Doesn't this code basically state that you should do everything possible to win for your client except do something unethical (like lying).
I'd like to play devil's advocate to this one. I don't disagree that what the lawyer is doing is unethical, but frankly, who are we to decide? What is ethical? There are a lot of people who believe the catholic church with all of its hypocrisy is unethical, while they feel anyone who doesn't follow their creedos is unethical.
Now, the problem is that while there's some evidence that shows video games don't lead to violence, there's some that does. Unfortunately, in a country where violence runs rampant, people are scared and attempting to scapegoat anything that even has the POSSIBILTY of being a cause.
Since there's some evidence that games lead to violence, then there's your shadow of doubt which can lead to his "innocence". Any lawyer would then not be acting in the best interest of his client and THAT would be the unethical part of the equation.
That being said...tough noogies to this kid. Fry 'im, boil 'im, cook 'im in a pot!
to implement a spam and virus-scanning mail relay in front of our goofy mail server
That's step one, and the most important one for a variety of reasons. Security being the first, of course, but another is you need "less" server. In the last couple of years, I've found that almost 75% of all incoming mail on my SMTP ports is spam or virus junk. No need to overload the production servers with that. I use a small Linux box running procmail, clamav, sendmail and spamassassin as this front-line grunt. It's the reason I'm not bothered by this article, executable files never get past the gateway.
It is pretty sad what our desktop systems have come to
Secedit/configure/db secedit.sdb/cfg"securews.inf". It's a good start. Locks down your file systems and registry. Keeps them from installing anything new, and removing anything old. Make sure you review docs before using it, the securews template is harsh.
I can't actually surf the web while I'm sitting there, because the machine I'm sitting at is a 96 MB ram celeron running win2k.
Not if you use Firefox, no.:) (Say what you want, the current instance on my machine I'm writing this with is using over 40M of RAM, and I've only got two tabs open). But, I don't know why you can't use IE. When W2K came out, that machine was the schnizzle. My first 2K box was a PII366 w/128M.
I didn't say they didn't, I did say it was the wrong way to do things. You wanna do things the wrong way, and allow your users to continue to do things the wrong way, then you deserve all the viruses you get. You're worried about someone getting upset with you? You've got a job to do! DO IT! How many more people get upset with you when your network is taken down AGAIN by yet another virus because you didn't take the time to implement proper security. Bitch all you want, it's people like you that are a menace to the online community.
"People will be upset with me"...stop being a pussy and do your job. Find them an alternate and secure method to transfer executable files, tell them e-mail's not the way it's happening anymore, and that's that. They wanna bitch to management, you show them how much it's cost the company fighting virus fires over the last year or so, and how much you'll SAVE by doing things the right way. You DO know how to generate a cost-savings analysis, right?
Speaking of which...funny story...I was discussing things one day with one of the officers of a company at an old job. At one point he said, "I can't believe how bad viruses are getting these days. How do you keep up with them all? Kevin (my boss) tells us every month how you guys spend DAYS fighting viruses every month on the network." I responded, "What?? We haven't had a single virus infestation in almost two years. They don't happen, this place is locked down, Pal." "Well, he's telling people at the senior manager meeting every month that you guys are scrambling to keep up with them. To be honest, he almost makes it sound like you're the Keystone Cops of virus patrol."
Being one who's proud of the work he's done, I wasn't going to allow this to continue. Rather than confront my boss, who would give me some lame excuse about "providing a reason to maintain head count", I decided to break the news to the company in my own subtle way. I went back through my logs and found the last time we'd had an outbreak, and surprise surprise! It was two years ago that month. Nifty....
"I just wanted to drop you all a line and let you in on some exciting news from the IT department. This month marks two years that our company has been completely virus free. There has not been a single machine infected by a virus in that time.
This may seem a major task, and it was. But, the payoff was worth it. In the past, the IT department spent, on average, approximately 50 man-hours a month fighting viruses. Using an industry standard of $150/hour to fight these issues, that means in the last two years, we've saved the company $180,000!
Before I get the question, no, no one in our department makes $150/hour. That amount is calculated by using the hourly wages of the two people involved, the IT person and the person whose machine is not available, and a loss of productivity.
I'd also like to say thank you to all of you for your assistance. All of us in IT know that it wasn't easy for you to accept some of the changes we had to make in order to achieve this. We tried to minimize the impact, and I've received comments from most of you that life with the new restrictions really didn't affect them at all, and they realize that the minor inconvenience imposed by some of them is greatly offset by the increased reliability of the sytems. It was a leap of faith on your part, though, to trust us when we said it would be worth it in the end, and we thank you.
