Considering a Transition from Windows to Linux

Hi,

I have seen Vista and helped a few friends with it. Without getting
into too much detail, it is the biggest pile I have ever seen.

That being said, I run the IT for a company and we currently are using
Windows XP and Windows 2003 server. The way that Vista points to the
future is not good and I am investigating a migration to Linux in the
organization.

First off, I am a huge fan of Linux. I have several Gentoo Linux
boxes at home. That being said, it is different running a few boxes
at home than in an organization. There are many compatible pieces of
software for Linux to make my users comfortable but there are a few
things that are needed that I do not know if there are replacements
for.

1.) Adobe Suite - We use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and
Flash. I have used GIMP but am not that comfortable with it yet.
This is probably the least of my concerns as we could have a few XP
PCs just for this.

2.) Exchange server - This is my largest concern. My organization
makes large use out of Exchange. This is our mail server, how
resources such as conference rooms, etc, are booked, calendars are
viewed, tasks are kept track of, etc. Is there an equivalent to
replace this with?

3.) Directory/LDAP service - As big a POS anything with Microsoft is,
Active Directory is nice. Group Policy greatly eases my
administrative tasks, having a directory service to validate
credentials and having roaming profiles etc. make everyone's life
easier. Is there a replacement with this type of functionality? I
have taken a brief look at SAMBA but have not attempted to deploy
this yet. It looks like a beast. Any thoughts?

4.) Printing services - We obviously have many network printers. I
have heard CUPS is a pain in the butt to get going.

5.) Which Version? - Like I previously mentioned, I run Gentoo on two
boxes at home and a laptop and I LOVE it. However, this would
definitely not be the version of Linux to deploy. What is the easiest
distro to deploy in large quantities while still giving me the control
that I desire? Ubuntu? What is better for a server?

This is not a project I am rushing into.... I plan to deploy this in
my home network and if I can do well with that, investigate what it
would take to move to Linux in the organization (and convince everyone
else they should do this as well).

Thanks for any advice.

On Aug 16, 11:28 am, KDawg44 <KDaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have seen Vista and helped a few friends with it. Without getting
> into too much detail, it is the biggest pile I have ever seen.
>
> That being said, I run the IT for a company and we currently are using
> Windows XP and Windows 2003 server. The way that Vista points to the
> future is not good and I am investigating a migration to Linux in the
> organization.
>
> First off, I am a huge fan of Linux. I have several Gentoo Linux
> boxes at home. That being said, it is different running a few boxes
> at home than in an organization. There are many compatible pieces of
> software for Linux to make my users comfortable but there are a few
> things that are needed that I do not know if there are replacements
> for.
>
> 1.) Adobe Suite - We use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and
> Flash. I have used GIMP but am not that comfortable with it yet.
> This is probably the least of my concerns as we could have a few XP
> PCs just for this.
>
> 2.) Exchange server - This is my largest concern. My organization
> makes large use out of Exchange. This is our mail server, how
> resources such as conference rooms, etc, are booked, calendars are
> viewed, tasks are kept track of, etc. Is there an equivalent to
> replace this with?
>
> 3.) Directory/LDAP service - As big a POS anything with Microsoft is,
> Active Directory is nice. Group Policy greatly eases my
> administrative tasks, having a directory service to validate
> credentials and having roaming profiles etc. make everyone's life
> easier. Is there a replacement with this type of functionality? I
> have taken a brief look at SAMBA but have not attempted to deploy
> this yet. It looks like a beast. Any thoughts?
>
> 4.) Printing services - We obviously have many network printers. I
> have heard CUPS is a pain in the butt to get going.
>
> 5.) Which Version? - Like I previously mentioned, I run Gentoo on two
> boxes at home and a laptop and I LOVE it. However, this would
> definitely not be the version of Linux to deploy. What is the easiest
> distro to deploy in large quantities while still giving me the control
> that I desire? Ubuntu? What is better for a server?
>
> This is not a project I am rushing into.... I plan to deploy this in
> my home network and if I can do well with that, investigate what it
> would take to move to Linux in the organization (and convince everyone
> else they should do this as well).
>
> Thanks for any advice.

