Re: [Hampshire] Open Question to group on Linux Deployments

Jack Knight wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> I'm looking at writing an article on the current business benefits of
> migrating to Linux on the desktop as opposed to Vista. Given the
> latter's sluggish take-up by many corporates, some see this as a sign
> of the advent of desktop Linux becoming mainstream. However, since
> many of you work in the industry I'd like to canvass opinion on the
> subject before committing my hopelessly bHi all.
>
> I've been asked to write an article on the business benefits of
> migrating to Linux on the desktop as opposed to Vista. Given the
> latter's sluggish take-up by many corporates, some see this as a sign
> of the advent of desktop Linux becoming mainstream. However, since
> many of you work in the industry I'd like to canvass opinion on the
> subject before committing my hopelessly biased opinions to print ;^)=
>
> Seriously though, I'd like to hear from anyone with a view and/or hard
> data.
>
> So, with this in mind, can anyone let me have info on the following:
>
> 1) Has the amount of Linux business deployments changed since Vista
> came out?
> 2) Do you have clients who are migrating from XP to Linux, if so what
> are the main reasons?
> 3) Have any of your clients tried Vista out and not liked it?
>
> On a similar note, does anyone know what sort of volume of
> preinstalled Linux machines are being sold by the likes of Dell,
> Lenovo, Tesco etc.?
>
> TiA.
>
> jfk
>

A view, based on experience in several different corporate environments,
rather than hard data.

I doubt if dislike of Vista is going to promote deployment of Linux in the
places I've worked in the last few years. The attitude of most people,
both in the IT sector,and ordinary users in the office environment can be
summed up as

1. We just use Microsoft here.
2. We don't like change.

Vista counts as an unnecessary change from what they have currently, which
is usually XP, with some legacy Win2K and even NT4 stuff. My employers are
currently resisting IE7, let alone Vista. Non-Microsoft OS's aren't
discussed.

All this refers to the office desktop, and to a lesser extent, the
server room. In
engineering environments, where perhaps HPUX or Solaris would have been
used in the past, Linux is often considered, although I haven't been
involved
directly in such projects. We have Solaris and QNX machines on our site,
but
they aren't used as desktop computers, and there is currently no Linux
usage.

MikeD