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A List of Linux Migration Stories?
borfast asks: "From time to time, I read about schools, cities, states or countries that decided to switch their operating systems to Linux for a number of reasons. The latest was the city of Munich. I'm currently preparing a presentation to do on local schools about Free Software and its advantages (and disadvantages) in government and education, and I'd like to show some examples of what I'll be saying to those folks. Not that I consider myself an authority on the subject but you know the saying, 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king'. Anyway, I have been collecting all the stories (both positive and negative) I find but I'd really appreciate it if the Slashdot crowd could give me a hand, here. Due credit will be given and the presentation will be posted online under a Free license. So, what Linux migration nightmares or cotton-candy dreams do you know about, and do you know any site that collects these stories?"
I saw March of the Penguins, does that count?
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Or any other search engine:
AutoZone
Burlington Coat Factory
Cisco/Linksys
City of Vienna information services
Daimer/Chrysler
Disney
Ernie Ball Guitars
Google
IBM
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Merrill Lynch
Mexico City municipal government
Pixar Animation
Papa John's Pizza
Raymour & Flanigan Furniture
Riverdale High School, Portland, Oregon
St. Mary's School, Rockledge, Florida
University of Oslo
US Air Force
You might not get all the details, but it might send you in the right direction.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
As the snow begins to melt and the first buds of spring begin to swell, the Linux, thin and gaunt from a winter's starvation, begins to seek out others of its own kind, gathering at the swiftly thawing ponds and lakes. Soon, great flocks of Linux will begin their long migration south to their summer breeding grounds. Many will not make it, too exhausted from their journey to continue, or falling victim to the many predators who dog their steps on their long flight...
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Okay, so this one time I was typing a report for school, and my computer was like "beeeeep beep beep beeeep beepbeep beeep" and then my report was gone. Then I switched to Linux and smoked some reefer.
I'm sure many other people have similar stories.
Game... blouses.
and ever since I don't need to password protect anything, nobody but me can use the computer now.
My experience has been interesting. My university's college of engineering has a full-time staff of three, serving multiple labs in multiple buildings (so the infrastructure is non-trivial). They hire part-time and full-time students, train them, and rely on them for a lot of the work they need done. Because of the great leadership, the engineering network (entirely linux-powered on the backend, with all types of machines from supercomputers to workstations to desktops of every flavor) has an incredible track record, and they have been able to deal with almost every problem in a very professional way.
The CS department is exactly the opposite. There is one full-time staff administrator, who hires students to work for him. He is ornery and unhelpful. The network is down a lot. The machines are only updated infrequently, accounts get destroyed on a regular basis, the works. The same setup (linux backend, linux, windows, and mac clients) but administered entirely differently.
I guess my experience has been that if you are going to migrate, you need people who know how to do it. Linux might get a bad name, but it's really the people behind the migration.
1. Go to a linux forum
2. Enter search "Windows"
3. Look at a list with "Bye bye Weendoz!!!! roflmayonaise i migrated!!!"
4. Find some "LOL WTF LEENOOKS zuck!!! I'm back to my win!!! lol!!!" in bettween the entries on line 3
5. ???
6. Presentation!
The Sinterclaws penguins migrate the entire distance from the Falkland Islands to the North Pole every winter. Once at the North Pole, these penguins assist the local inhabitants with toy production and reindeer maintenance.
From digg: 50 Open Source success stories in Business, Education, and Government
It's like if my buddy comes to me and asks why his circuit is picking up noise and I hand him a stack of textbooks. "Your answer is in there."
:-)
Borfast is looking for some intelligence. If he just wanted a list, he could indeed just google. If we want to help him, a little editorial comment on our part is necessary. If someone is looking for strawberries we could honestly tell him that there are strawberries in all directions. It would be the truth. Of course if he walks north he won't find any strawberries for about 5000 miles. It is much more helpful to tell him that the nearest strawberries are 2 miles east of here just off county road 32.
Some of the stories on your list are quite interesting. Ernie Ball may be a classic. They were a Windows shop until the day Microsoft showed up for an audit. Microsoft was looking for someone to make an example of. They treated Ernie Ball as harshly as they could and made sure it was well publicized. Ernie Ball reacted by completely dumping Windows and making sure that was as well publicized as possible.
Daimler and AutoZone are SCO victims. They switched from Unix though. Most school boards are on Windows so the cases may not be that relevant.
the one-eyed man is a cyclope."
factor 966971: 966971
The only list on Earth shorter than the Big Book of Swiss Military Victories.
-
Inventor of the term 'pardon my French'.
It is official, Slashdot now confirms: SCO$699FeeTroll is dying. One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered slashdot troll when trollkore announced that SCO$699FeeTroll mindshare has dropped yet again, now down to a fraction of 1 percent of all trolls. Coming close on the heals of a slashdot survey which plainly states, "SCO$699FeeTroll? Is that guy still here?" this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. The interest in SCO is collapsing in complete disarray as fittingly exemplified by falling dead last in the recent Slashdot survey, "What issue matters the most to you right now? 1.) Getting laid, 2.) Getting out of mom's basement, 3.) Getting another donut 4.) Cock-smoking, 5.) Teabagging, or 6.) Paying my $699 licensing fee to SCO."