And one other questions, what is a/are good Antivirus and Antispam
program(s)

Thanks.

KDawg44 wrote:
> On Aug 16, 11:28 am, KDawg44 <KDaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have seen Vista and helped a few friends with it. Without getting
>> into too much detail, it is the biggest pile I have ever seen.
>>
>> That being said, I run the IT for a company and we currently are using
>> Windows XP and Windows 2003 server. The way that Vista points to the
>> future is not good and I am investigating a migration to Linux in the
>> organization.
>>
>> First off, I am a huge fan of Linux. I have several Gentoo Linux
>> boxes at home. That being said, it is different running a few boxes
>> at home than in an organization. There are many compatible pieces of
>> software for Linux to make my users comfortable but there are a few
>> things that are needed that I do not know if there are replacements
>> for.
>>
>> 1.) Adobe Suite - We use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and
>> Flash. I have used GIMP but am not that comfortable with it yet.
>> This is probably the least of my concerns as we could have a few XP
>> PCs just for this.
>>
>> 2.) Exchange server - This is my largest concern. My organization
>> makes large use out of Exchange. This is our mail server, how
>> resources such as conference rooms, etc, are booked, calendars are
>> viewed, tasks are kept track of, etc. Is there an equivalent to
>> replace this with?
>>
>> 3.) Directory/LDAP service - As big a POS anything with Microsoft is,
>> Active Directory is nice. Group Policy greatly eases my
>> administrative tasks, having a directory service to validate
>> credentials and having roaming profiles etc. make everyone's life
>> easier. Is there a replacement with this type of functionality? I
>> have taken a brief look at SAMBA but have not attempted to deploy
>> this yet. It looks like a beast. Any thoughts?
>>
>> 4.) Printing services - We obviously have many network printers. I
>> have heard CUPS is a pain in the butt to get going.
>>
>> 5.) Which Version? - Like I previously mentioned, I run Gentoo on two
>> boxes at home and a laptop and I LOVE it. However, this would
>> definitely not be the version of Linux to deploy. What is the easiest
>> distro to deploy in large quantities while still giving me the control
>> that I desire? Ubuntu? What is better for a server?
>>
>> This is not a project I am rushing into.... I plan to deploy this in
>> my home network and if I can do well with that, investigate what it
>> would take to move to Linux in the organization (and convince everyone
>> else they should do this as well).
>>
>> Thanks for any advice.
>
> And one other questions, what is a/are good Antivirus and Antispam
> program(s)
>
> Thanks.
>

Phew!

There is no drop-in replacement for Exchange Server. But there are
excellent IMAP mail servers (like Cyrus), file servers (Samba) and print
servers (CUPS). You can run LDAP to validate credentials and have
roaming profiles. But you must walk before you can run.

Are you planning to migrate your Windows clients or just your server? If
you are talking about Vista, then presumably you are migrating your
clients, so why not take it a step at a time, e.g.

1. Migrate your "Office" work to openoffice.org
2. Migrate your email clients to Thunderbird
3. Migrate your web browsing to Firefox
4. Migrate your calendaring to Google calendar (IMHO there isn't a clear
winner in the calendaring stakes at the moment).

You will be half way there. Then migrate about your server to Linux.
Then migrate your clients.

You will need to study LDAP and Samba in the meantime.

clamav is an excellent Antivirus program (which of course you won't need
once your clients have been migrated to Linux) and spamassassin is an
excellent Anti-spam program.

