Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on July 13, 2006 05:44 AM
Hi,
You mentioned that you're expected to use the following:
1.) office applications, 2.) a Windows-only VPN client, and 3.) Windows-based asset management tools.
I'm guessing that, like most businesses, you're expected to use something that speaks the Microsoft Office proprietary file formats. I'm also guessing that the "Windows-only VPN client" is an IPSec VPN client (most are, these days).
For the first two tasks, if my above assumptions are correct, a GNU/Linux desktop distribution will handle that with great aplomb. We'll start with the VPN issue. I've been using IPSec VPN clients on GNU/Linux for years--one from Cisco, and an open-source one called "vpnc". Both work very well.
As for Microsoft Office file format compatibility, I've been using OpenOffice.org since its pre-1.0 days, and, while version 1.0 was pretty darned good, and version 1.1 was (is) *really* good, version 2.0 is stellar. I work in a "Microsoft shop" and have to deal with MS Office documents of various types all the time. I have had exactly one major issue in four years, and it was with a MS Word document in OpenOffice.org 1.0 (MS Office 2000 couldn't handle it either, BTW, but OpenOffice.org 1.1 and 2.0 could). So, I can say, from four years of experience, that GNU/Linux is, and has been, at least as ready to handle these tasks as MS Windows has.
The one that remains is access to the Windows-based asset management tools. One option is using CrossOver Office, which happens to run MS Internet Exploder, as one example, rather well. If CrossOver Office won't run your asset management tools well, then here's another solution. Stand up a MS Terminal Server and install these asset management tools on it. You and others would then be able to just use TSClient on your GNU/Linux desktop (TSClient, being Free Software, comes with most distributions) to hit the MS Terminal Server and run your asset management tools.
This is exactly how I run MS Internet Exploder with Sun Java 1.4.2, because it's required by one enterprise application that we have that requires both IE and Java...on Windows only. I just "TermServ" into the Windows Terminal Server, do what I've got to do with my app, and log off when I'm finished. Meanwhile, my machines get all the benefits of GNU/Linux (Ubuntu Dapper, in my specific case, with a Slackware laptop) and avoid all of the problems with Windows.
Hopefully this helps either you or someone else in your kind of situation.
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on July 13, 2006 05:44 AMYou mentioned that you're expected to use the following:
1.) office applications,
2.) a Windows-only VPN client, and
3.) Windows-based asset management tools.
I'm guessing that, like most businesses, you're expected to use something that speaks the Microsoft Office proprietary file formats. I'm also guessing that the "Windows-only VPN client" is an IPSec VPN client (most are, these days).
For the first two tasks, if my above assumptions are correct, a GNU/Linux desktop distribution will handle that with great aplomb. We'll start with the VPN issue. I've been using IPSec VPN clients on GNU/Linux for years--one from Cisco, and an open-source one called "vpnc". Both work very well.
As for Microsoft Office file format compatibility, I've been using OpenOffice.org since its pre-1.0 days, and, while version 1.0 was pretty darned good, and version 1.1 was (is) *really* good, version 2.0 is stellar. I work in a "Microsoft shop" and have to deal with MS Office documents of various types all the time. I have had exactly one major issue in four years, and it was with a MS Word document in OpenOffice.org 1.0 (MS Office 2000 couldn't handle it either, BTW, but OpenOffice.org 1.1 and 2.0 could). So, I can say, from four years of experience, that GNU/Linux is, and has been, at least as ready to handle these tasks as MS Windows has.
The one that remains is access to the Windows-based asset management tools. One option is using CrossOver Office, which happens to run MS Internet Exploder, as one example, rather well. If CrossOver Office won't run your asset management tools well, then here's another solution. Stand up a MS Terminal Server and install these asset management tools on it. You and others would then be able to just use TSClient on your GNU/Linux desktop (TSClient, being Free Software, comes with most distributions) to hit the MS Terminal Server and run your asset management tools.
This is exactly how I run MS Internet Exploder with Sun Java 1.4.2, because it's required by one enterprise application that we have that requires both IE and Java...on Windows only. I just "TermServ" into the Windows Terminal Server, do what I've got to do with my app, and log off when I'm finished. Meanwhile, my machines get all the benefits of GNU/Linux (Ubuntu Dapper, in my specific case, with a Slackware laptop) and avoid all of the problems with Windows.
Hopefully this helps either you or someone else in your kind of situation.
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