Linux Replacing Windows More Than Unix

LordNimon writes "Over the past couple years, we've been hearing several Linux migration stories, but they have been mostly migration from proprietary Unix systems rather than from Windows. Well, this story on News.com indicates otherwise: of the migrations, 24% were from Unix, but 31% were from Windows. Sounds promising."

Need groupware?

[Openadvocate]

It's good, very good indeed, but I am still looking for a groupware solution. I am working with different startup companies from time to time and when i get the chance to get UNIX in from the start, it's great. :) And with *BSD, linux, whatever you can get a fileserver webserver, router, firewall up and running. So I need a groupware system with email, calendar etc, like you get with Notes, Exchange, GroupWise etc. You should also be able to get agents to sync with your PDA's. I remember seeing a Suse dist. with Notes once, but is it still available and Notes seems like a big mouthful when you are only 10 people. But then again there's room to grow with it.

A clarification... Expansion != Migration.

[The_Guv'na]

For those that have recently purchased new Linux servers, 31 percent were adding capacity, 31 percent were replacing Windows systems, 24 percent were replacing Unix and 14 percent were replacing other operating systems.

Purchasing a new (additional) server is not a migration, Thankyouverymuch. e.g. I was born June '82, I did not migrate. :)

Ali

Linux servers

[phorm]

This article seems to deal mostly with servers and corporations. What about desktop users and/or other home users.
While there are probably a lot of corps out there thinking about switching to linux from unix/windows, there are also an increasing amount of home users searching for an alternate desktop environment.
I wonder how this might tally if things such as linux firewalls, mp3 servers, and other more custom uses were considered?

Re:Interesting but..

[archen]

If I were to guess, I would say that the only reason Linux would displace Windows before Unix, is because there are a lot more windows boxes to replace. A buisness that has money to blow on a really expensive mission critical computer probably doesn't really care about the costs as long as it works. Windows on the other hand tends to end up in certain places in the medium end where Linux does very well also.

My only experience is where I work now. We've always had one central Unix server, that was just recently migrated to Linux (that's one). In the meantime if replaced a few Windows machines with Linux just because I found Linux easier to admin in those instances. I mean why in the hell would I pay all that money to MS for something like a backup server?

Re:Interesting but..

[cscx]

WORD... I'd like to see more hardcore numbers.

31 percent were replacing Windows systems,

This means nothing IMHO. Let's say that 31 percent of the 225 companies, each with 500 NT servers, were replacing 1 IIS intranet box with an Apache box. That still counts as replacing, doesn't it?

This reminds me of a good Letterman quote:

"USA Today has come out with a new survey:
Apparently three out of four people make
up 75 percent of the population."

Evolve

[Myuu]

Evolution has really caught the attention of a lot of people in your position. It acts like Outlook and works with Exchange, but isnt filled with the M$ vuln. Plus it does a damn good job with pda compatibility. I know that there is a pilot conduit built in and they have it syncing with the zaurus pdas (not sure about pocket pc).

I really think that Evolution is one of the best products out there, I switched from kmail to it.

Plus, it's free (dont think its oss).

Re:Linux particularly replacing Windows NT and 2k

[Anonymous Coward]

So you say that w2k users get a $200 bugfix?

why do lunix hippies always pull the same argument? wxp includes tons of new features that don't constitute anywhere near a "bugfix"

try telling your car dealer that the 2003 model is a $14,000 "bugfix" over your 2002 model. get a life lunix hippy.

Linux desktop

[mce]

Just one datapoint: We just migrated some 60-odd desktop systems to Linux from HP-UX, and are happy campers. Other divisions of our company are now looking into doing the same. Overall, we're a (roughly) 1100 employee company, from which an estimated (by me, here and now) 300 can become Linux users without much problems.

Of course, we operate in the EDA research business (and related areas), so we're atypical and many people around here very much prefer anything UNIX-like over The Other Operating System. But still... Less than two years ago Linux was still a big No-No as far as the head of IT was concerned, even though several unofficial system already existed and the presure to officially support Linux was on already.

Re:It Shouldn't Be Surprising...

[DrSkwid]

To be honest I've always found the shutdown and startup audio to be a useful diagnostic.

It means you can know that a machine has booted into X|windows without looking at it or even needing a monitor, useful if you are under the desk or in the next room.

