3 ms·

"because of a few business-critical software packages" What are they?

EvanAnderson 7y ago
Not the OP, but my Customers are stuck on Windows because of ERP and accounting systems, line-of-business applications (logistics, quality assurance/statistics, food labeling, specialty POS), applications to drive speciality hardware devices (scientific instruments, PLC programming, industrial machines), and, of course, user familarity and general desire for the Microsoft Office applications (and Outlook I particular).
- gerdesj 7y ago
  We wrote our own ERP and accounting system. OK we partnered up with someone who did it for his factory (he's an accountant by trade and a FOSS lover) and hired a programmer to continue development. We are a small company (~GBP1.5M pa) but we have some fairly complex needs. I'm the only full time Linux user in the firm but as the MD I get by quite happily with Arch on my desktop and laptop, Libre Office and Evolution instead of MS apps - we use Exchange exclusively btw and Evo has a very stable EWS connector and supports Kerberos. Add winbind and I am "domain joined". I use an auto mounter that makes the Windows server shares appear under my home directory as needed. I have CUPS which is also Kerberized. My machine is quite often used by the staff as a handy set of utilities on the end of PuTTY, which supports GSSAPI for SSO. I own an IT company and also find entrenched tastes hard to combat. Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day. The main trouble is MSDN and NFR makes cost/benefit hard to fly as an argument. Just like the drugs industry, the pushers get their drugs/apps for free!
Silhouette 7y ago
It depends on our current engagement. We often deal with clients who use specialist equipment and/or software themselves, and we need compatibility. A lot of this is moving to online or embedded systems now as well, so the problem becomes less of a problem with time, but it's not a non-issue yet. Also, a lot of creative software doesn't have a Linux version, and in some cases it only runs on either Windows or Mac but not the other, so there is a lack of flexibility there. Again compatibility is a concern, but also the blunt truth is that most of the Linux-friendly FOSS packages simply aren't as good, and even where they could be, they would typically need a significant migration project.

Not the OP, but my Customers are stuck on Windows because of ERP and accounting systems, line-of-business applications (logistics, quality assurance/statistics, food labeling, specialty POS), applications to drive speciality hardware devices (scientific instruments, PLC programming, industrial machines), and, of course, user familarity and general desire for the Microsoft Office applications (and Outlook I particular).

gerdesj 7y ago
We wrote our own ERP and accounting system. OK we partnered up with someone who did it for his factory (he's an accountant by trade and a FOSS lover) and hired a programmer to continue development. We are a small company (~GBP1.5M pa) but we have some fairly complex needs. I'm the only full time Linux user in the firm but as the MD I get by quite happily with Arch on my desktop and laptop, Libre Office and Evolution instead of MS apps - we use Exchange exclusively btw and Evo has a very stable EWS connector and supports Kerberos. Add winbind and I am "domain joined". I use an auto mounter that makes the Windows server shares appear under my home directory as needed. I have CUPS which is also Kerberized. My machine is quite often used by the staff as a handy set of utilities on the end of PuTTY, which supports GSSAPI for SSO. I own an IT company and also find entrenched tastes hard to combat. Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day. The main trouble is MSDN and NFR makes cost/benefit hard to fly as an argument. Just like the drugs industry, the pushers get their drugs/apps for free!

Silhouette 7y ago

It depends on our current engagement. We often deal with clients who use specialist equipment and/or software themselves, and we need compatibility. A lot of this is moving to online or embedded systems now as well, so the problem becomes less of a problem with time, but it's not a non-issue yet. Also, a lot of creative software doesn't have a Linux version, and in some cases it only runs on either Windows or Mac but not the other, so there is a lack of flexibility there. Again compatibility is a concern, but also the blunt truth is that most of the Linux-friendly FOSS packages simply aren't as good, and even where they could be, they would typically need a significant migration project.