Fact: SCO$699FeeTroll is dying.
When linux works out of the box, it's great, but if anything goes wrong, or you need to tweak, the documentation and cross-distro compatability (important when building from source, or even getting prepackaged apps), can be a royal pain.
I switched to FreeBSD, but it's issues (less commercial software, less supported hardware), are easier for me to handle than those of Linux (overall less comprehensive and user friendly documentation).
In the end, get your devs to try both, and compare them to your experiences with Windows (and possibly MacOS as well), and make your decisions from there.
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
Linux is free for anyone who doesn't want to pay for commercial support. XP costs less than that?
I don't understand why you say I have narrow expectations. I did mention "nightmares", didn't I? I know that Linux isn't always the best solution and that sometimes Windows is the best solution.
I welcome any stories that can show something of interest. If yours is one, go ahead and share it.
http://mtechit.com/linux-biz/
Thats a bit narrow minded. The cost of the licenses is totally insignificant, even if it was 5 times the price. .NET as the platform for an internal solution. Our programmers were equaly comfortable with both, both fullfilled our needs equaly, etc. The reason we picked one over the other came down to: an intermediate .NET programmer in my area is about 20$/hour. An intermediate Java programmer in the same area is (almost) twice that. We needed to hire a lot of programmers. That made the decision -fast-.
:)
Just as an unrelated example: A long time ago, for a company I used to work for ( I don't anymore ), I had to select between Java and
Initial cost is rarely significant
Check this site: Linux Success Stories
This book is free, and it rocks: Linux Client Migration Cookbook
Take a look through POS vendor's sites. Most Non-Microsoft POS platforms run on Linux.
* Wincor/Nixdorf
* IBM
* SAP/Triversity
* Micros
* BananaPOS
There are more..
Novell even has a Point of Service-specific Distribution, NLPOS..
You might have to get creative - not all individuals' success stories are public, but vendors are happy to tout their successes with a list of clients that successfully use their product. Add them to your list!
Nvidia + Wide Screen LCD flat panel can be cumbersome, tweaking modelines, xorg.conf files, ugh! It's enough to drive one sane! And the fact that currently 6.10 (at least for a number of people) loads to a black screen of death, and CTRL-ALT-F1 to F6 didn't bring up a viewable console making it that much more of a pain.
I finally got another distro installed, downloaded the latest nvidia drivers and got my monitor up into it's native 1440x900@60, but I would say that until the installation is streamlined to where you don't have to tweak/play with conf files, examine logs/bang head against wall or threaten the system with a baseball bat, the average "user" is going to be lost, frustrated, and returning to the evil empire.
Best bet, make sure ya have a non-lcd/laptop, etc. "normal" monitor available... I'm sure that would have made life a LOT easier this past week.
Try this: what does your organization need to migrate from your current platform to Linux? A few things off the top of my head...
* Outlook, though for what we use Outlook for, it's probably doable.
* Visio. If you say "Use Dia!", I'll laugh in your face because you're an idiot.
* Network-wide integrated login like Active Directory with the easy-to-use management tools. If you say "Use OpenLDAP!", I'll laugh in your face because you're an idiot.
* Distributed file system integrated into client Windows PCs, though this is probably doable too.
* Java that works in the web browser. I've yet to have a Linux system where it does.
* Automated updates that Just Work; no needing to write a script to do it, no recommendations you don't patch your kernel or system libs until it's been tested more.
* Special vendor software that was programmed for Windows and is crashy there. Haven't tried it in Wine.
* Equivalent UI familiarity and ability to find and retrieve information and change settings just as quickly as in Windows. This is impossible since it is literally asking for the box to come with your training in it, but it is a hurdle that stops people from moving over. Adding UI features such as useful context menus everywhere is a good help.
Add yours...
http://www.stmarys-school.org/smsk12linux_howandwh y.htm
http://www.mlinux.org/
Hung out with these guys for a while. They were big on Debian a while back.
Life is irony, and nothing ever goes as planned.
I can relate my own anecdotal experiences.