It's also good to know that those extra hours freed up every month have been put to good use. As you know, we've expanded...."
Well, it went on from there to document the major things we'd done in the previous two years. Oddly enough, my boss never commented on the mail, but returned from the next senior managers meeting looking more than a little sheepish. Actually, he looked like a sheep that had been sexually abused by the farmer...I found out later that considering the reaming he got in front of all the other officers, that he might have preferred to have been the sheep...serves him right. A real leader basks in the light of his subordinates, a roach finds joy in the extra shadows..
What??? There has NEVER been a version of Outlook that auto-runs attachments. In fact, the default since Office 2000 SP2 has been to NOT allow executable files to be run, no matter what the user wants. It's saved to disk first (just like Firefox does it, BTW). You wanna run it, it'll take a lot of concerted effort on your part, not your mail client.
Google does have some cool tools (I just discovered video.google.com yesterday by accident), but I disagree that it's better than Yahoo. I typically use Yahoo as my primary search engine. Keep in mind that I know for a fact that 90% of the reason is that I've used Yahoo since 1993, and it's more habit than anything.:) But, it's a rare event where I will search for an answer and not find what I'm looking for on Yahoo, take the same search to Google and get a response (I REALLY miss the "other Yahoos" at the bottom of those results pages!) I think the one thing I like about Yahoo is that I get FEWER responses, but they're typically exactly what I was looking for. I'd prefer to get 100 responses on topic than 50,000 that may have 100 that meet my needs. I do use the advanced functions when I search (+pluses +in +front +of +words, "quotes around phrases to find" AND (parenthizing optional words)), and they work the same Yahoo or Google, so I've gotten used to getting exactly the info I want quickly. Google just hasn't given me a killer reason to switch yet..
NOt until the country was stable again, anyway, and at least partially rebuilt. Since neither of those things have yet happened, it's too early to use this sort of 'fact' to dismiss Bush's motivation.
Okay, then, here's one: the US only imports 18% of its oil from the middle east. The remainder is imported from Canada, South America, an Russia. Why? Simple, it takes almost as much oil to transport it from the middle east as you can bring over. The real reason gas prices are so high is because of investors taking advantage of the gullible in a speculative market. "The rubes don't know we don't get our oil from Iraq, we can gouge all we want!"
Symantec recommends you immediately patch your software
Or, you can fire your mail admin for allowing executable files to even get to the point where they need to be scanned and get one that knows what they're doing. Your incoming SMTP should be rejecting any e-mail that has one, why bother scanning it? There are ways that were designed for transporting these things, e-mail was not it!
And, remember: when bitching about this, make absolutely sure you're loudly and clearly proclaiming this to be the fault of MS or Symantec. Otherwise, you run the risk of someone actually placing the blame where it really belongs: with the administrator who shouldn't have been affected by this in any way.
Firewire and USB external DVD writers are not supported natively by iDVD
That may just not be true anymore. It would make sense if it weren't true, as consumers might not be so quick to buy the SuperDrive option when buying a Mini ("When will I ever have need to burn a DVD?"), but then find out later down the line how ridiculously easy it is on a Mac and decided to go get one. It wouldn't surprise me, Apple has so very totally gotten everything right with this box, such a minor detail (and major forward-thinking) wouldn't be out of the question.
On a lighter note, while browsing through CompUOverpay yesterday, I finally got to meet a Mini "in person". Holy crap! I'd seen the pics, but it really and totally doesn't hit you how small this thing is untill you hold one in your hand (singular!)
Not untill they start making iBooks with the "eraser-head" mice instead of the touchpads
I agree. I've given up on Linux for a Mac, but I can't stand the built-in touchpad. Worse still is the fact that they still only come with a single button. It's a PITA to have to command-click with that thing. Although, regardless of laptop type (I use a T30 at the office), I still carry around a USB mouse. I only use the built-in when absolutely necessary.
Re:Funny Statistic
on
Newsy Numbers
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I do hope that less than 1/3 of the population uses marijuana, as it's illegal.
So? Why is it that when a flaw is found in a MS product that hasn't even been on the market for 4 years everyone jumps up and down and says "SEE! SEE!! They want to keep you on a constant upgrade cycle!!", but when it happens in the open source community, the reaction is "Eh, just upgrade"?
