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I've moved places from 0% Linux to around 70% Linux, but the obstacles on the road to 100% in non-tech companies are tough: - Office VBA: OpenOffice is good e

I've moved places from 0% Linux to around 70% Linux, but the obstacles on the road to 100% in non-tech companies are tough: - Office VBA: OpenOffice is good enough for people who just make docs and spreadsheets, but some of the more savvy folk (usually in finance and engineering) use MS Office VBA as a development platform. OpenOffice just doesn't cut it for them. - Old stuff: Critical sensors, HVAC systems, fuel management systems, etc. that have proprietary windows-only clients. Some work well enough in Wine, others don't. - 3rd-party support contracts: A lot of places rent their copiers, and even though those copiers have Linux print drivers, the support that is bundled into the contract is windows-only, so you're on your own with Linux. - AD / Group Policy Deployment: Samba4 is closer, but without windows desktops on the client-end, it's still no substitute for the one-ring-to-control-them-all nature of a bunch of windows boxes under AD, and I'm not just talking SSO. I think the key-problem with windows is that most users--even in a lot of AD-controlled corporate settings--are full administrators. If you can drop everyone down to limited-user status, it greatly improves things. Not to Linux levels, but still a lot better.

rdtsc 10y ago
> Critical sensors, HVAC systems, fuel management systems, etc. that have proprietary windows-only clients. Some work well enough in Wine, others don't. No joke. Around mid 2000's worked at a scientific lab part time. We still had Windows 3.1 machines in there because measurement equipment (sensors) had older DOS based drivers. So would run the experiments then had to use floppies to shuffle results around.
- ramy_d 10y ago
  wow, is emulation not an option at that stage?
  - rdtsc 10y ago
    It talked to real hardware so it wasn't. There was also an effect of professors doing the same thing for many, many years and after a while they simply stop following the latest and most current things in technology.
- emidln 10y ago
  When I was on contract at the Illinois EPA around 2008, there was exactly one computer that could program the dataloggers used to monitor air quality around the state. It was the slowest computer at the IEPA, and it was still too fast to reliably program our dataloggers. It took about 3 minutes to send the configuration to the datalogger (over a serial port), and running the software had roughly a 60% chance of corrupting the transfer. The first Windows-based software I ever shipped was for programming ESC dataloggers. Last I heard, it was still in use by the IEPA Bureau of Air.
- gambiting 10y ago
  McLaren P1 requires an ancient Compaq laptop to service, because nothing else will connect to the car. http://jalopnik.com/this-ancient-laptop-is-the-only-key-to-the-most-valuabl-1773662267 http://jalopnik.com/this-ancient-laptop-is-the-only-key-to-t...
  - Thev00d00 10y ago
    *McLaren F1
milesrout 10y ago
>- Office VBA: OpenOffice is good enough for people who just make docs and spreadsheets, but some of the more savvy folk (usually in finance and engineering) use MS Office VBA as a development platform. OpenOffice just doesn't cut it for them. I think the reality is that these people have to get over themselves. They shouldn't be developing complex programmes in Microsoft Office. End of story.
vetinari 10y ago
VBA: LibreOffice can run Python macros. Granted, the rewrite from VBA to Python is necessary, but the possibility is there and in the long term, Python is much nicer to work with than VBA. AD: Have a look into FreeIPA. It is Active Directory equivalent for Linux and Unix systems (but not Group Policy). Centralized updates are done using Spacewalk/Satellite. Old stuff: that's the thing with old stuff. Going forward, these things are undergoing a change to web and snmp interfaces. I'm currently looking into thermometers and moisture meters, and this is the standard. 3rd party support contracts: you don't have to accept the stock contract, ask for changes that you need. The providers are not going to say you no, it's just not there because most companies are not asking for it, so they won't be proactive in providing that.
- simooooo 10y ago
  Having to rewrite any macros for any reason is a no go. You may as well have just stopped there.
  - vetinari 10y ago
    Depends on the company. Some have no problem replacing it with something else, some do.
    - flukus 10y ago
      IME the process usually involves finding a lot of bugs and users generally want the bugs ported too.
tracker1 10y ago
+1 on VBA... I don't care so much for it, but I've seen some truly amazing and impressive feats in Excel + VBA. And while I'm sure it could be done with Python in LO, the rewrite for a lot of people would be limiting. That said, I'm surprised they wouldn't try to support Office via Wine for those users that needed it. Also, for information exchange, the defaults for LO changed to MS Office formats for a given organization... though that still has some issues.

