Microsoft Free, One Year Later

madgreek writes "Last year I wrote of my switch from XP to Ubuntu at work. Now a year later, I am back to reflect on one year of being extremely productive at work using (almost) nothing but open source software in a Microsoft world."

Re:Technologically inclined person successfully us

[mrbluze]

I am not going to recommend to anybody that they change their company standards away from Microsoft. What I will tell you is that open source is a viable alternative that can be used in a production environment.

If there's one thing more annoying than an opinionated person, it's a person who can't give a decent opinion in the first place.

What I dont get..

[Creepy Crawler]

I really fail to grasp why corporations (NOT individuals) fail to understand the ramifications of such EULAs and MS software contracts.

Negotiating a seat deal with MS leads to a very nasty possible outcome: invasion by Business Software Alliance. If you refuse, you invalidate all your licenses... and they always find something "illegal". It's one thing to switch because of some perceived wrong or being high and mighty, but a corporation is a corporation. When it comes to software, they literally open themselves up for heavy liability if they accept MS and other COTS software.

GPL means something else too: if you dont create software, you can ignore any "bad side effects". Only violators who refuse to share source are gone after. Usage is truly free of legal ramifications.

Open Source is nice

[Ux64]

We used to use Windows at our corporation + only open source programs. It was quite natural to move from Windows to Ubuntu, because it was the only commercial program that we were using. We have been happy since. No license hazzle.

over 45 days...

[Anonymous Coward]

... and my coworkers still have no idea that I switched to free software.

Re:Oh sweet, MS Free!

[Sparr0]

You missed the part where he is running KDE, not Gnome. KDE is a more mature environment in almost every way (accessibility being one of the notable exceptions, I use Gnome on tablet PCs for its better onscreen keyboard and cursor manipulation functions).

Re:What I dont get..

[Anonymous Coward]

Usual devil's advocate role post:

On the other hand, companies end up liable if they fail to use due diligence. Something that is FIPS and Common Criteria certified is in some ways more important than something that is a lot more secure in day to day use, because come audit time, the OS or program with the papers attached shows due diligence, and most F/OSS projects don't have the money to pay for the certification, even though they will easily meet the criteria.

Part of the cost per seat of MS stuff is those certificates, and the fact that in general, should some patent breach be found on some MS software, MS's customers are protected, while for most F/OSS, should something be found in breach of a patent, not just the OSS project, but customers using it can be shut down and sued.

There are some companies which idemnify their customers if they get hit by a patent lawsuit, and also have the colored pieces of paper which can mean passing an audit or hard time in a Federal prison (due to Sarbanes Oxley compliance, or failure to do so). Both RedHat and Novell's offerings are both FIPS and Common Criteria compliant (at the minimum, both also are certified in a number of other standards.)

Experience too is a big thing. Finding MCSEs who are competant is a lot easier than finding competant RHCEs, or even decent UNIX admins in general. The costs for payroll to find the true UNIX admins who know their stuff as opposed to the guy with Ubuntu running on a P2 in the basement doing samba is enormous, and can easily overshadow MS's license fees.

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[jay-be-em]

Personally I'm very wary of installing random non-open-source apps on my desktop. I feel a lot better about something that is in the main Debian repository and more or less gpl compatible.

Hell, check out that daemon tools page you linked:

"Dear DAEMON Community,

it come to our attention that someone released a fake DT PRO version that is
contaminated with trojans and viruses, among the fact it is only a DT Lite and
not a PRO version!

We cant underscore enough how important it is that you always download from our
official sites and affiliates!

Nowadays, and with the popularity of DAEMON Tools, it is not unusual to see such
attempts to harm others (and, after all, also our reputation).
Rest assured: we double-check all uploads to our official sites and frequently check
them further to make sure you get no harmfull viruses/trojans!"

Frankly just googling and then downloading stuff that looks like it could help is bound to lead to a malware infested computer. One of the very clear things that good Linux distros have over Windows is the use of a centralized software repository.

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[Anonymous Coward]

A major problem is that many companies have aging Access / Visual Basic applications and other custom made applications that are tied to Windows. WINE is an option of course, but some of them are probably so badly programmed that even Windows have problems running them...

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[Architect_sasyr]

You can do it with OS X server if you so wish.

In all honesty though, neither Linux nor OS X is really that great in a corporate environment (I'm in a design house - a lot of Mac systems). There's too much mucking around trying to get things to work. At least windows has all the stuff prepared and integrated and ready to roll. I haven't found (haven't really looked either) a distro that integrates in a server/client set-up like this yet. If there was one I might well go to it.

