoft Office licenses but also our expensive Microsoft Windows licenses.
........."

great idea !! timely and encouraging ...
persistency , persistency , persistency in a longer stretch of time in a bigger enviroment ...

QUOTE ::
"........
Moving too fast with Linux can scare people off. Also, not to question your job security, but even though you can support Linux well, how easy would it be for your supervisor(s) to find another techie who is well-versed in Linux support?
......."

he mentioned that " The fact that there are too few employees in the company means that I'm basically the part-time IT Technician who comes in once in a while to help out, but apart from that we haven't got an IT department."

i guess it's time to dip your hands deeper into every possible aspects of linux , be a good and responsive tech support , as yours might be a somewhat smaller and "simpler" enviroment , try to monopolised the workplace IT with linux only !! don't let windows get into yours or maybe just a few tiny pieces of cakes in-order to be a nice linux person , maybe some hardware devices ...
but you still entitle to the largest piece of share as an IT Tech ...

be a little free software "bill gates" ...




just my opinion ...


.

EDIT :: don't forget to learn those really advance Windows stuffs , you might need them during the "monopolisation" of linux at your workplace ...



.

I would recommend using Evolution as opposed to Thunderbird. Unless something has changed drastically since I started using gmail instead of thunderbird, Evolution is very similar to it's Microsoft counterpart.

I really think that you need to flip-shoes and look at the issue honestly from the other side of that executive desk. The first and most obvious question is this:

"It's all working right now. It's paid for. What is the return on investment for changing anything at all?"

And I think that is a very valid question. You are proposing nothing less than to dismantle everything that is working well right now, that is enabling employees to earn money for the company right now ... to have to retrain them, to run the risk of encountering as-yet unknown incompatibilities and frustrations (maybe losing some good workers in the process) ... and when all that is finally over with, what exactly does the company have to show for it? Is it really better just because you prefer it? What's the company going to do ten years down the road when you are long gone?

By the way, puh-leeuze don't point at licensing costs and say, "but Linux is free!" All that this would tell me is that you don't understand the total cost of ownership of software ... of which license-fees are probably the smallest component. The true cost of a computer, like that of any other business machine, is not simply the cost of installation but the real and opportunity costs of every single thing that keeps that machine from producing the optimal amount of revenue for the company. A fully decked out computer might cost $5,000 while the secretary who runs it costs six times that (salary, benefits, insurance, payroll taxes...). A computer that is not running might cause the company to lose more than $5,000 in a single day. The moment that you show a sign of not understanding this, your arguments become specious and you are wasting the executive's time.

These are tough questions, but they're the questions that executives constantly make. As you can see, there are really no "clear" answers. Everything is a tradeoff, including Linux. You must make a compelling business case, considering all of the angles and not just from a "computer geek" perspective. Even though Microsoft Windows may personally repugnant to you, that is not a business case.

Mind you, I run Linux (and Macintosh OS/X, nee BSD Unix) exclusively. But that is not the point. It is very hard to successfully argue the case that the established vendor should be displaced.

yup , always precisely correct with the usual "compelling business case" when people are hearing linux for your work place , over abundancy of that kind of stuffs so much so that it become a reality (sure, granted that it is a reality!) for someone who somehow fathoms the idea of having linux at their work place , big or small ...

but seldom come across the "management of risk" what if linux and free-softwares had already been implemented at your work place , knowing that it ain't necessarily must be 100% linux but still , a sizeable proportion of the work place ...

in my opinion , i guess that will be a more important piece of info or know-how , they are kind of rare or too little ....

any idea to share ...



call me an idealist but i just want to learn more ...

Hi !

Ever heard of 'baby duck syndrome' ? This is just what you might find interesting in relation with
the original post :

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...html?ca=dnt-69

Here is a sample:

Applications come and go, but major changes in an operating system can be traumatic, especially for fairly inexperienced users

cheers

I think sundialsvcs brings up a good point, which is why I proposed having them use just Firefox, Thunderbird, and OpenOffice for a while first. If productivity is not hampered by this switch and they don't have to pay licenses on copies of Microsoft Office, then management will be more open to the idea of open source software. You have to start slowly. No one wants to make radical changes to something that appears to be working. You may also want to do some research on which companies currently run Linux desktops. Perhaps you could have some of their people get in touch with some of your people to talk honestly about the pros and cons they had to deal with in switching over to Linux desktops in the workplace. Convincing management to switch to Linux because it's better and free is like convincing Hollywood to put more Asian-Americans in leading film roles--it sounds nice, but both management and Hollywood care about "the bottom line." Is Linux going to end up costing the company more? Are movies with AA leads going to bomb at the box office?

