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…
The important part in business is to not alienate that one power user who does insane Excel magic and singlehandedly keeps the entire company afloat. There’s always one or two of them in any company over a given size
The web version of MS Office is similar enough that for 95% of users it’s no different, but for the other 5% they rely on functionality that hasn’t been ported yet
That said I do think more corporations should be considering Linux as an option for some of their systems. Too many admins insist on installing Windows on everything, refuse to learn Linux and then in the next breath bitch and moan about Microsoft making their lives miserable
As a European IT admin:
Everyone in HR, finance, sales, management can all be moved to Linux. They all use webinterfaces for all of their work.
Software development, no windows specific software.
Even marketing / image creation… More and more software is ready or available for Linux.
Ignoring this very real option for most of your people is indeed silly these days.
Hell it might be worth having a central windows VM that people can rdp into for that one old windows app.
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
They use the web versions of Microsoft Office?
The important part in business is to not alienate that one power user who does insane Excel magic and singlehandedly keeps the entire company afloat. There’s always one or two of them in any company over a given size
The web version of MS Office is similar enough that for 95% of users it’s no different, but for the other 5% they rely on functionality that hasn’t been ported yet
That said I do think more corporations should be considering Linux as an option for some of their systems. Too many admins insist on installing Windows on everything, refuse to learn Linux and then in the next breath bitch and moan about Microsoft making their lives miserable
Often laptops are so underpowered, and office is so bloated now, its better.
I’m getting the idea people are still using ms office? At least use the online version?
From exact to online sap, nextcloud and email clients, it’s all very much web interface based. So buttons are not moving for these users at all.