Robert

On Aug 16, 12:08 pm, Robert Harris <robert.f.har...@blueyonder.co.uk>
wrote:
> KDawg44 wrote:
> > On Aug 16, 11:28 am, KDawg44 <KDaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hi,
>
> >> I have seen Vista and helped a few friends with it. Without getting
> >> into too much detail, it is the biggest pile I have ever seen.
>
> >> That being said, I run the IT for a company and we currently are using
> >> Windows XP and Windows 2003 server. The way that Vista points to the
> >> future is not good and I am investigating a migration to Linux in the
> >> organization.
>
> >> First off, I am a huge fan of Linux. I have several Gentoo Linux
> >> boxes at home. That being said, it is different running a few boxes
> >> at home than in an organization. There are many compatible pieces of
> >> software for Linux to make my users comfortable but there are a few
> >> things that are needed that I do not know if there are replacements
> >> for.
>
> >> 1.) Adobe Suite - We use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and
> >> Flash. I have used GIMP but am not that comfortable with it yet.
> >> This is probably the least of my concerns as we could have a few XP
> >> PCs just for this.
>
> >> 2.) Exchange server - This is my largest concern. My organization
> >> makes large use out of Exchange. This is our mail server, how
> >> resources such as conference rooms, etc, are booked, calendars are
> >> viewed, tasks are kept track of, etc. Is there an equivalent to
> >> replace this with?
>
> >> 3.) Directory/LDAP service - As big a POS anything with Microsoft is,
> >> Active Directory is nice. Group Policy greatly eases my
> >> administrative tasks, having a directory service to validate
> >> credentials and having roaming profiles etc. make everyone's life
> >> easier. Is there a replacement with this type of functionality? I
> >> have taken a brief look at SAMBA but have not attempted to deploy
> >> this yet. It looks like a beast. Any thoughts?
>
> >> 4.) Printing services - We obviously have many network printers. I
> >> have heard CUPS is a pain in the butt to get going.
>
> >> 5.) Which Version? - Like I previously mentioned, I run Gentoo on two
> >> boxes at home and a laptop and I LOVE it. However, this would
> >> definitely not be the version of Linux to deploy. What is the easiest
> >> distro to deploy in large quantities while still giving me the control
> >> that I desire? Ubuntu? What is better for a server?
>
> >> This is not a project I am rushing into.... I plan to deploy this in
> >> my home network and if I can do well with that, investigate what it
> >> would take to move to Linux in the organization (and convince everyone
> >> else they should do this as well).
>
> >> Thanks for any advice.
>
> > And one other questions, what is a/are good Antivirus and Antispam
> > program(s)
>
> > Thanks.
>
> Phew!
>
> There is no drop-in replacement for Exchange Server. But there are
> excellent IMAP mail servers (like Cyrus), file servers (Samba) and print
> servers (CUPS). You can run LDAP to validate credentials and have
> roaming profiles. But you must walk before you can run.
>
> Are you planning to migrate your Windows clients or just your server? If
> you are talking about Vista, then presumably you are migrating your
> clients, so why not take it a step at a time, e.g.
>
> 1. Migrate your "Office" work to openoffice.org
> 2. Migrate your email clients to Thunderbird
> 3. Migrate your web browsing to Firefox
> 4. Migrate your calendaring to Google calendar (IMHO there isn't a clear
> winner in the calendaring stakes at the moment).
>
> You will be half way there. Then migrate about your server to Linux.
> Then migrate your clients.
>
> You will need to study LDAP and Samba in the meantime.
>
> clamav is an excellent Antivirus program (which of course you won't need
> once your clients have been migrated to Linux) and spamassassin is an
> excellent Anti-spam program.
>
> Robert

Thanks for all your helpful insight.

On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:28:24 +0000, KDawg44 wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have seen Vista and helped a few friends with it. Without getting
> into too much detail, it is the biggest pile I have ever seen.
>
> That being said, I run the IT for a company and we currently are using
> Windows XP and Windows 2003 server. The way that Vista points to the
> future is not good and I am investigating a migration to Linux in the
> organization.
>
> First off, I am a huge fan of Linux. I have several Gentoo Linux
> boxes at home. That being said, it is different running a few boxes
> at home than in an organization. There are many compatible pieces of
> software for Linux to make my users comfortable but there are a few
> things that are needed that I do not know if there are replacements
> for.
>
> 1.) Adobe Suite - We use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and
> Flash. I have used GIMP but am not that comfortable with it yet.
> This is probably the least of my concerns as we could have a few XP
> PCs just for this.
>
> 2.) Exchange server - This is my largest concern. My organization
> makes large use out of Exchange. This is our mail server, how
> resources such as conference rooms, etc, are booked, calendars are
> viewed, tasks are kept track of, etc. Is there an equivalent to
> replace this with?
>
> 3.) Directory/LDAP service - As big a POS anything with Microsoft is,
> Active Directory is nice. Group Policy greatly eases my
> administrative tasks, having a directory service to validate
> credentials and having roaming profiles etc. make everyone's life
> easier. Is there a replacement with this type of functionality? I
> have taken a brief look at SAMBA but have not attempted to deploy
> this yet. It looks like a beast. Any thoughts?
>
> 4.) Printing services - We obviously have many network printers. I
> have heard CUPS is a pain in the butt to get going.

