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Alternatives? To what? If an organization is using Exchange-Outlook, what replaces all the functions of Exchange without breaking existing Outlook clients or Microsoft server products? Are these desktops Active Directory integrated? How does an all-Microsoft shop MIGRATE _gracefully_ to a mixed or Linux-only environment?

Powerpoint, MS Project? Excel? All mail and public/shared folder content?

This, by the way, is a serious question, not one from a naysayer.

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phubert:

Yes ... these machines can connect to ADS shares and use files on them. With the latest version of Evolution, you can also connect to a Microsoft Exchange server for e-mail (there is an Exchange Connector built in).

While I would personally recommend RHEL, not Mandriva, for a paid Enterprise Client (or CentOS for a free version of that, not WBEL), It is certainly doable.

WRT excel, powerpoint, word, etc. OpenOffice.org is OK for simple items ... and OK for reading even most complex items. It is not really good for editing and sharing those items. HOWEVER, running VMWARE on a fairly nice Linux workstation and installing XP inside that can allow you to use Office via that VM (or websites that "Require" IE) while using your Linux Desktop for the majority of your work.

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I have been a Linux fan for many years, but I am still yet to see a distribution which would suite the entire purpose of an enterprise. Given any size of the organisation, distribution makers should consider the most important if not all aspects as to what makes up an enterprise distribution. RHEL or SuSE is not whole when it comes to providing a wholesome enterprise experience. If Mandriva claims that they have made an Enterprise edition of their software, then they should have addressed at least some of these common issues I feel on a regular basis while being a corporate user.
1. VPN support: Not the wimpy freeswan or drakevpn, but a commercial VPN Client from Nortel Networks ( apani)
2. Good integration of Evolution with MS Exchange
3. Native Lotus Notes/Samtime client install
4. Good support for asp/aspx webpages.
5. Good plugins support for all kinds of applications ( may it be Java or Adobe or flash/divx/WMV, etc)
6. Good support with other enterprise clients like webex or similar conferencing tools ( Even though Webex works on Java, I have yet to see it work on my linux box (RHEL / SuSE / Mandriva Spring / Xandros )
7. Cross Over Office or similar tools for people who need the advanced features of MS Office or MS only products. (Not all people within an organisation can be content with OpenOffice (I am ), so there should be a way/method to help them install MS Windows only clients or applications to work without hinderence.)
8. Updates to clients should be seamless from a single/multiple source within the organisation or at least be manageable.

When a distribution or company deals with all these issues and have a solution, only then there will be a true enterprise edition, until then they are not worth that title and are to be considered "Desktop Alternatives" and not replacements.

-GGR

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Much of what you ask for already exists, but there is nothing missing that would prohibit an enterprise from deploying linux for a large (majority) portion of their userbase.

As an IT professional with nearly 20 years in the field, and linux user since the 0.99 kernel days, I have been able to use Linux in a corporate / enterprise environment for over 10 years. The key is to make sure you don't use technology that locks you into a single vendor wherever possible. There are people in the IT world that don't understand the basic reasons behind this and commit to using products that lock them in to a single vendor solution for everything. Not smart. Does this mean that Linux isn't ready for the enterprise? No. It means that some Enterprise businesses aren't ready for Linux. Gotta stop smoking the Microsoft crack pipe.

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Yes I know that what I ask is there and working for quite some time. I have been on linux deskop the same time as you have. Dont get me wrong, my desktops at home or office runs only Linux and have been able to do almost all the things i point out on them, but what I am getting at is that there is one vendor who has all the peices of the puzzle working.
Example: If I go with RHEL desktop, VPN, Lotus Notes and Evolution support is good, but I have to give up on Multimedia and Samba. Yes I know I can setup samba in 10 minutes, but my point being if it is a Enterprise class product, it has to work with as less tweaking as possible. Xandros has got this idea right.
The issue with Xandros is that as a desktop it is very good, but when it comes to running VPN from Apani or Nortel, or Lotus Notes from IBM (not the Wine, but Lotus Notes 7/8 Beta) it fails very badly. Its the same issue with Mandriva 2007.1

Yes Organisations end up being 1 or 2 vendor locked in as the big vendors make different deals, which are tranparent to us seeing from the outside. If you consider a huge organisation 2000+ employees, having Linux serves very well, but consider a 10000+ employees, things start to get a little out of hand to manage. I have seen 3 organisations with 100,000+ employees go with 1 product because it gave them a better solution, than use open standards.

If I had my way, I would defenitely go with open standards, but I am no CEO or CIO of any company, so until then, I have to accept the ideas and intentions of them.

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