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Telstra Considers 45,000-Seat Linux Deployment
stressky writes: "Looks like major Aussie telco Telstra are looking at deploying Linux as the new Standard Operating Environment across their 45,000 desktop LAN workstations." An anonymous reader offers evidence that Telstra isn't alone; apparently, many other Australian businesses are considering a similar switch.
Sounds like a bargaining chip deal to me, and yes, I am quite cynical. The company did recently choose a Sun Java solution over MS and IBM offerings recently though, so maybe they are trying to move away from MS. If they do go with linux, you can safely bet on the solution being provided by Sun as they appear to greatly admire Mr. McNealy.
Without starting a war, I think that in order for linux to be deployed successfully in a corporate envrironment, someone is going to have to build a highly functional, standardized desktop environment. Gnome and KDE are the obvious choices, but what kills linux (for the newcomer) is the overabundance of choice! Abiword, Kword, OpenOffice, StarOffice, Applix (if they are still around). Pick one! Now do that for the multitudes of packages that provide duplicate functionality. This is the only way that someone is going to get Linux in the front of the day to day workers in any corp. Choice is great for geeks, but not for the standard fare business environment. Someone will ship a distro with one shell, one office package, one browser, one mail client, and they will be the company that puts linux over in the workplace.
Well, I'll give you some examples that I battle with dayly:
I browse using Opera, use GnomICU for ICQ and OpenOffice.org as my office-suite.
If I get a ICQ message with a web-address, it doesn't make a link from it, so I have to copy it by hand. This involves marking the address with the mouse, then waiting ~4 seconds for KDE to figure out, that the text that is marked, just might be a URL, and ask me what I want to do with it. I want to copy it to the clipboard (which I can't seem to do any other way).
Now I go to opera, where I happen to have another page open, so I doubleclick in the address bar and curse loudly, because now that address is in the clipboard, and kde again asks me what I want to do. Press delete to clear the address-bar
Go back to the ICQ message and repeat.
Go back to Opera, press paste and HOPE it's the right clipboard that I'm accessing this time (because I've only been using linux as a desktop for roughly a month, I keep mixing shortcut access to the various clipboard up). If not, I can delete the text by depressing backspace until the text is deleted. Then try to remember how to access the clipboard that the URL is located in.
OpenOffice is worse and better. I spent four hours writing this and then had to spend 15 minutes trying to figure out how the bloody hell I could move that text into Opera!
Sure, blame the programmes of the programs I mentioned for being sloppy programmers. Blame me for being a stupid luser. But don't blame the developers for enabling more than one single clipboard in a system at a time.
My experience with just the clipboards leads me to believe, that the developers and programmers have never heard of the concepts of concurrency and deadlocks. I haven't seen a deadlock of the clipboard, but I have seen the precursors of it.
Sure, I know how to change clipboards (but not on a system wide level), but would your mom know how to do that? Would Mr. Johnson, the accountant at 3H, who has been blessed with Linux on the desktop?
If you take the time to read through the abstract I linked to, you will see, that I'm not just your average luser, and even if I was, you can take your "holier than thou" attitude and shove up your ass. Both of them.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Isn't that funny?
Thoughts like this were known already.
Weren't people saying something like?
Linux as a server yes, but there's no way to use it on corporate desktop.
And this thoughts aren't even one year old
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
Everybody understands that this is the traditional accepted way of asking Microsoft for a discount, right?
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)