Re:Linux particularly replacing Windows NT and 2k

[cscx]

Yeah, Ctrl-S -- that's what's supposed to happen, stupid. Ctrl-Q to get it unstuck. It's called SCROLL LOCK, and just because Windows doesn't have this feature it doesn't mean you have to be so ignorant to assume it crashes.

Um, no. Who's calling who ignorant here? I'm talking virtual console switching while at the XDM logon screen. Switch to any text console, you're OK, switch to console 7 (X) and the console freezes, keyboard, screen, the whole kit'n'kaboodle. I haven't tried yet to see if you can't ssh into the box, but I'm telling you now, I'm not about to find another desktop workstation to do this from, hitting the power switch is a lot easier and quicker. Plus the box is dead till you reboot. Although that f**ks over all the other users that happen to be sshed into that box at that time.

And by the way, I can't imagine having no decent command line to do admin stuff on. Graphical tools are OK, but there's nothing like breaking out on a command line to quickly do your stuff, then writing scripts to do it all for you. Of course you have know what your doing, but if someone was hired as a sysadmin let's hope he'd know more than you.

There are powerful scripting tools available for the Windows platform. Of course, to know about them, and use them, you'd have to be more knowledgeable than say... you.

But how many back to Windows?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did the poll take into account how many people were going from Windows to Linux, and back to Windows? And all of you know who you are....

Its cooler to say "Im a Linux user" I guess. Even in geek-dom do we have social classes. Sad and pathetic. Clinging to something as if it were religion. Maybe these people and the "Amiga-rulez!" crowd ought to get together. Here's an idea, people - be your own person. Dont be sheep for Redhat and Co. either...

Corporate NT to Linux Migration

[kstumpf]

When I started my job two years ago, our data center was 100% NT-based. Little by little I've convinced management to migrate various tasks off of Windows and onto Linux. My single 2U RedHat server handles our corporate website, Intranet, FTP, DNS caching, and more. This eliminated several other systems and their associated licensing fees. The machine has been powered up stable since day one, and at 240 days, my uptime is the best in the room.

Linux has also proven itself at our company as a great free network monitoring tool, thanks to snort and MRTG, etc.

One of the biggest wins with the management here was that I was able to prove that Linux can play nicely in an NT domain. People are always surprised that it authenticates domain users and that sort of thing.

We still have alot of NT servers on the rack, but so far my one Linux box runs so well, I don't think we'll ever need another!

Re:Mac/BSD people are too self important apparentl

[jasonditz]

Ahhh the fickleness of mods. Any other day this would be -1, Troll (not to mention -1, Offtopic). Today however, it is insightful.

1. There are definately BSD's being used as servers. Probably not a lot of Macs, because Macs aren't built to be servers. Why pay for a built in screen and graphics and such when a faceless server would suffice? No one uses Linux running Xboxes for servers either, that doesn't mean Linux doesn't make a good server.

2. O'Reilly did a survey and more new Mac users were coming from the Linux camp than anywhere else. From what I've seen of Apple's sales figures (latest 10-Q) sales are much too high to be the same old Mac users, the new ones are coming from somewhere.

3. I love 'em too. Most Linux desktop users don't give two hoots about the underlying Linux kernel either. Developing for an API like Apple's OSX API would be like, oh say... developing for Gnome or KDE's API, or God-forbid Motif. Did I miss something, because I have yet to see Mozilla run in the Linux console?

If it's like a lot of places I've seen. . .

[Bastian]

The story goes something like this:

~Shop runs UNIX machines
~Base and upgrade costs on UNIX boxen are high, and Management complains of high TCO on UNIX, too.
~Shop migrates to cheaper x86 hardware running Windows NT
~Management and a few staff love Windows, the rest hate it for religious reasons.
~Windows-hating, UNIX-loving staff starts setting up Linux boxen 'guerrilla style,' shows Linux boxen working successfully to other employees.
~When employee support is high, Linux solution to task Foo is shown to Mgmt by members of staff that miss UNIX.
~Mgmt. chooses to accept or deny Linux solution.
~If Linux solution is accepted and works properly with few hitches, Linux takes over. If there are problems, shop keeps running Windows.

Real life story

[Jeppe Salvesen]

One of our customers wanted us to port from Linux to AIX, due to the "unkown" factor - they were not certain about its stability and heavy load ability, plus they were concerned about their AIX-trained staff. Now, we're putting it on hold, since they are considering migrating as many as possible of their server. It seems that cheap server hardware and reduced license fees may be a bigger saving than retraining some of their AIX people would be an expense.