4.
Some points to watch out for
Up one level
OK, there are lots of issues likely to cause you problems to varying degrees, I'm going to list a few of the show-stoppers as I think it's a bit unfair to list all the benefits without pointing out the risks.
- Your PC hardware may not run Linux. This is rarely the case these days in terms of desktop computers, but it can happen, especially with laptops. If in doubt, find someone who will sell you a computer with Linux pre-installed. (and if you can't mail me...)
- You have an old PC that won't support Linux. To not support Linux at all it's going to have to be pre-pentium, but that said, don't bother unless you have something equivalent to a PII/250 or better with at least 128Mb of RAM... unless of course you're in to "thin client" computing, in which case you should visit The Linux Terminal Server Project site.
- Linux may not support all of your hardware. Again this really only applies to laptops and even then probably only a few very specialised features that are vendor specific. Laptop manufacturers have a nasty habit of inventing their own proprietary hardware, then only writing / supplying Windows drivers for it. I would strongly recommend ONLY purchasing a laptop if it comes with Linux pre-installed with all the features demonstrably working, or if the manufacturer explicitly lists Linux support for their product.
- Getting to know Linux. As Windows has now been around for so long and so many people have had some exposure to Windows (whether they've registered the fact or not) , people are equating this almost subliminal exposure to Windows with Windows being very easy to use. If you've not used Windows XP before and dispute this, give XP a try and think again. (there's a lot of new stuff in it!) Linux is no more difficult to get to grips with from a desktop point of view than Windows is, the difference is that because Linux does so much more it seems like a huge task. Suggested solution: goto Amazon.co.uk and buy some of the linux books available - there's no shortage!
- Adapting your office environment. Recently a number of large companies (well , two in particular) have made some very disparaging remarks about Open Office (or Sun Star Office). Ignore them - Open Office is a good and free replacement for any other Office package you care to mention. However, it is different to (to a degree) and will take a little re-learning. The real problems you will experience come when you swap information with Windows users. For some strange reason, the format of Microsoft Office documents seems to keep changing with each new release, it's almost as if they don't want anybody else to be able to read files generated by their software. Very strange. Anyway, moving on, the easy approach is to migrate your entire organisation at the same time, and when you swap information externally, use a common format such as PDF, CSV or .TXT. After having completed this process on a relatively large multi-site office, I can confirm that it is very doable and indeed at the end of the day, a positive move.
- When it goes wrong. As you know, computers do go wrong and for all sorts of reasons. I've seen PC's struck by lightning, shorted by Coke (a-Cola), shorted by coffee (there's a theme here...) , swamped by viruses, throttled by DDos attacks .. and indeed killed by Windows Updates. The problem is diagnosing the problem and the familiarity of those providing support with these problems. It's worth considering this before you start - line some body up (a support company or a local geek) to help out in the event of something going badly wrong.
- Dual boot systems. What can I say, great idea, and brilliant most
of the time. Back in the good old days of Windows 95,98 etc, many of
our systems were dual boot and provided many hours of fun on whichever
operating system best suited the job at hand. However, with the advent of
Windows XP, it seems that getting OS's to coexist has become more
difficult. Indeed XP seems to like to remove anything else on your hard
drive before it installs itself. Once it's converted all your
file-systems to a new more dynamic format, it's impossible to
then install Linux as a second OS. I've heard a completely plausible Microsoft discussion
/ argument as to why this is the case... but then I've also heard a very
convincing argument as to why the earth is really flat. Anyway - if you
run XP with dynamic disks, this dual booting option may not be available to
you. (although I've seen something recently that would suggest that a
Linux installer can get around this... ?)
- Choosing software. There's so much of it, knowing what to use can often be a complete nightmare. Here's a quick crib-sheet of what you can use and indeed what's likely to suit you best from an SME point of view;
- Web browsing - Mozilla 1.6 or Mozilla Firefox
- Email - Evolution, KMail or Mozilla Thunderbird
- Office Packages - Open Office or Sun StarOffice
- On-line Chat - GAIM (MSN, Jabber etc..) and XChat for IRC
- HTML Editing - Mozilla Composer, Open Office HTML or Quanta Plus
- Project management - Mr Project
- Web server - Apache V2.0
- Mail servers - Sendmail or Postfix for SMTP, Cyrus for IMAP4
- Selling the concept to staff. No easy answer, but here's a suggestion. Work out what you're going to save in software costs over a four year period in terms of purchasing new software and paying for ongoing licensing costs. Then add an estimate the expected cost due to virus outages. Then if you're a largeish company, spend a %age of that and give everyone a 1 week holiday in Barbados. This just might incentivise them to spend the time required to make the upgrade process successful.
