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
