Weblog entry #2 for mindmerge
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A curiosity I have come across over the last few years with other SysAdmin... they are baffled when I speak of Linux on the corporate desktop. Someone else has to be doing it already!? Why am I running into skilled admin that are afraid to venture forth?
Microsoft really has the minds of IT eh!? Would you like a tube of KY with that!?
Personally I can tell you that with knowledge of your distros toolset, coupled with limiting of options to the users your life can be made much easier and freer (as in time).
A key to sanity is to give your users a limited amount of choices, GNU/Linux can be rather daunting when facing the amount of packages on some default installs. Customize the menu and provide clear and known terms for things and your support issues are a breeze... when and if they come up...
I will get around to fully documenting my past Linux corporate desktop builds... at some point... ;-)
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dpkg --set-selections < packages.liston the machine, then run
dselect installA few minutes later their machine is installed and they have a nice KDE based setup. Other than adding a few packages by hand if the machine's a laptop, there's not a lot to it that's not part of the normal installation process.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
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Nice I prefer KDE as well... and fluxbox ... ok so ... little bits of all!? ;-) So are you carrying around a usb drive for the installations or using cds for disconnected folks?
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...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
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More than once I've been a sysadmin in a "small" company, and had the freedom to install my own choice of desktop operating sytem.
Then the company would get bought out/taken over, and we'd suddenly have to change our systems to match the new owners - and that usually mandated Windows 2000 / XP, with a closed mail system such as Lotus Notes, or Microsoft Exchange.
At that point I can't keep my Debian desktop, and usually move on shortly afterwards.
So .. yeah .. sometimes I've had a Debian desktop, but I seem to have been unlucky and unable to keep it for more than a year or two.
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I know you have to adhere to corporate policy... blah blah blah... sell the productivity. I am (anyone else?) much more productive using my chosen desktop environment. I have an ergonomic keyboard, mouse, chair and 2 LCD flat panels (different sessions) for my corporate "desktop". I add to that ergonomic cocktail my desktop environment I am most comfortable and productive with....
Make it about productivity... management loves that, and it's true!
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We are a Novell shop, though, so maybe at least a Suse rollout is plausible. Ugh, suse...
At least nobody cares if I use a Linux desktop. I think I'd go crazy if I had to stare at explorer.exe all day.
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There are some rather nice open source packages out there that could benefit from some corporate application layout and usability advice...
Just a couple thoughts... ;-)
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