10 ways to sell corporate on Linux (TechRepublic) [LWN.net]

TechRepublic suggests ten arguments for switching to Linux. "Your systems are all way overdue for an operating system upgrade, but your IT department is going over budget. You know you can’t afford the latest version of Microsoft Windows or Office. The easiest path to reining in your costs would be to migrate over to the Linux operating system. Unfortunately, corporate headquarters isn’t convinced that Linux is the way to go. How do you convince them otherwise? Simple. Use these 10 compelling points to persuade them that Linux is right for your organization."

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Linux as a tool for Managing and Troubleshooting MS Windows Issues

Posted Apr 25, 2008 6:00 UTC (Fri) by AnswerGuy (subscriber, #1256) [Link]

Earlier spend a few minutes helping a colleague with some MS Windows (XP Pro) problems. He'd
been complaining to the heldesk guy (cubicle next to me) for days about how his Outlooks has
been acting up, taking a long time to load, etc.

His machine was dual boot (he supports UNIX/Linux software products for our customers). So I
booted into Linux and had him run rdesktop to connect to one of the Citrix/TSE servers. From
there Outlook comes right up and works.

(I could have also run this rdesktop command from an Ubuntu custom live CD image if
necessary).

So, now he has an additional datapoint (it's something on his machine, not something on the
server nor something about the network) and he has a workaround (he can get at his mail using
this --- and access other MS Windows corporate/productivity applications using this until the
help desk can resolve his system problems.

(Yes, they've already tried re-imaging. No. I don't care to go troubleshoot his MS Windows
problems for him).

The point is that Linux can be a useful tool for troubleshooting and managing MS Windows
boxes. I've known people who do their Windows patch management using Linux (reboot all the
Windows boxes into network live Linux mode --- which is running ssh and have central shell
scripts rsync and files around, performing backups, restores and fixes. And I've known many
NT admins who've kept a KNOPPIX or a LNX-BBC or old Linuxcare BBC around to help reset local
administrator passwords when those get lost --- and occasionally to do other fixes.

JimD

Linux as a tool for Managing and Troubleshooting MS Windows Issues

Posted May 6, 2008 15:09 UTC (Tue) by muwlgr (guest, #35359) [Link]

Perhaps you should know that there is built-in remote desktop client in WinXP itself. No need
to reboot into Linux just for that. However, Linux is really pretty good for more lowlevel
tasks. Very often I use 'ntfsprogs' suite - very good for copying, imaging and resizing NTFS
volumes. As well, 'ntpasswd' tool is great. And, Wine could help you to migrate your apps away
from Windows platorm, but it is not quite ready to be drop-in replacement yet.

10 ways to sell corporate on Linux (TechRepublic)

Posted Apr 28, 2008 3:34 UTC (Mon) by gdt (subscriber, #6284) [Link]

The problem I have with this article is that it is "how I would sell Linux to corporate
managers" not "how I sold Linux to corporate managers". There's a world of difference.

10 ways to sell corporate on Linux (TechRepublic)

Posted Apr 28, 2008 8:30 UTC (Mon) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

How I 'sell' it.. is when they walk up to my computer or ask what is running on it I tell them
it's Linux. They go 'oh' and walk away.

It's much easier when you don't have to ask permission first.

As far as 'selling' software to people.. That's a VAR issue. For some bizzare reason it seems
that they are much more willing to listen to strangers that want to take their money rather
then to somebody they know that want to save it. Maybe it's because they tend to buy IT
decision makers alcohol and food. I don't know.

I think that this is a big problem for Linux. With Microsoft and Windows there is a shitload
of money to be made in convincing companies to upgrade from XP to Vista. I mean for a salesmen
convincing a medium sized company to upgrade to Vista would also bring in large amounts of
hardware sales and then later on software sales when people find out that Vista is less then
compatible with lots of their applications. For a VAR this could mean paying of a mortgage or
buying a new speedboat or something from the money they would make off of that sale. Then on
top of that the VAR can always come back around and get a double whammy off of convincing
these folks to upgrade to Windows 2008.

SOOO much money to be made.

I mean for Linux... What salesmen is going to walk up to a company and say:

"You know if you get rid of XP and don't upgrade to Vista I can find you a nice software
developer that can customize a Linux desktop system for you to increase productivity for your
workers while reducing training costs and downtime! I know I won't get any money from it, but,
you know, I love you guys."

"Also you know that hardware your leasing and those monthly support costs for all that
proprietary 'enterprise' software I sold you two years ago? I see that your ramping up for a
2008 Windows deployment.. and.. Well you can replace all of that, and pretty much your entire
server room, if you go and buy about 10-15 thousand dollars worth of HP or Dell hardware into
a couple load-balancing network closet and virtualize it with Linux."

"Just say'n. My kids are going to start college soon and all that, but I really think that
for the best chances of success for your company would be to stop buying poorly made and
overpriced software from me and just switch to something that is easy to manage and customize
for your specific needs."