Linux does have distributed patch management for large businesses. It's Zen for Linux, formerly Red Carpet. I've used it on my desktop for over a year and I've found it to be very fast and very easy to use. It not only handles patch management, but also handles updates to all applications and the OS as well.
I've used Red Carpet to patch my desktop for over a year. I can also use it to install any package or application I choose and it resolves dependencies for me. The GUI is quite simple and has been easy to use. You ought to give it a try.
I run Novell's Linux desktop and use Zen for Linux (Red Carpet) to update my machine. When updates are available for my machine, a little icon pops up on my status bar to let me know. I simply click on the icon and then enter my root password to begin updates. In my experience it's been faster than Windows update as you never have to reboot for changes to take effect. I support some 60 users who are moving to Novell's Linux desktop and have never had a user complain over difficulty in updating their machines. On the contrary, they're suprised with the speed and impressed that the same program can also be used to install and remove all of their programs for them.
Over the last year I assisted in leading a migration of approximately 70 analysts and auditors from MS Office to OpenOffice. Although the migration was a success, translating our VBA macros to OpenOffice BASIC required a substantial chunk of time. I was also surprised by the end user resistance to the migration. We surveyed our users two months into the migration and found that while 96% reported that they felt comfortable enough, 87% of them also felt that they would benefit from additional training. Five months later we conducted another survey and found that our end users still complained over missing features. At that point only 23% reported being as comfortable in OpenOffice as they had been in MS Office. 40% reported in the anonymous survey that they either still used Excel or wished they were.
I realize that my group is probably not representative of typical spreadsheet users. For the number of features that we use, we may more rightly be classified as power users. However, I do suspect that most large organizations will have pockets of users with similar experiences.
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Linux does have distributed patch management for large businesses. It's Zen for Linux, formerly Red Carpet. I've used it on my desktop for over a year and I've found it to be very fast and very easy to use. It not only handles patch management, but also handles updates to all applications and the OS as well.
I've used Red Carpet to patch my desktop for over a year. I can also use it to install any package or application I choose and it resolves dependencies for me. The GUI is quite simple and has been easy to use. You ought to give it a try.
I run Novell's Linux desktop and use Zen for Linux (Red Carpet) to update my machine. When updates are available for my machine, a little icon pops up on my status bar to let me know. I simply click on the icon and then enter my root password to begin updates. In my experience it's been faster than Windows update as you never have to reboot for changes to take effect. I support some 60 users who are moving to Novell's Linux desktop and have never had a user complain over difficulty in updating their machines. On the contrary, they're suprised with the speed and impressed that the same program can also be used to install and remove all of their programs for them.
Over the last year I assisted in leading a migration of approximately 70 analysts and auditors from MS Office to OpenOffice. Although the migration was a success, translating our VBA macros to OpenOffice BASIC required a substantial chunk of time. I was also surprised by the end user resistance to the migration. We surveyed our users two months into the migration and found that while 96% reported that they felt comfortable enough, 87% of them also felt that they would benefit from additional training. Five months later we conducted another survey and found that our end users still complained over missing features. At that point only 23% reported being as comfortable in OpenOffice as they had been in MS Office. 40% reported in the anonymous survey that they either still used Excel or wished they were. I realize that my group is probably not representative of typical spreadsheet users. For the number of features that we use, we may more rightly be classified as power users. However, I do suspect that most large organizations will have pockets of users with similar experiences.