Ten considerations for migrating to Linux

As the economic environment deteriorates and Vista does not get much recognition, many IT departments consider migrating the platform to Linux. although many people think that Linux is better than windows, we should consider it carefully before replacing the platform.

Otherwise, you may find that you must return to the original platform. If you want to migrate data to the Linux platform, consider the following ten questions:

1. Can private and critical programs run on the new platform?

The first thing that must be considered for platform migration is: yes, most software may have similar programs on the Linux platform that can be used, such as Photoshop and gimp.
For, Adobe
PageMaker can be replaced by scribus. However, some specific software does not have the corresponding cross-platform version on the Linux platform. In this case, you must use wine or virtual machine
But it takes a lot of time and effort to run the program on Windows, especially when using wine.

If you have a key program specifically developed for Windows, it is best not to migrate the platform so that these software can be used normally. Of course, if these key software is web-based, so you can perform migration, because Firefox can achieve the same effect as IE.

2. Which desktop environment do you plan to use?

For Windows and Mac OS X, the desktop is a great choice, but the selection of a large number of Linux versions is wider. if you choose a wrong desktop environment, your productivity may be much lower, but it is not difficult to choose the right desktop.

If your users used to use Mac OS X, you 'd better choose gnome. If you used to use XP, you 'd better choose KDE.
3.5.x; if you are used to Vista before, the best choice is kde4.x. Linux Desktop Environment customization can surpass Windows and Mac OS.
X. You can use your imagination to customize a special desktop environment for your company. However, based on this, you must first thoroughly count which desktop environment users prefer to use.

3. Is your department competent for this platform?

Migration to the Linux platform may lead to the biggest problem: if no additional training is required, employees may not change their habits as the platform changes. If they are familiar with windows, it does not mean they can
Good management of Linux systems and networks. if you plan to migrate the platform, first understand the knowledge of employees about the new operating system. if they do not know much about it
There will be a lot of trouble. we certainly want our employees to be proficient in all technologies, but the reality is that most IT experts are only proficient in their own research fields. however, for most IT administrators
Linux is certainly not difficult.

4. Does your company benefit from windows?

Many companies and organizations do not immediately benefit from using the Windows system. For example, many universities provide students with a lot of software, similar to visual
Studio and ofiice are deployed on the school's computer. If the platform is migrated, these software will be scrapped and the loss will be huge. Of course, if you use Linux, you will get free software.
Yes, saving a lot of money.

5. Do employees use many portable media devices?

Linux
The support for multimedia devices has been greatly improved, but it is still not as convenient as windows. Many new Linux releases are doing well, and the installation and use of removable disks are simple,
These processes are fully automated. If many employees use removable disks, they have to choose a release that supports these devices, such as mandriva.

6. Does your hardware support the new platform?

In general, this is no longer a problem, but it is a problem for companies that use cheap hardware to save costs. the biggest problem in most cases is the Integrated Video Card. Although it is not a problem to upgrade the video card, if the company has too many machines and the video card is upgraded to migrate the system, the cost is certainly not low.

In addition, deploying a laptop is also a huge obstacle. Can I use a wireless network card? Can sound card and video cards work normally? We are glad that Linux can use livecd. You can use it to test whether your hardware supports the corresponding system.

7. Are you using active directory?

If your company depends heavily on Active Directory
Directory migration to OpenLDAP is difficult because their functions are inconsistent. If you have to perform this migration, you can use pwdump2
And ActiveState Perl.

8. Are you outsourcing technical support?

A lot of companies spend money on outsourcing technical support. If this is the case for your company, you 'd better investigate before migrating to Linux. If you plan to use unbuntu, RedHat, or
For NOVELL Linux, you can purchase technical support. However, for other releases, you may not be able to obtain technical support of the same level. Most of them are supported by email.

9. Are you subject to software license fees?

If you have already made a security software purchase contract with the security company, you are wasting money because these services may not be used in Linux. if you are still paying for security software, it is best to migrate the platform, which saves you a lot of security service fees.

10. Which employees can adapt to the platform migration?

In fact, you can control the scope of platform migration and make it smarter and more efficient. maybe many employees can adapt to the migration requirements. For example, they mainly work on Web browsers. You can include them on the platform.
Migration objects, which does not change much for them. For employees who often use the Office package, do not migrate the platform or use OpenOffice instead.
For software engineers, it is best not to migrate platforms.

From: http://news.csdn.net/n/20081117/120893.html