I'm more curious as to why they aren't fixed YET? We've been hearing for years that Open Source software is better because any problem is fixed within 24-48 hours. Well, it's been almost 51 hours since that issue was released on SecurityFocus, and I'm sure significantly longer since it was first discovered. Firefox is still not telling me there's an update available. What gives?
For those incapable of grasping the sarcasm, let me spell it out for you: rhetoric gets stale for a reason.
I just started looking at learning Ruby yesterday, so of course your sig caught my eye. Fearing what might happen should I run it, what is it supposed to do?:)
That isn't the issue the parent was complaining about, it was the use of an apostrophe to indicate a plural. "'s" indicates possession, not multiplicity. It's one of my pet-peeves, too. How often do I want to strangle a store owner for having a sign that says "Thank's!". Ugh!
These PDAs sound like a solution looking for a problem.
Do you really think they came up with this idea without at least putting SOME research into the tourism issue? Don't you think they at least funded one study that might have asked the question, "Why don't you want to travel to Japan?" I'm sure the answer "'Cause I don't speak Japanese" came up from time to time. Why does everyone assume these kinds of decisions are just pulled out of someone's asshole?
Especially if the quality is anywhere near the original Ultra GT set. I bought this set for use with my HTPC, and after only a year, half the keys don't work and both of the mouse buttons are stuck in the down position. A quick look at their store tells me I'm prolly not the only one since they've got enough returns on them to open a "refurbished" store.
if the media coverage really is as bad in the US as grandparent poster seems to imply
It's not. Every newspaper I've seen in the last few days has had this as the headline and every news broadcast I've heard has been about it. The grandparent poster is either a troll, or lives in a cave with his fingers in his ears going "la la la la!". Most likely, it's both.
Today's news HAS been decidedly pro-American, discussing the BILLIONS of dollars worth of aid, relief and support that's on the way. But we're used to it, that's the part of the media coverage that's typically ignored. (And, yes, I read Egeland's remarks. He's a fucker without a clue.)
Don't listen to the others, Brother, Tim's is the bomb-diggity and I'm ever so glad that we've got 6 of them now in the Rochester, NY area. Driving up to the QEW just to get an Iced Cap and a Chocolate Dipped was simply not practical!:)
Well, that's the thing.. he said 9 out of 10 customers...
Obviously they're customers or they wouldn't be concerned about cost of switching away from Windows to anything else. The points though:
a) who says MS or their consultants said, "if it would cost you this much to switch from Windows to Linux would you still do it"? Most companies already do that kind of evaluation regularly.
b) even if it only cost a dollar more to switch away, why would anyone do it for no tangible benefit? Actually, let me clarify...no GUARANTEED tangible benefit. We've been hearing for years that Linux is "better", but there's no "proof" of that. It's all opinion. In these economic times, every dollar counts.
See, the problem is that you are using their hired consultant's numbers.
Sez who? I've been in those positions before and have done those types of evaluations. I've seen the numbers first hand. Why is it that Linux people think it's just drop in and go? It's not. There's a discovery phase where you need to go in and find everything that's going to be replaced by going to Linux. During that time you also try to find suitable replacements, if any exist. You then need a trial phase where you'll pilot some systems to end users to see if they're acceptable replacements. Because, at the end of the day, they're the ones using it, they should have some input in to whether or not it's going to work for them.
Then, if you're lucky, your staff already has some Linux knowledge, but more than likely there isn't much. A little home use here and there does not count when you're talking about replacing enterprise systems. So, it's off to train your staff on all of these new systems. It would be nice if there were training courses, but more likely there isn't because Linux is so widely fractured and splintered no two organizations use it anywhere close to each other. So, you try self-training, which always leads to such wonderous results. It's probably got something to do with the lack of good documentation.
I could go on and on, but I know I'd probably be wasting my time. Linux people never want to hear the truths of reality. They want the same self-perpetuating fluff they get from sites like this where everyone's opinion is the same, and if yours differs, you're an MS troll. Suffice it to say, I think 3-4X more expensive is being extremely generous considering the studies I've been involved in.
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't this code basically state that you should do everything possible to win for your client except do something unethical (like lying).
I'd like to play devil's advocate to this one. I don't disagree that what the lawyer is doing is unethical, but frankly, who are we to decide? What is ethical? There are a lot of people who believe the catholic church with all of its hypocrisy is unethical, while they feel anyone who doesn't follow their creedos is unethical.
