RE: Need to give a presentation on the benefits of Linux

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On Wed, 2007-01-31 at 21:37 -0500, Arch Willingham wrote:
> Thanks....that will be a huge help! I am also hoping to find some help as part of he presentation showing the increase in Linux sales/market share and some comments to help others over the "its not Windows" hump.
----
It's impossible to get a handle on how many people are actually using
Linux since so much of it is never sold or is simply counted as a
Windows sale - for example, we have been buying systems from Dell which
have WinXP home preloaded and are never booted as a Windows system since
the first boot is a kickstart Fedora Core 6 install.

I think the most important things to realize are:
- Windows has some advantages, as does a Macintosh, as does Linux.
- No one OS is the best choice for all users
- The average desktop user isn't going to do much more than basic
e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet, web browsing and the OS is
probably only an issue of familiarity and of little consequence.

In my situation, I have LDAP for user authentication, a home directory
created for each user which is the same home whether the user logs in
via a Macintosh, Windows or Linux, in essence, his home directory,
files, login name and password are the same and the only difference
between the various OS's is the applications available to the user which
in the case of things like e-mail, have to be set up the first time a
user logs in per OS. I have created a 'roaming profile' for all users,
regardless of operating system...it works.

Thus when the options were made available, it became mostly a matter of
cost vs. convenience of the familiar and I didn't have to really push
hard for Linux because the benefits are obvious. Rather than push to
sell it - I found it most effective to put a fully configured Linux
system on the 'boss's and had him use it.

The real issues are the files that you create - the intellectual product
of your organization and the fact is that most businesses blindly use
the proprietary formats commonly known as .DOC | .XLS | .PPS  Does it
make sense to create document after document that is undocumented? These
formats are in their final stage since the newest versions of Microsoft
Office are pushing to use their Microsoft Office XML format which is
incomprehensible for just about everyone (weighing in at over 6000
pages).

These formats (whether MSO XML or .doc/.xls/.pps) are poisonous to the
continuity of any business since they become unwieldy and migrating from
them will be painful. OpenOffice.org (and others) support the ODF (see
http://www.oasis.org for more information) and this format is open,
documented, unencumbered and fully usable by virtually any software that
chooses to use it. This is the ground that must be fought for.

Likewise, things like Exchange Server and Outlook are also used to
create vendor lock-in - the addiction to the Microsoft behemoth that are
so hard to break.

To a business that is on the up and up, maintaining a License 6
Microsoft Windows desktop with Microsoft Office is a pretty costly
system and a Linux system would have to compare favorably for many, many
users.

Craig


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