Blog
Ubuntu is spoken here...
2009-10-14
I have been in the computer industry since the mid eighties and you might say I was raised Microsoft. I became a maven for the OS that now dominates the industry. Why would I go elsewhere?
A friend showed up with a Sun SPARC workstation (32-bit). I was suddenly out of my element. I didn't really want to play with Solaris and this Linux stuff seemed to be making progress. What I found was a distribution of Linux called Debian. They distributed a version of Linux for EVERY hardware platform (Intel, SPARC, powerpc, arm etc). This needed a look over.
I dabbled with Debian off and on and soon came to find it a very stable platform for hosting web services/email/firewall etc. I became so enamored with it I started doing the unthinkable and taking down my coveted windows servers and replacing them one by one with Linux OS's that easily ran twice as fast in half the memory.
I even started using it on my desktop but found that Debian was better suited for server/console stuff than at the desktop. The release schedule was at least two years between versions and nothing was really up to date. That's when I fell upon Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a distribution that is based on Debian but they take desktop and versioning VERY seriously. Ubuntu puts out a new version every six months. This is the equivalent to a major Microsoft upgrade (like XP to Vista).
I was so impressed with Ubuntu we have successfully migrated all of our desktop computers to it. Here are some of the little wow factors I've run into:
- One CD installation - Everything you need is literally on ONE CD. Once the OS is installed it never needs to use that CD again. Ubuntu will even ship you the install CD for free!
- No Drivers - Ubuntu (and most all Linux distros) contain all their own drivers. This includes even printers. Just plug a printer in and start printing. No configuration!
- Online Update - Since Ubuntu also distributes the applications as well as the OS the update service keeps your entire system up to date.
- No Activation/Licensing/Viruses - It feels like a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
Based on all of our experiences I wanted to give you a couple of tips that we used to make the migration easier:
- Change your IT ecosystem SLOWLY. Keeping in mind that Linux does not run Windows or Mac programs is a large issue and needs to be addressed carefully. Start by changing your IT direction slightly and move your infrastructure towards standards based protocols. This is already happening by in large since most corporate applications are becoming browser based.
- Change your end user applications SLOWLY. All of the large end user open source applications are available on the Windows Platform. Users tended to survive the shock in the change of OS because they had already had their applications migrated. It's all looks the same to the user. Here's a quick conversion of applications:
- Web Browsing: Firefox
- Email: Thunderbird
- Instant Message: Pidgin
- Office: OpenOffice
- Virtualization: VirtualBox
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