rdtsc 10y ago

> Critical sensors, HVAC systems, fuel management systems, etc. that have proprietary windows-only clients. Some work well enough in Wine, others don't. No joke. Around mid 2000's worked at a scientific lab part time. We still had Windows 3.1 machines in there because measurement equipment (sensors) had older DOS based drivers. So would run the experiments then had to use floppies to shuffle results around.

ramy_d 10y ago
wow, is emulation not an option at that stage?
- rdtsc 10y ago
  It talked to real hardware so it wasn't. There was also an effect of professors doing the same thing for many, many years and after a while they simply stop following the latest and most current things in technology.
emidln 10y ago
When I was on contract at the Illinois EPA around 2008, there was exactly one computer that could program the dataloggers used to monitor air quality around the state. It was the slowest computer at the IEPA, and it was still too fast to reliably program our dataloggers. It took about 3 minutes to send the configuration to the datalogger (over a serial port), and running the software had roughly a 60% chance of corrupting the transfer. The first Windows-based software I ever shipped was for programming ESC dataloggers. Last I heard, it was still in use by the IEPA Bureau of Air.
gambiting 10y ago
McLaren P1 requires an ancient Compaq laptop to service, because nothing else will connect to the car. http://jalopnik.com/this-ancient-laptop-is-the-only-key-to-the-most-valuabl-1773662267 http://jalopnik.com/this-ancient-laptop-is-the-only-key-to-t...
- Thev00d00 10y ago
  *McLaren F1

milesrout 10y ago

>- Office VBA: OpenOffice is good enough for people who just make docs and spreadsheets, but some of the more savvy folk (usually in finance and engineering) use MS Office VBA as a development platform. OpenOffice just doesn't cut it for them. I think the reality is that these people have to get over themselves. They shouldn't be developing complex programmes in Microsoft Office. End of story.

vetinari 10y ago

VBA: LibreOffice can run Python macros. Granted, the rewrite from VBA to Python is necessary, but the possibility is there and in the long term, Python is much nicer to work with than VBA. AD: Have a look into FreeIPA. It is Active Directory equivalent for Linux and Unix systems (but not Group Policy). Centralized updates are done using Spacewalk/Satellite. Old stuff: that's the thing with old stuff. Going forward, these things are undergoing a change to web and snmp interfaces. I'm currently looking into thermometers and moisture meters, and this is the standard. 3rd party support contracts: you don't have to accept the stock contract, ask for changes that you need. The providers are not going to say you no, it's just not there because most companies are not asking for it, so they won't be proactive in providing that.

simooooo 10y ago
Having to rewrite any macros for any reason is a no go. You may as well have just stopped there.
- vetinari 10y ago
  Depends on the company. Some have no problem replacing it with something else, some do.
  - flukus 10y ago
    IME the process usually involves finding a lot of bugs and users generally want the bugs ported too.

tracker1 10y ago

+1 on VBA... I don't care so much for it, but I've seen some truly amazing and impressive feats in Excel + VBA. And while I'm sure it could be done with Python in LO, the rewrite for a lot of people would be limiting. That said, I'm surprised they wouldn't try to support Office via Wine for those users that needed it. Also, for information exchange, the defaults for LO changed to MS Office formats for a given organization... though that still has some issues.