Linux in a corporate environment
For those who don't know, I'm a net/sysadmin for a medium-sized company. I've been trying to move open source in as much as possible, thanks to bosses that are very receptive to it. Now, I may have my first chance to move the first of our users (besides me) to Linux on the desktop.
We have a heap of Winders computers. I have now moved most to either 2000 or XP Pro, but we still have a fair share of machines running 98.
I have wanted to move desktops to Linux since I started. Two reasons. First, viruses. Yeah. Second, cost. There have just been two things stopping me. First is our proprietary servers (Novell and IBM). Second is to ensure the easiest possible transition for my users. The last thing I want to do is create more work.
Now I'm in a position where I can move the first user to Linux. Our warehouse manager currently is using an XP workstation to check his email, and use terminal emulation for our IBM iSeries. That's it. Today he told me that he really needed an Office suite so he can start using spreadsheets and making up To-do lists for his staff. He never has really used a computer much, nor has he used an office suite.
Second person is one of our accounting staff. She has a fairly fast PIII (1ghz), that somehow my predecessor ordered with Win 98 on it. Yeah. She is doing some catalog type stuff, and will be using Photoshop. Photoshop 7 and 98 don't play nice together.
And effective this morning, I no longer have an IT budget. It's been cut to zero, or "approval by the boss only" status.
So, my thinking - and I got approval on it - is to move the warehouse manager from XP to SuSE 9/KDE. The accounting person will get his copy of XP.
I have most of my bases covered. We use Novell GroupWise for email, and Novell has a very nice new Linux client out for it. IBM has a nice emulation client out for the iSeries/Linux. And OpenOffice is a perfect solution for his office suite. Firefox will be a perfect browser.
Any ideas? Tips? Anything I'm missing?
Thanks for reading in advance ;)
We have a heap of Winders computers. I have now moved most to either 2000 or XP Pro, but we still have a fair share of machines running 98.
I have wanted to move desktops to Linux since I started. Two reasons. First, viruses. Yeah. Second, cost. There have just been two things stopping me. First is our proprietary servers (Novell and IBM). Second is to ensure the easiest possible transition for my users. The last thing I want to do is create more work.
Now I'm in a position where I can move the first user to Linux. Our warehouse manager currently is using an XP workstation to check his email, and use terminal emulation for our IBM iSeries. That's it. Today he told me that he really needed an Office suite so he can start using spreadsheets and making up To-do lists for his staff. He never has really used a computer much, nor has he used an office suite.
Second person is one of our accounting staff. She has a fairly fast PIII (1ghz), that somehow my predecessor ordered with Win 98 on it. Yeah. She is doing some catalog type stuff, and will be using Photoshop. Photoshop 7 and 98 don't play nice together.
And effective this morning, I no longer have an IT budget. It's been cut to zero, or "approval by the boss only" status.
So, my thinking - and I got approval on it - is to move the warehouse manager from XP to SuSE 9/KDE. The accounting person will get his copy of XP.
I have most of my bases covered. We use Novell GroupWise for email, and Novell has a very nice new Linux client out for it. IBM has a nice emulation client out for the iSeries/Linux. And OpenOffice is a perfect solution for his office suite. Firefox will be a perfect browser.
Any ideas? Tips? Anything I'm missing?
Thanks for reading in advance ;)
