Moving from Linux to Windows Desktop?

slyall asks: "I work in the Network/System Admin team for an ISP. Our firm was recently bought by another company that has mandated that my team's desktops be switched over from Linux to Windows XP in the next few weeks. Some of us are have used Linux almost exclusively and going to Windows is a big change. Can people suggest any tips, books or websites to help Linux people shoved into the Windows world (especially those running lots of Linux and Cisco boxes)? We've all got years of experience on Linux but running Windows day to day is a big challenge. We don't yet know if the company will provide us with tools such as Cygwin or Windows Services for UNIX but we won't be allowed to install random programs and may not have admin access. We're not happy with the change but we're unable to stop it. What we are hoping to do is reduce the performance hit that the changeover is going to cause." This is probably one of those situations where a LiveCD-based distribution, for use in an emergency, might help.

Comments

Re:Tips...

[ogre57]

Requiring admins to use XP and then not letting them have admin on their own boxes .. could be ignrance, could be insanity, could be you are being set up as scapegoats for when, not if, things fall apart. Expect y'all already have, update your resumes, immediately start looking for another job.

If possible set up a Linux box with plenty of ram on which you do have root as a vnc server. Insist the XP boxes have a vnc client such as tightvnc and a terminal client such as putty. Use the XP box as essentially an expensive dumb terminal to a vnc session, with the terminal as a backup in case of a problem. Do all of your email, web, etc on the server via vnc.

I set up our development teams this way. Productivity increase was such that several managers have since had me to help set up their teams the same way.

Quit.

[arcade]

I know this isn't the answer you're looking for, but when such bone-headed manuevers are done - there really isn't much left to work for.

Personally I would've quitted the company the minute the message arrived. I would've taken the change as my termination letter.