Fun for you, but certainly not possible for your average company.
HR, finance, sales, management only webinterface they use is Sharepoint. All the rest is done on proprietary software and Excel.
Software development have been creating Access programs because they need to work with some old IBM server. We’d not only have to replace that hardware, we would also have to replace the experts and hire ones with knowledge about the new languages to be used, and convert everything on the servers of course…
Marketing is maybe the easiest, but they will need to get used to new software.
And all of the users will need to follow training to use Linux.
Users complain when a button moves a centimeter, they will definitely complain when their entire OS changes.
So no, it is easier to rebuild an entire company than it is to switch the environment.
From my MSP and corporate experience it definitely depends on the organization for how viable migrating some users to Linux might be.
I’ve seen some organizations that could be migrated tomorrow if the political will was there, and I’ve seen some organizations where all but 5 of the computer users are running CAD software and interfacing with architectural plotters.
Realistically it all relies on the political will to try something new. With the digital sovereignty push in Europe there’s suddenly a ton of political will to try something new and not just buy whatever Microsoft is selling like many orgs have done for the last nearly 3 decades. It’s also convenient that Microsoft is trying to say tons of perfectly capable machines are ewaste so there’s significant cost savings available to these orgs by switching if they have enough older machines in use still
Something tells me that if a city can do it in 2004, so could a company with all the improvements in 2025. And as with the city, the biggest issue will be the management being idiots (corruption) and/or underfunding the IT.
If a company has to treat their employees like delicate flowers who can’t deal with a slightly different interface it’s not the issue with software, but the companies’ training program / policies and unwillingness to invest in them. And it’s not like investments in FOSS IT and your employees wouldn’t pay off, all those proprietary licenses are expensive as hell. See link, the city saved money despite even having to develop whole new tools, acquire licenses and whatnot. Lots of small stuff not necessary today anymore.
Not saying it wouldn’t be a complicated endeavour, but certainly not impossible and definitely one that pays off.
I see, so quite an old company then. (Access, IBM server and sharepoint, etc) Not something a newer company would be using.
I can see you would be stuck with that older tech debt. And finding people for that old stuff is harder then finding people that want to use the new stuff.
Teaching people to use Linux? I mean, not much difference between windows and KDE anymore? Just need to know how to log in, and start their software?
In the end, if your company is not able to move and change to a new world / user demands…
Fun for you, but certainly not possible for your average company.
HR, finance, sales, management only webinterface they use is Sharepoint. All the rest is done on proprietary software and Excel.
Software development have been creating Access programs because they need to work with some old IBM server. We’d not only have to replace that hardware, we would also have to replace the experts and hire ones with knowledge about the new languages to be used, and convert everything on the servers of course…
Marketing is maybe the easiest, but they will need to get used to new software.
And all of the users will need to follow training to use Linux.
Users complain when a button moves a centimeter, they will definitely complain when their entire OS changes.
So no, it is easier to rebuild an entire company than it is to switch the environment.
From my MSP and corporate experience it definitely depends on the organization for how viable migrating some users to Linux might be.
I’ve seen some organizations that could be migrated tomorrow if the political will was there, and I’ve seen some organizations where all but 5 of the computer users are running CAD software and interfacing with architectural plotters.
Realistically it all relies on the political will to try something new. With the digital sovereignty push in Europe there’s suddenly a ton of political will to try something new and not just buy whatever Microsoft is selling like many orgs have done for the last nearly 3 decades. It’s also convenient that Microsoft is trying to say tons of perfectly capable machines are ewaste so there’s significant cost savings available to these orgs by switching if they have enough older machines in use still
Something tells me that if a city can do it in 2004, so could a company with all the improvements in 2025. And as with the city, the biggest issue will be the management being idiots (corruption) and/or underfunding the IT.
If a company has to treat their employees like delicate flowers who can’t deal with a slightly different interface it’s not the issue with software, but the companies’ training program / policies and unwillingness to invest in them. And it’s not like investments in FOSS IT and your employees wouldn’t pay off, all those proprietary licenses are expensive as hell. See link, the city saved money despite even having to develop whole new tools, acquire licenses and whatnot. Lots of small stuff not necessary today anymore.
Not saying it wouldn’t be a complicated endeavour, but certainly not impossible and definitely one that pays off.
I see, so quite an old company then. (Access, IBM server and sharepoint, etc) Not something a newer company would be using.
I can see you would be stuck with that older tech debt. And finding people for that old stuff is harder then finding people that want to use the new stuff.
Teaching people to use Linux? I mean, not much difference between windows and KDE anymore? Just need to know how to log in, and start their software?
In the end, if your company is not able to move and change to a new world / user demands…
Oh you sweet sweet summer child