Now, the problem is that while there's some evidence that shows video games don't lead to violence, there's some that does. Unfortunately, in a country where violence runs rampant, people are scared and attempting to scapegoat anything that even has the POSSIBILTY of being a cause.
Since there's some evidence that games lead to violence, then there's your shadow of doubt which can lead to his "innocence". Any lawyer would then not be acting in the best interest of his client and THAT would be the unethical part of the equation.
That being said...tough noogies to this kid. Fry 'im, boil 'im, cook 'im in a pot!
Or, sharks. Don't forget sharks!
You should try using Linux from scratch. You can't believe how comfortable 128M of RAM can feel. :)
to implement a spam and virus-scanning mail relay in front of our goofy mail server
/configure /db secedit.sdb /cfg"securews.inf". It's a good start. Locks down your file systems and registry. Keeps them from installing anything new, and removing anything old. Make sure you review docs before using it, the securews template is harsh.
:) (Say what you want, the current instance on my machine I'm writing this with is using over 40M of RAM, and I've only got two tabs open). But, I don't know why you can't use IE. When W2K came out, that machine was the schnizzle. My first 2K box was a PII366 w/128M.
That's step one, and the most important one for a variety of reasons. Security being the first, of course, but another is you need "less" server. In the last couple of years, I've found that almost 75% of all incoming mail on my SMTP ports is spam or virus junk. No need to overload the production servers with that. I use a small Linux box running procmail, clamav, sendmail and spamassassin as this front-line grunt. It's the reason I'm not bothered by this article, executable files never get past the gateway.
It is pretty sad what our desktop systems have come to
Secedit
I can't actually surf the web while I'm sitting there, because the machine I'm sitting at is a 96 MB ram celeron running win2k.
Not if you use Firefox, no.
Cthulu help me, I actually find myself agreeing with a liberal! :) Well spoken.
I didn't say they didn't, I did say it was the wrong way to do things. You wanna do things the wrong way, and allow your users to continue to do things the wrong way, then you deserve all the viruses you get. You're worried about someone getting upset with you? You've got a job to do! DO IT! How many more people get upset with you when your network is taken down AGAIN by yet another virus because you didn't take the time to implement proper security. Bitch all you want, it's people like you that are a menace to the online community.
"People will be upset with me"...stop being a pussy and do your job. Find them an alternate and secure method to transfer executable files, tell them e-mail's not the way it's happening anymore, and that's that. They wanna bitch to management, you show them how much it's cost the company fighting virus fires over the last year or so, and how much you'll SAVE by doing things the right way. You DO know how to generate a cost-savings analysis, right?
Speaking of which...funny story...I was discussing things one day with one of the officers of a company at an old job. At one point he said, "I can't believe how bad viruses are getting these days. How do you keep up with them all? Kevin (my boss) tells us every month how you guys spend DAYS fighting viruses every month on the network." I responded, "What?? We haven't had a single virus infestation in almost two years. They don't happen, this place is locked down, Pal." "Well, he's telling people at the senior manager meeting every month that you guys are scrambling to keep up with them. To be honest, he almost makes it sound like you're the Keystone Cops of virus patrol."
Being one who's proud of the work he's done, I wasn't going to allow this to continue. Rather than confront my boss, who would give me some lame excuse about "providing a reason to maintain head count", I decided to break the news to the company in my own subtle way. I went back through my logs and found the last time we'd had an outbreak, and surprise surprise! It was two years ago that month. Nifty....
"I just wanted to drop you all a line and let you in on some exciting news from the IT department. This month marks two years that our company has been completely virus free. There has not been a single machine infected by a virus in that time. This may seem a major task, and it was. But, the payoff was worth it. In the past, the IT department spent, on average, approximately 50 man-hours a month fighting viruses. Using an industry standard of $150/hour to fight these issues, that means in the last two years, we've saved the company $180,000!
Before I get the question, no, no one in our department makes $150/hour. That amount is calculated by using the hourly wages of the two people involved, the IT person and the person whose machine is not available, and a loss of productivity.
I'd also like to say thank you to all of you for your assistance. All of us in IT know that it wasn't easy for you to accept some of the changes we had to make in order to achieve this. We tried to minimize the impact, and I've received comments from most of you that life with the new restrictions really didn't affect them at all, and they realize that the minor inconvenience imposed by some of them is greatly offset by the increased reliability of the sytems. It was a leap of faith on your part, though, to trust us when we said it would be worth it in the end, and we thank you.
It's also good to know that those extra hours freed up every month have been put to good use. As you know, we've expanded...."
