[Solar-general] interesante

[Sebastien G]

Para ayudar la planificación del proceso de migración:

http://www.vivalinux.com.ar/article-ibm-windows-linux.html

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/SG246380.html

Ustedes tienen documentación de planificación de migración en español?

Sébastien

Le lundi 03 janvier 2005 à 19:56 -0300, Diego Saravia a écrit :
> http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=165827&start=0
> 
> 
> Linux on the Desktop at work and worth it  	
> 	This post is in response to the various naysayers in these forums who say
> Linux on the business desktop is either not possible or not worth it.
> 
> See
> http://itheresies.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_itheresies_archive.html
> 
> * The Forces
> 
> Like many organizations around the world, the two former organizations that
> employed me suffered major blowouts in their IT budgets leading up to Y2K. As
> a result, the IT upgrades in 1998/1999 were expected to last five or six years
> after 2000. Windows 98SE was the latest stable platform available 1999.
> Keeping to budget and upgrading all the desktop *hardware* for Win2K and then
> XP would be difficult if not impossible.
> 
> After careful deliberation, the management at the larger organization decided
> to use some of its existing tech savy IT staff to evaluate Linux on the
> desktop as a stop gap measure and as a replacement for some of the desktops
> during the next upgrade round.
> 
> Neither organization operates in the IT industry and both prefer not to face
> direct scrutiny or suffer the hordes of Microsoft salesdroids who magically
> appear at the doorstep of any company publicizing Linux deployments. So both
> shall remain nameless for now.
> 
> * The Effort
> 
> Over the last four years I have deployed and supported almost ninety Linux
> desktops at my former employer. Not all of the desktops are running Linux,
> they still have around the same number of Win98 machines, half of which are
> scheduled for replacement with Linux ( either Xandros, Suse or a custom
> version of Fedora/Redhat ) in 2005/6. The other half will be upgraded to join
> the small number of current Win2K desktops and laptops.
> 
> We started out with a combination of Redhat 6.2 and Ximian Gnome. This was
> limited to call center and data entry. Later we put StarOffice/Linux a number
> of desktops for people who do not deal with incoming and outgoing Microsoft
> Office document formats on a regular basis.
> 
> It was a major effort. Two years ago, they could not have done it without
> serous expertise from the existing Unix administrators and knowledgeable folks
> such as myself. For example, it took myself around three weeks of hacking
> around with Redhat 8 to get it to the point where everything just worked and
> only the required functionality was exposed to the user.
> 
> * The Steps
> 
> First of all, on all PCs, Netscape ( and later Mozilla ) replaced Microsoft IE
> and Outlook, and since all the enterprise systems used web based interfaces,
> on Linux it looks very similar.
> 
> They started deploying some of the desktops HD partitions using Norton Ghost.
> Later they just created a small rescue partition hosting customized Linux
> system, that once installed, performed the same task. The administrator can
> set the default in the grub configure file for the next reboot. A second VFAT
> partition is kept on Win98 and dual boot systems. This is not overwritten by
> default and provides a persistent local file system.
> 
> Although they have chosen to deploy Linux using the traditional thick
> desktop/workstation model, they use a spare server that operates as an X11
> application server. This is used on a regular basis by the helpdesk, IT
> support and a few Windows users that access both windows and remote X Linux.
> The rescue partition, that can be also network booted via PXE, is based on the
> Linux Terminal Server Project ( http://www.ltsp.org/ ). During an install or
> if a security violation is detected, the user of the desktop is booted into
> Linux thin client, and can access all their files though the Application
> server. Forensic examination, repairs and installs can take place in the
> background while the person uses the thin client.
> 
> Some individuals like to download and install software, either in the local
> filesystem or home directories, and get annoyed when the installed software is
> erased or overwritten. Unauthorized software installs remain a major problem
> in terms of both security and licensing. For those users we offered a choice,
> either stop installing software or buy and provision their own laptop with a
> loan from the organization. The individual owns the laptop but can only access
> the internal network if they allow the IT department to inspect the laptop on
> a regular basis.
> 
> We focused on getting the SAMBA services and NFS working correctly. Using pam
> the users have the same user name and password for each platform.
> 
> Each users networked Linux home directory contains a subdirectory that holds
> the SAMBA'ed share of the users networked Windows desktop and "My Documents".
> Any person can log in to either Linux or Windows and find their files with
> ease. In the same way, similar desktop icon/start menu entries and links to
> enterprise applications and directories on are on both Microsoft and Linux
> users desktop.
> 
> We handled peoples transitions from Windows to Linux in small groups. In each
> department, we targeted the friendly tech savvy users, some who were
> surprisingly quick learners, and set them up first. It's easier for people to
> turn to the tech savvy person at the next desk with questions than to call up
> the helpdesk. Once people were shown the Linux desktops in action, there was
> less resistance than expected. We never tried to force anyone to make the
> shift. Those who personally invested in complex scripted Microsoft Excel or
> Powerpoint documents remain free to run Microsoft Office and OpenOffice side
> by side on Win98se or Win2k. At least one of the scripting gurus has begun to
> build document scripting in OpenOffice, using Java.
> 
> Users in transition could dual boot either Linux or Win98. Later, some users
> could access a remote Linux desktop from Win98/Win2k using a Windows based
> X11-server. If a person had a problem, they could just boot or switch back
> into a familiar environment, and preferably log the problem with the helpdesk.
> 
> We deployed VNC on all platforms ( For Linux http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/
