Company Migration to Linux
 

Hi all,

Just thought I share my great news with everyone: our company has successfully migrated our server infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand to Linux :D

That is:
2 x ERP Systems (RHEL 4)
2 x File Servers incl. Domain PDC, DNS and DHCP (RHEL 4)
1 x PostgreSQL DBMS (RHEL4)
1 x Mail Server (Fedora Core 6)
1 x Web Server (Fedora Core 6)
2 x Gateway UTM's (Outsourced, but Linux based)

Life without Windows Servers is great... If you are thinking about it or trying to do it, keep at it, it can be done!! :study:

Next Step: Linux Desktops... :confused:

congradulations.

linux desktops, since you went Red Hat for everything else, simplest to go Red Hat desktops.
though any linux can be used, you may find integration into the network simpler with Red Had Enterprise Workstation systems.

I have been 100% linux fo years, and don't miss the ms problems at all.

Thanks Jaqui... I was actually thinking an Ubuntu based install, perhaps Mint or something similar as that's what I'm running at home.

The problem is a lot of our company reporting is done in Excel using PostgreSQL data sources and PivotTables. I've tried OpenOffice and it doesn't like PivotTables very much, and at this stage I won't be able to convince the number crunchers to re-create all their reports using OOo :(

The last part took me 18 months, this part is going to take muuuuch longer :(

Which of your servers are running Samba, besides the PDC?


Some questions about that desktop conversion, more for my edification than as suggestions -- I assume you have anticipated & answered these:

• How many desktops are involved?
• Which vers. of "Winders(tm);)" are they running?
• How much longer do you think you can run this/these ver(s). of "Winders(tm);)?
• Can the hardware handle Vista (if & when)?
• Is management's motivation (for conversion) solely monetary?
• Is a piecemeal conversion possible? Perhaps leaving some die-hards using M$?
• How would Crossover Office fit your objectives?
  

Both of our ERP systems are running Samba for upload / download of data - but they are not part of the domain.

1. We have about 60 desktops, although not all are even a possibility to be changed to Linux. We run in-house software for our franchise stores that is developed in Visual Basic, and our franchise stores run MS, so our devel. team for that will need to keep MS. Our warehouse also runs on Win32 software for despatch.
2. We are *almost* exclusively WinXP - a couple of the warehouse PC's are still Windows 98. They only need to run telnet and/or access the web interface of our ERP/SQL for enquiries.
3. Based on company history - We'll still be on WinXP for at least another 8 to 10 years. We really only FIRST started running some XP machine's about 2 and a half years ago. :eek:
4. I haven't actually researched if our current PC's will run Vista. I'm not interested in it (Vista) until I find out a lot more about the DRM side of Vista, but ultimately I'd like to think that by the time we can't buy XP anymore, Linux will be able to cater to our needs ;)
5. Management isn't pushing this; I'm pushing them. :D
6. I am actually running one Linux Desktop, but it's one of those Warehouse PC's that only need telnet / access to web interface for inquiries. It's an OpenSUSE 10.2 box - so far so good!
7. I haven't investigated Crossover Office, I'd forgotten about it. I might have to have a look, thanks :)

Is there really a need to push for Linux desktops? I think a hybrid environment is ideal. Let your employees continue to use what they're comfortable with, and then let yourself as an IT admin work on the platform that you're comfortable with. It's win-win.

Did you have a look at the latest spreadsheet programs of
KDE and Gnome? They are said to have improved a lot lately...

I'm a power EXCEL user and originally had same issues with Open Office as you did.

If you can get Version 2.0 or higher of Open Office most of the short comings of the spread sheet have been fixed.

1) Pivot tables -- Called PILOTS in OO -- work exactly like EXCEL Pivot tables.

2) Web queries - you know those that can say load Web tables into EXCEL for example the components and prices of the DOW 30 fom Yahoo financial. Now no problem --works just like excel.

3) Macros and Basic. Now supported although you have to use BASIC rather than VBASIC but still works great.

Cheers

-K

Congrats on the successful migration. Everytime I try a new desktop I do it with the idea in mind of "can I put any of my users on this and expect them to be comfortable with it?" As time has moved the answer to this is more and more yes.

In the last few months I have looked at Ubuntu, Kubuntu, FC6 and Sled 10 for this. IMHO any of these would do reasonably well. The caveat to this is, which you have already mentioned, certain in-house built and proprietary apps just simply are not going to run under Linux. However I do always try and see if they will run under Crossover Office. Many do, some don't.

In any case most companies have so called knowledge workers-that is people who use the same apps day in and day out. These are, at least for me, the primary people I look at to migrate to a Linux desktop. It took me two years to get enough support to start deploying Open Office to these folks. We are currently doing it though and it is working exceptionally well.

Rock on dude!

That's probably what will end up happening, but when I look at value for money - I can't justify what M$ gives in return for several hundred Aussie $$$
My other concern is M$ DRM and having our data locked in a proprietary format.

1) We tried to open our current Pivot Tables (the bane of my existence!) with OOo and they didn't come across properly... Maybe I did something wrong... I did play with "Pilots" but I've never been able to work out Pivot Tables properly, so I couldn't really create anything useful, but it did appear to be functionally identical to M$
2) That's all OK for us.
3) I can't use bash or php? :D

I have experimented with Ubuntu (Standard and 'Mint'), FC 4/5/6 and SLED 10.2 - I agree that any of them would be suitable as the base for a Linux Desktop. They constantly get better and better. :D

What kind of analysis are your guys doing using
pivot-tables? If it's about statistics - have you looked
into R? http://www.r-project.org/



Cheers,
Tink

Thanks Tinkster... Looks like we could have a play with that, I'll download and fiddle with it :study:

Cheers :)

And since I'm an incredibly curious person: did you like
what you saw? :)


Cheers,
Tink

Can't say I was... Didn't make a bit of sense!! :(

Maybe it's just over my head

Bummer ... sorry for getting your hopes up. Our scientists
used it heaps, and were very fond of it.


Cheers,
Tink