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[mangwills]

Before, I used IE only to access a major Philippine bank online. But only a couple of months ago, it has now become accessible to Firefox in Linux. It seems more big companies are taking note of alternatives to Microsoft here in the Philippines.

Re:What I dont get..

[robo_mojo]

But most people pay contractors to do it. And it costs a lot of money, and there's a lot of delays, troubles, etc. But eventually they feel happy and comfy.

Just as people use existing software because they are incapable or otherwise unwilling to write their own, people pay contractors to build their houses because contractors know how to build houses and can probably do so a lot cheaper and faster than you.

Of course, if a pipe breaks... when you built it yourself, you're the sole responsible for this.

I hope you aren't suggesting that anyone takes responsibility for the software you're using when it breaks. Read your EULA or GPL lately? Clearly this isn't why people use existing software.

Microsoft free years later

[EEPROMS]

I switched over to Linux around SuSE 6.0 days and to be honest I have never looked back. I now use Linux 100% at work and at home after doing a LPIC-101/102 course at my local college. This leads me into another funny story were I now have a whole branch of the company were I work at now running on Linux. The company has a Windows/OSX/Unix technical support contractor and because Linux has been so rock solid for us he didn't even know we had a branch here. This was simply because no one has ever rang him for help (and yes I have been away for weeks at a time).

Sharepoint?

[Anonymous Coward]

He's just lucky that his company hasn't discovered Sharepoint yet. Once every important document that you need is locked up on a sharepoint server, than even OpenOffice isn't enough to work on them properly.

It's Microsoft's best lock-in tool in years.

Just a question

[Kwirl]

Why is it that the *nix users seem to have BSOD issues on an infinitely higher rate than the rest of the world?

I've got 4 computers and if I see one BSOD a year, it is usually fixed by a reboot or tightening the RAM/PCI devices/etc. Yet the *nix people are like 'well, my windows computer BSOD'd on me 7 times again today, blah blah blah rant rave blah'.

Not to mention the fact the most of the time, BSOD errors are caused by faulty third party device driver applications or faulty hardware, neither of which are really MS's fault, imo.

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[Zemran]

I have been M$ free for many years. I used to run Linux on my desktop but now, because I move from country to country a lot, I switched to a laptop and chose a MacBook Pro. I have no problems in staying M$ free but I think I will stick with OSX in the future rather than return to Linux. I can still do all the Linux stuff, including RTS games etc. that people say do not exist (although I prefer games like Civ and Neverwinter Nights). I can also get all my work done without trouble.

WINE as workaround

[Lonewolf666]

This is a 100% Linux laptop and still I need to rely on wine and Vmware to use the applications I really want/need.

As far as I can get the applications I want to run with WINE, I consider Linux desktop ready. WINE is technically a 3rd party app but easily enough available. Ubuntu actually has it as part of the distribution.

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[laffer1]

Good point. The linux community needs to target startups. If the businesses start with linux, maybe they'll get tied to FOSS. This will create a demand for linux software, and we might see replacements for some of the aging windows software so many businesses use.

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always found

Re:Sharepoint?

[mrsmiggs]

Sharepoint works fine on firefox, it's not got all the fancy active x menus but it just requires a couple of extra clicks to use the plain html versions. You can even check documents out so it's probably better for collaboration than just relying on Excel and Calc to make sure documents are locked. Sharepoint is one of the first Microsoft tools where they have had cross platform built platform built in from the start, sure it works better on Windows + Office but it's also much easier to admin a Linux box on a Linux desktop.

Been using Ubuntu as my main desktop

[vorlich]

for over a year now and I far prefer it to XP, even though XP did have many qualities I was comfortable with. I think the fundamental aspect of a Linux Desktop is that you have far greater absolute control over what is happening beneath the surface of the GUI. The only applications lacking in Linux are Indesign ( I have Scribus but there is no comparison) Photoshop and Dreamweaver and none of these have alternatives with the appropriate professional edge. Having said that I have been using photoshop and indesign in VMware and I think they work fine - there is a very slight decline in speed but this is made up for by the fact that Ubuntu boots in about One minute (when I do reboot it, I just hate to see that uptime number go down) and XP boots into VMware so quickly it's photons are in danger of hitting those from it's shutdown. Now that alone is worth the very tiny amount of technical effort require to set up VMware. I haven't migrated Dreamweaver yet - just so many tedious passwords and settings to work on - but I will.
Honourable mention must also go to the rather idiosyncratic but peerless MS Acess - the little database that could. Adobe Premier while a tad bloated is also rather useful and slightly better documented than the equally peerless cinelerra - which I do like but often feel you need a brain the size of Manhattan to use it. The only thing that prevents me turning our laptop all Linuxed-up-to-the-max is that it has a wifi that defeats human reason - had it working about twice so far and just got bored. Also my partner has an iTunes account (spits) and that particular worst-piece-of-garbage-ever-written has sadly no real substitute - Amarok needs an iTunes Store account but I guess chances of that monopoly breach are slim. And no, I won't be running iTunes in Vmware - I have telephone directories I could be reading.
I should also mention the unremitting geek-joy of remote desktopping my main pc from my tiny ipaq while lying in bed watching CSI and then running MS Access in Vmware (fortunately you can zoom in!).

