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Windows to Linux Migration in the Enterprise?
youngerpants asks: "There is a lot of talk at the moment about migrating applications from WIN32 to Linux. This certainly helps move the OSS movement along, however, the true test of Linux is in the enterprise. Whereas we can move applications, how can the enterprise itself (such as Active Directory to Open LDAP, Exchange Server to Sendmail and NTFS to Samba) be moved.
Have Slashdot readers used any applications or followed any strategies to migrate their enterprise? How would you tackle an obviously risky migration?"
"Active Directory to Open LDAP, Exchange Server to Sendmail and NTFS to Samba"
I understand the gist of your question, although I don't think you understand it yourself. None of your examples actually discuss the one thing the enterprise is interested in: "Functional Parity"
AD to OpenLDAP doesn't go, because OpenLDAP is just a directory protocol -- I wish people would start to understand that. There is no directly usable management interface, no business logic, no nothing. It is just a protocol....
Comparing Exchange Server and Sendmail earns you a good thwapping over the head in my team -- maybe Exchange Server vs. Open-Exchange, but again you are comparing the wrong things. Finally, go stand in the corner for comparing NTFS with Samba.
I usually don't complain about Ask Slashdot type stuff, but this takes the cake. Go learn something about IT before you ask stupid questions.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
Very small...
Individual Pockets -> Workgroup -> Departmental -> Enterprise
As much as I love open source and think it provides tremendous value to organizations, I have to realistically evaluate any large migration and observe two obvious points:
1) It's different. There will be people who will not want to see it succeed. You will need to PROVE that the functionality provided is SUPERIOR and that the cost of migrating is overcome by the reduced ongoing TCO.
2) Is your organization ready to provide the level of support it has become accustomed too? Are you a MS Enterprise or Select customer? You need to prepare for the fact that to some extent the warm fuzzy blanket of misleading comfort is being pulled away from the organization.
I would NOT begin by migrating something. I would begin by looking for a new unit, group, or area of the business. New is much easier to accomplish than migrate.
Finally, if you are a hardcore MS shop, the financial pitch to MGT can be the leverage that doing something small can provide in price / service negotiations.
Nowdays, with all this "Get the facts" FUD, the Free Software comunity reacts trying to show that it's not true that migration is a nightmare, and that it's not true that it costs money. The true is, Migration from ANY system to ANY other system, is a nightmare, and it does cost money.
The point we should make clear is: Migrating from Windows to Unix Is a good decition (I Say Unix to make clear that i'm not talking about Freedom or ethical or monetary issues, just about the technical stuff) and it will make things just easier and safer in the long run. Technically, there is no possible discussion.
About non-technicall stuff: Microsoft insists in their "get the facts" bullshit that if you use windows you can hire incompetent sysadmins, and with Unix, you can't. It's just not a good idea to hire incompetent people. Hire a good sysadmin, and pay him well, what do you prefere, to pay thousands to a big monopoly for the right to copy, or pay a worker for actual honest work??
ALMAFUERTE
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
LDAP is so useful, that you might as well start here. Remember that LDAP is a multipurpose directory. If you want to replace AD authentication and a windows PDC, IDEALX has written some nice perl scripts and a tutorial on how to do this with OpenLDAP and Samba.
If you want to replace Exchange Server, use Openexchange. If you want to replace only your MTA, consider using postfix. On the server end, this isn't a ton of work. But you will likely have to change the way clients are connecting to your server & also what they can do with it. Sendmail/postfix will probably not be enough for you...
NTFS is a local file system. Samba is an open source SMB server/client. Big difference. See IDEALX for good Samba deployment.
If you want to do it all-in-one over-the-night type push, you're very likely to fail. Or at least your users will kill you.
Also, you may (or may not) hit many little annoying details that would make you belive m$ fud more and more.
I've been trough two migrations now and what i learned is this: go easy, keep the existing systems in place for their forseeable lifetime (dont fix if it's not broken approach), implement OSS stuff only for new services and gradually replace old systems with newer, running OSS. In a timeframe of 2-5 years or so.
Damn, the title of this article is just begging for someone to make a Star Trek joke, and no one's done so yet.
Ah, Slashdotters genuinely surprise me sometimes...
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