[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Micro$oft is killing small town budgets- no mention of an alternative?

[Daniel Hauck]

Just a little something for everyone to keep in mind --

When introducing Linux into a company, it's important that either (a) you
have an insider who is willing to migrate things quietly to Linux, or (b)
you contact people that spend the money or are very interested in that
particular bottom-line.  Linux is well suited for such as mail, http or
other internet related services...maybe some file sharing... Making it
replace an NT domain is a big deal and while it's possible, it doesn't go
over that well with the VPs... the first thing they think of is "OMG!  What
if we fire this guy?  Who will be able to handle this?"   If you try to talk
some IT manager into the prospect, they immediately become defensive because
most of them have structured their entire careers around Microsoft OS's.
You'd be asking them to change their lives and to essentially start over
from scratch.

This Florida thing -- they were Unix prior to moving to Linux -- it's not a
good case study.  With a well-written white paper, an IT/IS/MIS department
can create a scenario around their needs using the plans layed out by the
paper's example.  Migration plans, again, are another matter and rather hard
to do when coming from Microsoft.