Avoiding Microsoft Lock-ins?

bayduv1n asks: "My company relies on WinNT primarily for workstations, file servers, and print servers. In my opinion, Linux based solutions are close to offering a viable alternative. I'm sure that management, however, would like to see mainstream acceptance in the corporate world before considering a migration from the current environment. With the Linux drum beating louder and louder, I would like to make recommendations that would leave our future options *open* and avoid locking into MS technology. I consider a lock-in anything that makes it difficult to migrate. One example of a current lock-in is the macros written for Excel. These would require significant effort to migrate to Staroffice Calc. Implementing MS Metadirectory Service could also be classified as a lock-in. My question is: 'What recommendations can I make now to make it easier to migrate to Linux in a couple of years?'"

Comments

Some ideas

[wrinkledshirt]

1. If you can help it, try not to fall in love with features that only proprietary companies have. If there's something in MS Word that you want but that no other suite has, begin lobbying the crap out of StarOffice, KOffice, Gnome Office, etc. to get that feature.

2. Learn Python. It's rapidly becoming Linux's answer to VBA. Since you've already mentioned that you're writing macros for Excel, you might be interested to know that KSpread can be scripted using several different languages too. Go into your macros and figure out how you might go about translating them into a different language.

3. Learn XML, and figure out how to convert your existing data to and from XML. You can justify this to management easily by saying it's a good safety backup and migration technique just in case something horrible happens. The truth is, if you map out your data properly you could probably dump something from an MS solution and rebuild it using a non-MS solution that has some scripting capabilities.

4. Come up with five practical (ie: non-MS bashing) reasons why you don't need .NET. Keep them on hand when the obligatory meeting happens exploring the issue. Figure out what makes .NET attractive and come up with counter-proposals for those features.

5. Learn Samba. At least this way you can integrate different systems and don't need to settle for all your machines being MS-based just because you can't help but have one that's MS-based.

6. Familiarize yourself with different options starting now. Make it an on-going project for yourself to only work with non-MS products. For instance, bring in a Linux machine and do all your word-processing on WordPerfect8. If they won't let you do it at work, try simulating office procedures at home. You can't expect that your company will want to switch over if you can't yourself. If nothing else, the idea of migration to a non-MS platform will be way more attractive if they believe training won't be a problem, which is why you should get this training out of the way now.

7. Remember that the sort of manager who's interested in any sort of change is a forward-mover. This means that you won't be of any value to this person if you keep telling them why they can't do something. If they're looking for changes, it means that they think their existing systems are inadequate and they want to upgrade them -- your job is to show them how a Linux (or whatever) solution can be an even better upgrade. Simply telling them that such-and-such a software solution is unsafe or unnecessarily expensive won't work for them. You've got to counter with another suggestion that'll address their reasons for wanting to change in the first place.