A lot of it depends, too, on what your business does. For example, if all you use Office for is to type up some Word documents with basic formatting, you probably don't need Office, but if you use some of the more obscure features of Excel on a regular basis, you probably do need Office. Even when I've tried to "convert" people to Firefox at work, a lot of people are skeptical and resistant to even trying a new piece of software. To them, Internet Explorer "just works" (even when it doesn't, and their computers get flooded with spyware and adware). Also, people who have very little understanding of computers are like superstitious athletes. A baseball player happens to tear his jersey the night before a game. That night, he scores three homeruns. Well, would you be surprised if after that night he continued to wear that torn shirt and even tore new shirts, regardless of the fact that there's no logical connection between torn shirts and homeruns? Likewise, people who have little knowledge of computers get burned very easily and become superstitious. One time they downloaded a piece of new software, and it somehow froze up everything on their computer. After that, if they get a configuration working, they think that must be the "magic" configuration, and they become suspicious of anything new that might disrupt the "winning streak."

Have you considered, too, proposing that a few people in the company who definitely don't need Windows for productivity try out Linux for a trial period and report back to management what they think? You can set their computers up to dual boot (and set the timeout to 0 seconds so they don't realize they have a choice to boot into Windows during the trial period) Linux and Windows. Then, set up all their programs and spend all of half an hour teaching them how to recognize the new icons.

Personally, I've found Linux to be the wonder-OS. I love it, but people don't convert easily unless they convert out of their own curiosity. You can't force OSes on people any more than you can force religions on them. In some ways, Linux is like a religion.

Wow thanks for all the replies everyone! There are too many specific questions to answer, so I´ll attempt to sum everything up.

I like the idea of introducing it slowly: giving them open source apps to run on Windows will allow them to get the feel of it, and get accustomed to using the apps. Then, once they have tried them out for a period of time long enough so that they are able to do everything that they want to do in them, then I will introduce them to the wonders of Linux, and Live CDs. Again, another good thing mentioned was to give Linux to a certain few of the employees whom I feel will not miss Windows too much and who don´t use their computers for much except Microsoft Word. I don´t think anyone in the company (except for one or two people) use spreadsheets extensively, so that wouldn´t be too much of a problem.

Also, can people please forget the fact that I mentioned it was free: as you can see, that is nowhere near the beginning of my list, and therefore it is insignificant. When I said ¨free¨, I not only meant it in the normal no-pay sense of the word, but also in the GNU ¨freedom¨ sense. Please do not think that I´m trying to switch their computers to Linux just because it and most of the apps don´t cost a penny.

You talk about proposing a ¨compelling business case¨. It´s all nice and easy mentioning that, but the answers I was looking for in this thread were actually about _how_ to propose a compelling business case. Oh, and believe me, their computers wouldn´t cost a penny to fix, because I would fix them (with LQ´s help of course ) - nothing like $5000. As I said, the company is owned by some closely related family, and so in a few years time it is very likely that I may end up working there, or even taking it over - even though my dream is to become a network admin!

sundialscs: rather than telling me that I need to put together a ¨compelling business case¨, you could be much more useful and helpful if you actually said _HOW_ to propose a compelling business case, which is persuasive, but not offensive, and will attempt to make the employees aware of how Linux will improve their working careers. That information would be much more appreciated than telling me that my views on Windows are not a strong business case - why the hell do you think I made this thread in the first place?

Thanks to all of those who replied, and if you could help me put together a good business case, I´d really appreciate it!

J_K9

I would do about 2 pc's and let people get familiar with it. Let them work with them for about a month before trying to convince them migrate all pc's to linux. Also is there another tech onsite that is Linux Savvy? If not what happens when you go on vacation or leave the company?

Well, I´ll introduce them to LQ of course! Once they discover how useful LQ is and what a great resource it is, I doubt they´ll even need me. Plus, I´m trying to introduce them (eventually) to Ubuntu, which has amazing documentation at Ubuntuguide.org. I would spend quite a bit of time with them when they first tried Linux (- after a month of trying the open source programs on Windows you say?), and from there I´d show them the two great resources I´ve mentioned - it´s impossible to go wrong!

While there aren´t any Linux savvy people there, there is one person I know who is willing to learn anything thrown in front of her, so I´ll probably give her the teaching session along with one other person. Then, as I know she´ll end up loving it, she may convince some of the other employees to switch by showing them how amazing it is!

And now, back to forming the compelling busines case...

J_K9