Not really. I'm using it in a couple of networks with no problem. The
biggest issue is having compatible printers.

>
> 5.) Which Version? - Like I previously mentioned, I run Gentoo on two
> boxes at home and a laptop and I LOVE it. However, this would
> definitely not be the version of Linux to deploy. What is the easiest
> distro to deploy in large quantities while still giving me the control
> that I desire? Ubuntu? What is better for a server?

That's distribution - each distribution has versions. I don't know that
there is an 'easiest' - 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'; but Ubuntu
would certainly be a good choice. You can use Ubuntu for your server as
well, if you'd like. You might prefer a vanilla Debian for server (Ubuntu
is based on Debian). There is also a Ubuntu server version, I believe.

>
> This is not a project I am rushing into.... I plan to deploy this in
> my home network and if I can do well with that, investigate what it
> would take to move to Linux in the organization (and convince everyone
> else they should do this as well).

You might think about laying some groud work by deploying OpenOffice and
FireFox on the existing units. Then it won't be such a big change for
them. FWIW - two and a half years ago I converted most of the public
access internet computers at the local library to Linux. The patrons
adapted rapidly and without difficult or instruction. IMHO most folks who
view the computer as a tool to get work done will adapt quickly and
easily. The folks who will have difficulty are the ones who are deeply
vested in MS, or know just enough about MS to feel uneasy with anything
else.

>
> Thanks for any advice.

Robert Harris wrote:
> KDawg44 wrote:
>> On Aug 16, 11:28 am, KDawg44 <KDaw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have seen Vista and helped a few friends with it. Without getting
>>> into too much detail, it is the biggest pile I have ever seen.
>>>
>>> That being said, I run the IT for a company and we currently are using
>>> Windows XP and Windows 2003 server. The way that Vista points to the
>>> future is not good and I am investigating a migration to Linux in the
>>> organization.
>>>
>>> First off, I am a huge fan of Linux. I have several Gentoo Linux
>>> boxes at home. That being said, it is different running a few boxes
>>> at home than in an organization. There are many compatible pieces of
>>> software for Linux to make my users comfortable but there are a few
>>> things that are needed that I do not know if there are replacements
>>> for.
>>>
>>> 1.) Adobe Suite - We use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and
>>> Flash. I have used GIMP but am not that comfortable with it yet.
>>> This is probably the least of my concerns as we could have a few XP
>>> PCs just for this.
>>>
>>> 2.) Exchange server - This is my largest concern. My organization
>>> makes large use out of Exchange. This is our mail server, how
>>> resources such as conference rooms, etc, are booked, calendars are
>>> viewed, tasks are kept track of, etc. Is there an equivalent to
>>> replace this with?
>>>
>>> 3.) Directory/LDAP service - As big a POS anything with Microsoft is,
>>> Active Directory is nice. Group Policy greatly eases my
>>> administrative tasks, having a directory service to validate
>>> credentials and having roaming profiles etc. make everyone's life
>>> easier. Is there a replacement with this type of functionality? I
>>> have taken a brief look at SAMBA but have not attempted to deploy
>>> this yet. It looks like a beast. Any thoughts?
>>>
>>> 4.) Printing services - We obviously have many network printers. I
>>> have heard CUPS is a pain in the butt to get going.
>>>
>>> 5.) Which Version? - Like I previously mentioned, I run Gentoo on two
>>> boxes at home and a laptop and I LOVE it. However, this would
>>> definitely not be the version of Linux to deploy. What is the easiest
>>> distro to deploy in large quantities while still giving me the control
>>> that I desire? Ubuntu? What is better for a server?
>>>
>>> This is not a project I am rushing into.... I plan to deploy this in
>>> my home network and if I can do well with that, investigate what it
>>> would take to move to Linux in the organization (and convince everyone
>>> else they should do this as well).
>>>
>>> Thanks for any advice.
>> And one other questions, what is a/are good Antivirus and Antispam
>> program(s)
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>

