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Tales of Conversion - Using Ubuntu at Work
madgreek writes "Here is a short story about my switch to Ubuntu from XP at work. I have been Microsoft-free for 3 months now at a Microsoft heavy shop. Few people know I am using Open Office and Linux. I create countless documents that people open using Word, Excel, PPT and nobody can tell that they were created using Open Office. From the article: 'When I first started my experiment I was trying to keep it a secret out of fear of attacks from angry Microsoft worshipers (especially from the admins and desktop support). What I am finding out is that most of the folks that I was hiding from are sick and tired of supporting Windows and are proponents of Linux. Several of them are using Linux at home. One of the guys I talked to has Vista and XP installed on his laptop. He swaps out the hard drive when switching between OS's.'"
No one has noticed or cared. Open office works fine for any use I have had yet. I run xp in vmware for the rare occasion I need it. Of course I am a linux sysadmin.
Most office workers use more apps than e-mail and websurfing, and if 100% compatibility with Excel macros is required, you're going to run Microsoft Excel, no matter what. The same principle can be applied to most other apps in an office.
Ubuntu is still far behind Microsoft Windows, when it comes to Windows compatibility.
Your reply is exactly why Linux has not gained market share. Who are you to dictate HOW I should use my computer? Some kind of nazi? Come up with a super easy GUI solution instead of telling the guy to fuck off and sending him to mercy of the OEMs.
Funny how Linux people dictate MORE than Microsoft ever done to its users. Specially when someone is asking "Why can't I" usually he/she gets the answer "You don't need to" instead of actual help.
And funny how he actually "can handle" "this" with windows and not Linux. Funny how you tell him to go to OEMs instead of admitting Windows is easier and stronger in this matter since the user can do it "there" and not "here".
Score me -1, what the fuck do I care. My IQ is probably higher than 90% of you... god damn Linux religious zealots.
I have been doing this for 4+ years. I started as a contractor as a developer, they did not have a machine for me to use that day so I used my UNIX based laptop, I was able to print, share files and send receive emails. I have been doing this for years. I was using the other OS version Microsoft Office but when my laptop died I became MS free and loaded NeoOffice. The most common idea is that my flavor of OS is only for making pretty pictures. The out of the box OS flavor I have has most the tools I need to get my job done with out have to license 3rd party software. The other tools I use are made by small companies that charge a reasonable price for there tools. I never really tell any one what I am doing. One of the main reason I keep it this way is I have full control of my machine in any environment, the work supplied laptops are old and we are not allow to have admin rights, this is a good thing for an average office work but a nightmare if you are a field engineer on the other side of the world. Also the managers have disabled the DVD player in the work suppled laptop, this is a problem when most training videos are on DVD. The key is not to be a smug A hole, just do your job and let others do there...
I wish I was clever!
I work for a large company who seem to be of the mindset that if big companies don't support each other that the world will end. Ergo, Microsoft good, anything else bad. I know that in certain geographical (unnamed) divisions the use of Firefox is a sackable offence - or certainly warrants a massive slap on the wrists.
Where I am it's not so bad - however, my (illegal) Xubuntu installation is on an external drive with the Grub RW CD for booting and I can pull the plug (literally) if there's a problem. Originally, I had a linux paritition but I've moved away from that and restored all my partitions to the way they were delivered. Although I use rsync to keep copies of my home directory on the D: drive just in case and I have dallied with the Linux swap on the Windows swap file (still working out the kinks). Xubuntu on an external drive is slow - but it's actually faster than Windows on the main drive.
Anyways, I would have two complaints from the point of view of someone sneaking Linux into the Workplace (Undermining the bastards from the inside!):
1. OpenOffice sucks. Now the response to this is the obvious 'Hey Stupid! OpenOffice isn't Linux'. To which I reply, 'Hey Nutjob! Wake up to the realities of the market you are trying to get in to'. It matters not that OpenOffice is not officially a part of Linux - it is a fundamental part of Linux in a business environment. OpenOffice is not able to handle the full array of rubbish that Microsoft Word produces leading to the inevitable - 'Oh that's strange I looks fine on my computer' {scramble to reissue document using Word in Wine} 'Try that version'. That said Word 97 works great under Wine, so I use that a lot - although I do prefer AbiWord.