> ). All the user had to do was to call in to the helpdesk and click on
> "ShowDesk/OK" to let the support person see/access their desktop. This can be
> a surprisingly effective teaching tool. The user can follow the actions
> required to fix a problem, in the context the user is working in.
> 
> The transition from Microsoft Office98 to Staroffice/OpenOffice is difficult.
> At first we had to go though all the Office templates the targeted users
> needed and rewrote them for StarOffice. Before 1997, the organization relied
> on a few complex template macros in Microsoft Word 6. These were abandoned
> before 1998 because (a) the hassle required to upgrade them to each major
> release of Microsoft Office and (b) the number of macro virus the organization
> suffered despite keeping Norton Antivirus up to date twice a day. Instead of
> Macros and document embedded VB, a few documents are generated on the in house
> developed server in RTF format. Fortunately, with a little tweaking, these
> generated document were fully import compatible with Microsoft Office and
> OpenOffice.
> 
> In terms of user education, for day to day usage, most people did not find it
> that difficult or frightening a change from Microsoft Office to
> StarOffice/OpenOffice. Those who regularly designed complex layouts or Visual
> Basic based scripting just stuck with Microsoft Office.
> 
> The organization keeps Microsoft Office97/98 as the standard document formats,
> with StarOffice and now OpenOffice defaulting to saving in that format. A few
> internally used documents are now being stored in OpenOffice formats, as it is
> becoming the prefered format when the final document is shipped in Adobe PDF
> format.
> 
> Each department has a couple of accessible Win2k machines that run Microsoft's
> Office2k and IE alongside Openoffice and Firefox. These are multimedia capable
> systems and serve as staff Internet access, plugin device compatibility and
> document conversion. All of these have network limited access to the servers.
> A public share on the file server is used to copy content from the normal
> desktops. This public share is scanned each time a file is added, and dispite
> the Win2k desktop having up to date antivirus protection, the server side scan
> still pick up a few cases of spyware/malware/worms. A large Linux partition
> contains a checksummed bit copy of the NTFS partition. Booting Linux on these
> systems sets up a background script that overwrites the NTFS partition from
> either the local copy or the file server.
> 
> The Payoffs
> 
> Since switching to Netscape Navigator in 1998, the organization has not been
> subjected to the multitude of scripted vulnerabilities that plague IE and
> Outlook users.
> 
> They have never suffered a successful incursion by any worm/virus/trojan
> malware on any of the Linux desktops. They run tripwire on the desktops and
> can perform remote inspections of processes. There is no need for any third
> party antivirus software on the Linux Desktops. They do use third party
> antivirus tools on the servers to scan the document directories and incoming
> and outgoing email.
> 
> 
> In comparison to Win98,Win2k and XP, keeping the Linux desktops up to date is
> a breeze. We maintain a read-only NFS'ed public directory that, after testing,
> we drop RPMs packages into. A cron job on each desktop inspects the directory
> for new files and then runs yum and updates the system. We stagger the start
> times to prevent overloading the network or file server. In most cases, the
> update takes place entirely transparent to the user.
> 
> In terms of remote support, Linux Desktops blow Win9x to XP out of the water.
> Beside VNC users desktops, you can access the remote desktop though a ssh'ed
> command line, a web based interface (webmin), or use Xnest to access a
> separate instance of a desktop on the same machine. In all three of the latter
> cases, the access can be invisible to the user of the machine. The helpdesk
> can pass on the address to the support engineer who, with his laptop with VPN
> access, can track down problems literally anywhere in the world with an
> Internet connection.
> 
> Thick, slim or thin, Linux desktops are in. The organization is free to deploy
> future Linux desktops anyway they wish.
> 
> There is no part of this deployment of Linux which is Linux vendor dependent.
> With a little effort it could be translated to another Linux vendor's platform
> or even a community based distribution such as Debian.
> 
> In my or the manager's opinion, the result was well worth the combined effort
> of the IT management, support staff, and users.
> 
> * That was the hard way
> 
> The effort that we put into developing our own solutions with the Linux
> software of the day was a major undertaking. Today, we would not have to
> undertake anything close to that same effort.
> 
> Xandros Desktop Management Server (xDMS)
> http://www.xandros.com/products/business/xdms/xdms_intro.html
> Xandros' xDMS is a close to turnkey solution for small organizations. When
> combined with their desktop offerings it does all that a small organization
> needs for the majority of its users.
> 
> Novell offers similar desktop management vary suitable for larger organizations
> http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/index.html
> You will find that organizations that currently deploy Novells directory
> services can very quickly deploy Linux along side.
> 
> Both above vendors require per seat licensing, and can lock the enterprise in
> at the IT management level. But both also offer many of the same advantages of
> Linux on the desktop for a fraction of the effort and inside knowledge required.
> 
> Is Linux in the desktop for everyone in the enterprise? Maybe not. But it's a
> matter of when Linux will be ready, not if Linux will be ready.
> But does that mean your organization should not be investigate deploying Linux
> on the desktop where it makes sense now? No! Start investigating where
> deploying Linux makes sense.
> http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/nld/features/a_linux_switch_nld.html
> 
> * Lastly
> 
> Do not trust everything Microsoft and its supporters say about Linux. They
> selectively deceive and outright lie.
> http://www.novell.com/linux/truth/index.html
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/09/ms_capgemini_newham_report/print.html
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/security_report_windows_vs_linux/
> http://www.opensource.org/halloween/halloween11.html
> http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1426514,00.asp 	
>