So why not put Linux on your business desktops?

• Tags:
• Exchange,
• KDE,
• GNOME,
• Linux

Peter Judge ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 28 Nov 2005 15:45 GMT

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...sensible workarounds for Linux, but I have yet to discover them (feel free to enlighten me in the Taklback at the bottom of the page).

• I use Skype, and though this is — of course — available for Linux. It's included in Mandriva Linux, and easy to download and install on the others. However, I also use the Skype toolbar for Outlook, that lets me dial direct from contacts and messages. As far as I know, there is no Skype toolbar for Evolution.
• I synch my appointments with my SonyEricsson phone over Bluetooth, using SonyEricsson's own software. It works well with Outlook and is only available for the PC.
• Other IP phone services, like Voipbuster, tend to come with a PC-only client.
• I also use the excellent LookOut indexer for Outlook, which finds messages and appointments quickly in a huge .pst file. Perhaps Evolution is just better-organised and doesn't need an add-on like this; we'll possibly discover this after more long-term use.
• Google Desktop, and its Sidebar are only for Windows. GNOME may be coming up quickly with the Beagle project.
• Remote storage. I've got a Netgear Storage Central box, for back-up and sharing drives. It only comes with Windows software. Likewise, the software I use to synchronise files with it (SmartSync) is Windows-only.

In bigger organisations, there may be plenty of other Windows-based programs in use. Local government, for instance, uses specialised software for housing inspections, rates and a host of other tasks.

Les Timms says he is trying to encourage software developers in his field to provide Linux versions of client applications as well as the server end, but in the meantime, there are other ways to run Windows applications.

"We've certainly done trial work, and had no difficulty running apps in Wine," says Timms. The Wine Windows emulator provides a Windows API on an x86 machine running a POSIX-compliant operating system.

Another possibility is to run applications on servers using something like Citrix, and connect to that through a terminal window.

Running Windows applications was beyond the scope of this project, but should be covered in any scheme to move a company's desktops away from Windows. Even if you don't require any Windows-only applications now, that may change in future.

Conclusion
Linux desktops are ready to step into the shoes of Windows, but IT managers have to make a decision for it to happen. Linux may be free, but Windows is already there when you buy the PC.

There is extra work involved in getting a Linux desktop up and shutting Windows down, but increasingly, it looks like the main factor keeping us in a Microsoft world is inertia.

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