Linux From A CIO's Perspective

An anonymous reader writes "CIO.com has a story on Linux and OSS in the enterprise from the perspective of the CIO of Cendant Travel Distribution Services, Mickey Lutz. 'In the summer of 2003, Mickey Lutz did something that most CIOs, even today, would consider unthinkable: He moved a critical part of his IT infrastructure from the mainframe and Unix to Linux. For Lutz, the objections to Linux, regarding its technical robustness and lack of vendor support, had melted enough to justify the gamble.' His organization saved 90% in costs in so doing. Read on if you want to see how the top brass views OSS."

Comments

Me as a CIO

[Theo de Raabt]

Makes us more liable than BSD (due to the GPL) but not particularly better? SIGN ME UP

ok, and?

[coolGuyZak]

I'll be modded troll...

This news is all well and great, but it's been known for a while that moving from UNIX->Linux was cheaper. What should be focused on is the switch from Win -> Linux... Of course, that's not going to be showcased, because the costs of running either system are about equal.

Well

[Neil Blender]

Most C** are idiots. Is it now news that one makes/made an intelligent decision? I didn't read the whole article, but from my experience, some people 'convinced' him and now he takes the credit.

Re:unthinkable?

[Transcendent]

Dominated? I think not.

When you need reliability, you don't use linux. When you want to cut costs and are willing to gamble with reliability... then you use linux.

Read the article.

Re:Spread the word!

[Anonymous Coward]

MAN SEX
sex with a man
the captcha code is "knobskw"
even cmdrtaco can't keep his mind off of sucking knobs off

Not good from my experience

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried switching the family over to Linux machines over the summer
vacation and the objections from the other family members was more
than enough to send all 7 machines right back to Windows ME, Windows
2000 and Windows XP.
So why all the troubles?
Afterall Linux users in COLA love to tell stories of how Linux is so
much better than Windows and they would never go back and so forth.
My conclusion after seeing real people in a real average Jane setting
revolt against Linux is that the Linux advocates are just plain lying
because Linux is really a step backwards for people used to using
Windows.

To make this short and simple, virtually NOTHING worked properly under
Linux.
Video cards could not get maximum resolution.
Capture programs, for my ATI All In WOnder and Video camera did not
work. In fact my ATI cards advanced features (remote control amongst
other things) didn't work at all.
My printer (Brother all in one fax/copier/printer) did not work.
My DSL connection did not work and when I called support they said
that Linux was not supported.
My mp3 and mpeg video and music files played but they skipped
horribly.
I couldn't log into my router via konqueror to change/view settings.
MANY, MANY, MANY web pages did not display correctly.
And it goes on and on for pages,but the bottom line is that Linux
lasted about 3 days in my house before I ditched it and went back to
the Windows versions I was using.
Thank goodness for Ghost which mad it easy to do.

Conclusion is that Linux is a birds nest of confusion. Linux seems
like it might be good until you actually try and use it and then it
shows it's ugliness, slowness and instability.

Why on earth ANYONE would use Linux for a home system is a mystery.
Stephanie

Re:Not good from my experience

[Cmdr Whackjob]

"My father accepted it well enough (hell, he even told me it was sometimes nicer than Windows) but for the rest of the family it was a no-no. I was keen to learn but the RPM hunt and the randomness of program functioning is what bought me back to Windows."

Your problem was two-fold. First, you are not proficient enough yourself to resolve problems as they arise. This can be frustrating especially if you are under pressure to "make it work!" from others. What you need to do is get another machine (it doesn't have to be top-of-the-line) solely to experiment on. This machine is called in CompSci circles a "testbed". When testing is done and you are sure everything works (and are confident that it will stay that way) then, and only then, install that program on the computers in use. You will be amazed as the levels of frustration drops with the family off your back.

Second, never, never, never try to force someone to use something they don't want to use. There are other ways to make them want to make the switch. For example, I don't clean up my family's computers after they get them infested with spyware, adware, and virii. I let them do it. I may provide pointers from time to time but that is about it. After a few times they will eventually see that you are not doing that constant fight in Linux and may want to try again. The point is, they have to want to do it not you forcing the issue.

mo3 uip

[Anonymous Coward]

lost it5 earlier betw3en each BSD crisco or lube.