First, the good points of Windows when compared to Linux. Setting up peripherals is still a PITA in Linux. Peripherals in Linux have gotten much easier in recent years thanks to SANE, HPLIP, Gutenprint, CUPS, gphoto2, ALSA, improvements in the 2.6 kernel and in udev. Having to mount CDs and USB memory sticks was also extremely annnoying in Linux. Linux distros vary considerably on how they handle removable media-- Ubuntu is pretty good at it, while Slackware and Gentoo just don't do it. You have to pick peripherals carefully, as in before you buy check on how well the manufacturer supports Linux. HPLIP is a big reason why I went with an HP printer. I used to use an Epson which, thanks to poor Linux drivers had to be reset entirely too often, causing Linux to advance its USB ID to the next number while the configuration info stayed fixed at the first number, which then forced the user to reboot the computer. I also have a Yamaha MIDI keyboard with USB interface which I am not able to fully use in Linux. I can play MIDI files from Linux, but to store MIDI files on the keyboard's bit of built in memory I must use their proprietary Windows only software to do the transfer. Even worse is the Nokia cell phone I have. Not only do I have to use Windows if I want to interface it with the computer, I have to buy a special USB cable that costs more than the phone! Another troublesome device is the Winmodem. Though there are ways to get a Winmodem working in Linux, just save yourself the hassle and get a real modem if you must use a modem at all. As for digital cameras, gphoto2 has had no problem communicating with the Casio ones I've tried. Every manufacturer knows their product must work with Windows. They don't feel that way about Linux.
A lot of glue is often missing in Linux. Windows is by no means perfect at this stuff either, but better than Linux. Want the GIMP to acquire a scan, or print a picture? Print PDF files from xpdf? Have Firefox run xpdf for PDF files? In Slackware at least, have to set that up yourself. Even something basic like configuring XWindows can still be tricky if you want things like the mousewheel, or tap-to-click on a laptop's touchpad, or want the monitor to turn off after a period of inactivity.
Lots of software is Windows only. When commercial software is available for both, it's usually available for Windows sooner. I don't see WINE (WINdows Emulator) in Linux as really viable. Game software of course. Lack of game software could be considered an advantage if one is trying to cut down on the distractions in a work environment. Tax software is another. Then there's things like Flash and Shockwave. There is no Shockwave for Linux, and Flash 9 for Linux is still in beta, and still performs so poorly that WINE can run the Windows version of Flash faster. For print shop stuff, I don't know which is better but I suspect Windows, and I also guess the MacIntosh is still better than both.
My brother is a user only. I tried to switch him, but he clung very tightly to Flash, MS Office, and Disney games for his children. I can't even get him to entirely abandon IE tho at least he will use Firefox most of the time. He's such an anti-corporate zealot that to see him of all people clinging to what he views as superior stuff in spite of his views drove home to me that Linux still has a way to go. OpenOffice is the obvious next piece to introduce. To him, whatever software handles best whatever his employer uses, which is doc files, is what he wants. I've tried switching other users, but always what matters most to them is will they still be able to use their favorite app? One family clung fiercely to Windows ME of all things. Their computer did what they wanted, and they weren't going to change even to Windows XP let alone Linux. I did get them to move to Firefox and Thunderbird-- and got bit by a bug in Thunderbird that only manifests in Windows ME and 9x. (Thunderbird's mail files eventually becom
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
But what will the quality of the final code be? There's a reason some programmers are more expensive than others, and it has a lot to do with the quality of code they write and the speed with which they write it.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
http://rastos.org/flamewar.html
Suse will not work with an old MN-510 USB WLAN card. It detects it and everything, but just flat out will not work. So, I am 100% secure as long as Ilock my door! Sweet, M$ Windoze is not secure, it allows me to connect to my WAP and browse the internet where there's spyware. Thank you Linux!
Skolelinux is up and running in 200 schools the world wide. It's a network (server plus thin client) solution, Webmin for remote, simplified config.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
Narrow minded, and deliberately so. The OP's claim that XP being cheap for educational use, and therefore the right thing, follows exactly that logic.
http://lxer.com/module/db/viewby.php?uid=108&optio n=&value=&sort=108&offset=0&dbn=12 has a list.
After a quick glance over the comments here does anyone else get the feeling "Ask Slashdot" isn't really working? I'd think that there were quite a few migration stories out there, at least from local governments trying to save money (http://www.novell.com/success/jefferson.html) or just Googling linux success story...
I'm not getting a warm and fuzzy about possibly starting a business based on this (an idea I was toying with)...
Here's to the crazy ones
I work for one of the companies mentioned in one of the earlier replies. I'd be willing to answer some questions you may have. In our case we have never looked back or regretted the migration to Linux. We were given a 6 month deadline to migrate and have been running smooth for nearly 6 years now without MS.
Whoops ; Here are the examples I meant to include in my previous post.
8 -30-011-26-NW-LL-PB5
Venezuela[1], Brazil[2], Extremadura and other regions of Spain[3], New Zealand[6], Bulgaria & Madeconia[4], and China[5], India. Development is often a worldwide effort, much like academic research.
For example, while I have only done a little FLOSS development, I've never met any of my collaborators in person.
Thailand Cities: Vienna, Munich, Geneva, Bergen[7]. Peru, Paris:almost.
[1] http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-0
[2] http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26006
[3] http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8485 - Good Read.
[4] http://www.foss.bg/news.php?id=2
[5] http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20031117S001
[6]
[7] http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/13/t13_2.php
Make 'em pay! http://Payola.org #include "stddisclaimer
They sure haven't passed the cost savings of using Linux to their customers! I like their pizzas, but it's usually more expensive than most.