Well, it went on from there to document the major things we'd done in the previous two years. Oddly enough, my boss never commented on the mail, but returned from the next senior managers meeting looking more than a little sheepish. Actually, he looked like a sheep that had been sexually abused by the farmer...I found out later that considering the reaming he got in front of all the other officers, that he might have preferred to have been the sheep...serves him right. A real leader basks in the light of his subordinates, a roach finds joy in the extra shadows..
What??? There has NEVER been a version of Outlook that auto-runs attachments. In fact, the default since Office 2000 SP2 has been to NOT allow executable files to be run, no matter what the user wants. It's saved to disk first (just like Firefox does it, BTW). You wanna run it, it'll take a lot of concerted effort on your part, not your mail client.
In my opinion google is better
:) But, it's a rare event where I will search for an answer and not find what I'm looking for on Yahoo, take the same search to Google and get a response (I REALLY miss the "other Yahoos" at the bottom of those results pages!) I think the one thing I like about Yahoo is that I get FEWER responses, but they're typically exactly what I was looking for. I'd prefer to get 100 responses on topic than 50,000 that may have 100 that meet my needs. I do use the advanced functions when I search (+pluses +in +front +of +words, "quotes around phrases to find" AND (parenthizing optional words)), and they work the same Yahoo or Google, so I've gotten used to getting exactly the info I want quickly. Google just hasn't given me a killer reason to switch yet..
Google does have some cool tools (I just discovered video.google.com yesterday by accident), but I disagree that it's better than Yahoo. I typically use Yahoo as my primary search engine. Keep in mind that I know for a fact that 90% of the reason is that I've used Yahoo since 1993, and it's more habit than anything.
NOt until the country was stable again, anyway, and at least partially rebuilt. Since neither of those things have yet happened, it's too early to use this sort of 'fact' to dismiss Bush's motivation.
Okay, then, here's one: the US only imports 18% of its oil from the middle east. The remainder is imported from Canada, South America, an Russia. Why? Simple, it takes almost as much oil to transport it from the middle east as you can bring over. The real reason gas prices are so high is because of investors taking advantage of the gullible in a speculative market. "The rubes don't know we don't get our oil from Iraq, we can gouge all we want!"
Symantec recommends you immediately patch your software
Or, you can fire your mail admin for allowing executable files to even get to the point where they need to be scanned and get one that knows what they're doing. Your incoming SMTP should be rejecting any e-mail that has one, why bother scanning it? There are ways that were designed for transporting these things, e-mail was not it!
And, remember: when bitching about this, make absolutely sure you're loudly and clearly proclaiming this to be the fault of MS or Symantec. Otherwise, you run the risk of someone actually placing the blame where it really belongs: with the administrator who shouldn't have been affected by this in any way.
Firewire and USB external DVD writers are not supported natively by iDVD
That may just not be true anymore. It would make sense if it weren't true, as consumers might not be so quick to buy the SuperDrive option when buying a Mini ("When will I ever have need to burn a DVD?"), but then find out later down the line how ridiculously easy it is on a Mac and decided to go get one. It wouldn't surprise me, Apple has so very totally gotten everything right with this box, such a minor detail (and major forward-thinking) wouldn't be out of the question.
On a lighter note, while browsing through CompUOverpay yesterday, I finally got to meet a Mini "in person". Holy crap! I'd seen the pics, but it really and totally doesn't hit you how small this thing is untill you hold one in your hand (singular!)
Not untill they start making iBooks with the "eraser-head" mice instead of the touchpads
I agree. I've given up on Linux for a Mac, but I can't stand the built-in touchpad. Worse still is the fact that they still only come with a single button. It's a PITA to have to command-click with that thing. Although, regardless of laptop type (I use a T30 at the office), I still carry around a USB mouse. I only use the built-in when absolutely necessary.
I do hope that less than 1/3 of the population uses marijuana, as it's illegal.
:)
Yes, because everyone who has half a brain and can think critically knows how dangerous marijuana can be, and that the government would never make illegal something that wasn't dangerous. They're fully acquainted with what should be illegal and what shouldn't.
Is it me, or is HTML like the PERFECT language of sarcasm??
They only affect Firefox 0.9.3 and earlier.
So? Why is it that when a flaw is found in a MS product that hasn't even been on the market for 4 years everyone jumps up and down and says "SEE! SEE!! They want to keep you on a constant upgrade cycle!!", but when it happens in the open source community, the reaction is "Eh, just upgrade"?