2. It'd be nice to have a stealth Windows skin for Xubuntu. Needs to have all those nasty startup screens, skin the GDM, skin the window manager - and the big one, skin Xscreensaver especially so it can load 'corporate mandated screensavers' and ask for the password in a Windowsy way. Oh and some yoke that could be installed so that anyone enquiring from the outside using network tools etc (i.e. M$ Administrator), would be told 'Windows Machine - nothing to see here'.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
@Macthorpe: "Use this because it's more practical when you're working with other companies"
Actually, it's "Use this because we'll have to pay much more to Microsoft if we don't sign the preferred license that requires we pay by the computer, not by actual usage, and so the monoculture appears more 'cost-efficient' than using what's best in each situation".
The cost-efficiency ("more practical" in your terminology) is indeed a valid point, but not as cost-efficient as you'd think. For example, some of our subcontractors have already moved to Office 2007, and since we haven't due to the extended compatibility testing / application rework required, we had a period in which we received unreadable documents even within the MS monoculture. (The solution was rapid mass deployment of Microsoft's Office 2003 plug-in that let's us load Office 2007 documents - thanks, MS!) And most subcontractors deliver PDF documents (or better, XML data with schema for easy reuse) and thus are platform-agnostic anyway, as I personally believe the corporate world should be.
However, even though the article says major corporations aren't deploying desktop Linux, that's not accurate. For example, my corporation (huge defense contractor) has deployed Linux on desktops in several domains where Windows just can't do the job. For example:
Widespread adoption of Linux on corporate desktops is likely to be the last bastion of the monoculture approach, since big IT departments read "change" as "risk". But Linux is on everyone's radar scope (it's unusual not to hear it's deployment discussed in IT meetings), and the small holes in the dams are beginning to outnumber Ballmer's fingers.
We live in interesting times, indeed.
The keyword here is "knowingly".
The type of spreadsheet I'm talking about, Excel making the odd incorrect calculation is the least of your problems.
Besides, my understanding of Sab-Ox is that it makes spreadsheets an absolute minefield - because spreadsheets make it trivially easy to change things, save it under alternative names and otherwise mess about with the numbers with no audit trail. My former manager has apparently succeeded in making a specific spreadsheet compliant - that was with a team of a few people basically reskinning Excel with VB macros and the like so the user interface looked similar but kept audit trails, enforced per-user access control on parts of the spreadsheet and removed functionality which was completely at odds with the regulations.
They wouldn't be annoyed at you for using Linux. It's more the fact you installed it without them knowing. They have to plan these things, virus protection etc..
Also if your job suddenly requires the use of some software you can't run then you'll be stuffed.
Actually, I am. "Market share" is a false measurement especially since it can't really be measured where linux is concerned. So to use it as an advocacy tool is an exercise in futility. Those that do are in for a long haul and eventually a rude awakening. In either event, it really is no skin off my brow whether anyone but me uses it.
The knife cuts both ways. Only the distributors are worried about who is using it. This goes to my point above. I am not a distributor thus couldn't give a rat's sack if you were using it. It shouldn't be a race to see who can have a monopoly on the desktop but instead be who can produce the highest quality and best "experience" (whatever that may be). This whole "them vs us" shit is just that.
And those users are the ones that should stay where they are. Why should Linux cater to the least common denominator especially for the reason of "market share"? Those users are a nightmare no matter what OS they are using so no sense in forcing something on them that will be an even worse nightmare. Again, it goes back to point one....
Let's see, since 2000 there has been Windows 2000, XP, XP SP1, XP SP2, and Vista all in their various flavors. Support for 2000 is ending (or has ended) so if you are going to be up-to-date your statement is false. In 2000 I installed Gentoo and have a current system through normal updates. I haven't had to install the base OS from scratch since. Again, if you followed the release cycle of Microsoft then you can't say the same.
Nice piece of judicious editing you did there. The OP was saying install == Linux sux. Go back and re-read it. That is why I quoted him.
Again with the "market share". Market share doesn't matter a hill of beans from a users perspective. Microsoft doesn't have this highly vaunted market share because of superior technology but because of their anti-competitive behavior. So it is your contention that Linux distros should use the same tactics to gain "market share"? I believe that was tried and soundly rejected via a license change (re: Novell & GPLv3).
Hey, I never put a gun to your head and said, "The two neurons get it unless you defend MS." That was solely your choice. Don't drop the soap or you may realize the screwing you are getting from Microsoft...;-)
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
I've seen Microsoft fanboys dismiss Linux (and Unix in general) as well as MacOS just as completely as the whiniest of Mac fanboys or fervent of Linux zealots dismiss Windows. Technology zealotry is very much alive in all aspects of the IT world. And when IT decision makers are also the Windows zealots, anyone who wants to use something different has a hard path ahead of them.
Again - most people probably won't care. But the decision makers will feel that their authority is being challenged. And various supporters of management will come out of the woodwork likewise affronted by such deviation.