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Subject:Re: Why should I be worried about the merger? NOT From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 22 Apr 2005 15:40:58 -0500
"Microsoft proprietary technologies"?
Nearly everything that isn't duplicated or surpassed elsewhere is
avoided for very good reasons. VBA Script and Direct X spring to mind.
I am not advocating that enterprise customers with huge investments
rip them out. Instead, I believe a careful analysis of the current
technology market would say that pieces may be subject to replacement
as they become a problem.
The "low hanging fruit" is largely in the back office: file servers,
mail servers, storage, web servers, etc.
Next, I would look at the routine users, including those who do simple
tasks such as handling email, general word processing, etc. For these,
I would strongly consider a transition to OpenOffice.org rather than
an "upgrade" to the newest Microsoft Office. From there, I would
seriously explore moving to network appliances as PCs need to be
replaced. A much improved security environment where network
administrators can support hundreds of users each would yield
considerable savings in nearly every case.
For the "power users" things may be somewhat different. In some cases,
elaborate, customized Excel spreadsheets alone may mean that
continuing with Windows for these users makes sense.
(Of course, there are some companies that have extensive custom line
of business applications that are totally Microsoft-centric. For them,
the calculation on any potential movement must take this into account)
In the real world, IT support for Linux is much simpler than for a
Windows network. Each admin can support many more machines, and
network downtime is reduced substantially.
Finally, the scenario even for those who have elaborate custom
applications is changing. As you know, Microsoft is pushing the .Net
technology. In the FOSS world, the Mono project enables cross-platform
web services compatible with .Net. There are other web services
technologies out there as well that merit examination before moving
blindly to .Net. Thus, as propretary applications evolve, the question
is whether lockin to a single vendor makes sense.
David
On 4/22/05, Mike O. <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Bill Swallow wrote:
> > Right. I'll go to my CTO right now and tell him that
> > we need to flush our $XX million investment in Microsoft
> > technology down the toilet immediately and spend the next
> > year installing Linux on every machine in the joint and look
> > for Open Source alternatives to all our applications. ;-)
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