Why is everyone saying these are fixed?
I'm more curious as to why they aren't fixed YET? We've been hearing for years that Open Source software is better because any problem is fixed within 24-48 hours. Well, it's been almost 51 hours since that issue was released on SecurityFocus, and I'm sure significantly longer since it was first discovered. Firefox is still not telling me there's an update available. What gives?
For those incapable of grasping the sarcasm, let me spell it out for you: rhetoric gets stale for a reason.
I just started looking at learning Ruby yesterday, so of course your sig caught my eye. Fearing what might happen should I run it, what is it supposed to do? :)
Having grown up in Filelfia, I'm all too painfully aware of the use of youze. As in "Youze gies frum Kin'gaprussia wunt sum wooder?" :)
since octopus become octopi
That isn't the issue the parent was complaining about, it was the use of an apostrophe to indicate a plural. "'s" indicates possession, not multiplicity. It's one of my pet-peeves, too. How often do I want to strangle a store owner for having a sign that says "Thank's!". Ugh!
Actually, in a way, they already have it...SpoofStick is an extension that'll help detect spoofed sites.
These PDAs sound like a solution looking for a problem.
Do you really think they came up with this idea without at least putting SOME research into the tourism issue? Don't you think they at least funded one study that might have asked the question, "Why don't you want to travel to Japan?" I'm sure the answer "'Cause I don't speak Japanese" came up from time to time. Why does everyone assume these kinds of decisions are just pulled out of someone's asshole?
very overpriced for a cordless keyboard and mouse
Especially if the quality is anywhere near the original Ultra GT set. I bought this set for use with my HTPC, and after only a year, half the keys don't work and both of the mouse buttons are stuck in the down position. A quick look at their store tells me I'm prolly not the only one since they've got enough returns on them to open a "refurbished" store.
if the media coverage really is as bad in the US as grandparent poster seems to imply
It's not. Every newspaper I've seen in the last few days has had this as the headline and every news broadcast I've heard has been about it. The grandparent poster is either a troll, or lives in a cave with his fingers in his ears going "la la la la!". Most likely, it's both.
Today's news HAS been decidedly pro-American, discussing the BILLIONS of dollars worth of aid, relief and support that's on the way. But we're used to it, that's the part of the media coverage that's typically ignored. (And, yes, I read Egeland's remarks. He's a fucker without a clue.)
Don't listen to the others, Brother, Tim's is the bomb-diggity and I'm ever so glad that we've got 6 of them now in the Rochester, NY area. Driving up to the QEW just to get an Iced Cap and a Chocolate Dipped was simply not practical! :)
Well, that's the thing.. he said 9 out of 10 customers...
Obviously they're customers or they wouldn't be concerned about cost of switching away from Windows to anything else. The points though:
a) who says MS or their consultants said, "if it would cost you this much to switch from Windows to Linux would you still do it"? Most companies already do that kind of evaluation regularly.
b) even if it only cost a dollar more to switch away, why would anyone do it for no tangible benefit? Actually, let me clarify...no GUARANTEED tangible benefit. We've been hearing for years that Linux is "better", but there's no "proof" of that. It's all opinion. In these economic times, every dollar counts.
See, the problem is that you are using their hired consultant's numbers.
Sez who? I've been in those positions before and have done those types of evaluations. I've seen the numbers first hand. Why is it that Linux people think it's just drop in and go? It's not. There's a discovery phase where you need to go in and find everything that's going to be replaced by going to Linux. During that time you also try to find suitable replacements, if any exist. You then need a trial phase where you'll pilot some systems to end users to see if they're acceptable replacements. Because, at the end of the day, they're the ones using it, they should have some input in to whether or not it's going to work for them.
Then, if you're lucky, your staff already has some Linux knowledge, but more than likely there isn't much. A little home use here and there does not count when you're talking about replacing enterprise systems. So, it's off to train your staff on all of these new systems. It would be nice if there were training courses, but more likely there isn't because Linux is so widely fractured and splintered no two organizations use it anywhere close to each other. So, you try self-training, which always leads to such wonderous results. It's probably got something to do with the lack of good documentation.
I could go on and on, but I know I'd probably be wasting my time. Linux people never want to hear the truths of reality. They want the same self-perpetuating fluff they get from sites like this where everyone's opinion is the same, and if yours differs, you're an MS troll. Suffice it to say, I think 3-4X more expensive is being extremely generous considering the studies I've been involved in.