For your interest, here's a few notes about my company's setup. We have
around 35 client PC's (all windows of some flavour - but no vista), an
old NT 4.0 server, a Debian 3.1 server, and a new rack with three Debian
machines that is gradually being brought into service (with openvz
virtual servers on these machines).

> Phew!
>
> There is no drop-in replacement for Exchange Server. But there are
> excellent IMAP mail servers (like Cyrus), file servers (Samba) and print
> servers (CUPS). You can run LDAP to validate credentials and have
> roaming profiles. But you must walk before you can run.
>

Also consider Zimbra for your email server (which is web based, but
supports IMAP clients). We use dovecot at the moment, but are
considering moving to Zimbra.

> Are you planning to migrate your Windows clients or just your server? If
> you are talking about Vista, then presumably you are migrating your
> clients, so why not take it a step at a time, e.g.
>
> 1. Migrate your "Office" work to openoffice.org

At our company, we have a few that have MS Office, while most use
OpenOffice - since about version 2.0 of ooo, we've had no serious issues
with compatibility.

> 2. Migrate your email clients to Thunderbird

Apart from a couple of users that like to sync their calendars with
wince phones and therefore prefer Outlook, all our computers use
Thunderbird with IMAP access to the dovecot server. OE is banned.

> 3. Migrate your web browsing to Firefox

IE is banned at our office except for the very rare site (such as a
particular bank's site) that insists on IE. Almost everyone uses
Firefox, but a few prefer Opera. It's virtually impossible to enforce a
ban on IE using technical methods, so I threaten people with wire
cutters (for their network cables :-) if I see anyone using it.

The point is, even when using windows clients it is far more secure (and
far cheaper) to use open source applications like these, and most users
have no problem with them. And it will make any later transition to
Linux desktops (Kubuntu makes a good choice, I think) easier.

> 4. Migrate your calendaring to Google calendar (IMHO there isn't a clear
> winner in the calendaring stakes at the moment).
>

I haven't figured out calendaring yet (Zimbra may be the answer for us).

> You will be half way there. Then migrate about your server to Linux.
> Then migrate your clients.
>

In many ways, a Linux server is far easier to work with than a windows
server. By the time you have figured out how the client access licenses
work on windows, you would already have a Debian server up and running.

> You will need to study LDAP and Samba in the meantime.
>
> clamav is an excellent Antivirus program (which of course you won't need
> once your clients have been migrated to Linux) and spamassassin is an
> excellent Anti-spam program.
>

You'll want clamav to scan your incoming emails to protect your windows
clients - there is not much need for antivirus for Linux clients.
However, there is still the possibility of using Wine to run windows
viruses...

> Robert

KDawg44 <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> >> software for Linux to make my users comfortable but there are a few
>> >> things that are needed that I do not know if there are replacements
>> >> for.
> <snip>
>> >> 1.) Adobe Suite - We use Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator, and
>> >> Flash. I have used GIMP but am not that comfortable with it yet.
> <snip>
> Thanks for all your helpful insight.

Nobody has made mention of a neat solution I have seen -- using a Win2003
server and an RDP client on the Linux clients to host the inevitable odd
app that doesn't have an equivalent in Linux.. or for whatever reason a
small number of users' still need access to - bookkeeping and small
financial packages spring to mind. You obviously have to license the
software, but it's a good way of reducing Windows desktops. RDP clients can
even run fairly complex apps, including Adobe, performance would be
dependent on LAN bandwidth and CPU on the Win-box.

gnome-rdp, rdesktop and krdc are your friends if you want to try this at
home .

--
Jamin @ Home: Chester UK -<(E-Mail Removed)>