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[DMadCat]

I work on the UNIX team in a large corporation and I can't get even them to switch to a linux desktop.

It's like everyone is afraid of even looking at something they're not familiar with.

Re:Linux not great in the enterprise

[codepunk]

"As far as I know, this is impossible in Linux, hence it's not business ready IMHO."

Just because "you" do not know how, does not mean it is impossible.

Actually there is not a single thing on your list that I cannot do without a single script
and a ldap server. Not only that but I can use your existing AD, oracle, postgres, mssql or
whatever else I decide to use to provide any functionality I want.

I just installed Ubuntu....

[williegeorgie]

I actually just did the same thing about 4 weeks ago. I installed UBUNTU on my laptop just to see how much I could use it and avoid windows. My results: 1. One of my VPN connections doesn't work because a client does not exist for Linux (SonicWall) 2. Evolution Exchange Connector is absolutely horrible and unusable (it crashes constantly and locks up). Seems to me that this is the biggest obstacle to more general Linux use, I have to use Exchange and until I can effectively use it in Linux I cannot get away from Windows. (OWA in FireFox is just as bad, but maybe I could do the IE/Wine thing...) 3. I have not had the occasion to use Visio yet, but that will hurt when the time comes. 4. I had a very difficult time getting my wireless card working. However now that it works it is solid. But the things I needed to do to get it to work would be very intimidating for the average person. On the good side... I was very surprised at how easy it was to get things like RDP clients, plugins for FireFox( multimedia, FLash etc) and other things up and running. I like the overall feel of it it is very friendly and easy to use. I was able to find my way around quite easily. Thanks My 2c.

Great

[bytesex]

Can I write an article now, headlined: 'Microsoft free, ten years later' ? Seriously folks, it's been that long.

Re:Linux at work, it works !

[DaveV1.0]

Your comment implies that open source is not as good as commercial software.

If open source is so good and so ready for the desktop, then this should not be news.

Re:Linux has been business-desktop ready for years

[ricegf]

Windows will be ready for the desktop when (1) I can change my hardware to suit my needs without needing a new key, (2) I can install all of the applications I use on a daily basis from a single dialog, and keep using the system without performance issues while they install, (3) I can install a working OS on my thumbdrive along with my documents, and carry it with me when I travel to use on any PC, (4) the user interface achieves some semblance of consistency and usability, and (5) plugging in a new hardware device doesn't require that I load a special CD first.

Linux is ready - when will Windows be ready?

Depends on applications

[grikdog]

Some of my favorite applications were written for Windows XP and run fine under Vista SP1, but don't now and probably never will run under Linux. The spectrum extends from the infradig Konfabulator (Yahoo! Widgets) to middle-of-the-road stuff like SmartGo and Many Faces of Go to the ultracool iTunes and DVD movie players. OOo, of course, is the exception, not the rule. Ubuntu (and everyone else in LinuxLand, I presume) offers about a billion small projects, competing with a score of other distros trying to making sense of it all for average users. Hopefully, considering Ubuntu's near-readiness for prime time (hell, it even recognized my Dell trackpad and my USB wireless mouse by Microsoft, straight out of the box), consumers (as opposed to yoozers) will clarify this situation by sheer Darwinian frenzy in the near future.

Re:Linux Visio Clone.

[laddiebuck]

That's completely ridiculous. A multitude of FOSS software has no commercial counterparts; a multitude of software had an FOSS implementation before a commercial one, and for most of the software I come in contact with, the FOSS tools do more and better than the commercial tools. I am admittedly biased in sample: not much work with office tools or specialised professional tools. But for typical applications, and especially typical desktop applications, the FOSS palette typically outstrips, in features and polish, commercial offerings.

You're right that in niche applications where a commercial tool existed first and FOSS software is playing catch-up; it is playing catch-up. But that's a bit circular. The first step is for FOSS software to catch up in a niche, and the next typical step is to surpass other offerings in that niche (and then get involved in a feature race with commercial tools).