Prakash Advani’s Blog

There are a lot of good reasons for moving to Linux on the desktop, primary amongst them that is is more secure, it doesn’t have the virus problems that Windows has and of course you can save tons of money on licenses.For the IT department, once a Linux system is set up, it is very easy to manage and requires very little maintenance. Many IT administrator have found that they never have to attend to a Linux desktop, or reformat the machine every couple of months, or spend sleepless nights cleaning the viruses and wiping spyware.

But before you make the move, here are a few suggestions on the best practices to be followed before moving to Linux on the desktop.

1. If you are already using Microsoft Office, consider switching to open source applications on Windows first . For example, if people primarily need an Office Suite move to OpenOffice on Windows and then to OpenOffice on Linux. This will make the transition a lot easier when you move to Linux because users have more resistance while moving away from their favourite applications. They are attached to their favour Excel macro, Outlook short-cut or even their favourite game of Solitaire. Fortunately OpenOffice can run their Excel macros and provide a familiar look and feel.

Organisations have already saved a fortune by moving to OpenOffice alone. Ninety percent of users in any organisation need only ten percent of the functionality and OpenOffice today has most of the functionality an average user would use and a lot more. In fact today OpenOffice has many nice features such as export to PDF, native support for OpenDoc Format (ODF) and support for Microsoft file formats. It can also export presentations to Macromedia Flash.

In addition to the office suite, Mozilla Firefox is an excellent browser. It is the fastest growing browser, it is secure and there are lots of extensions with which you can enhance the browser for your requirements. Removing the fees for MS Office in your company and introducing open source applications is a great way to break down resistance in organisations to making the leap to Linux on the desktop.

See below for Some Open Source alternatives to popular applications

Windows Applications	Open Source Alternatives (These run on Both Windows and Linux)
MS Office	OpenOffice.org
Outlook Express	Mozilla Thunderbird
Internet Explorer	Mozilla Firefox
Photoshop	Gimp
MSN/Yahoo Messenger/ICQ Chat Client	Pidgin
Windows Media Player	VLC Media Player

2. If you are investing in new computers for new users or applications. This is good time to start directly with Linux. Particularly fixed function workstations which are only running 1-2 applications such as POS terminals, Data Entry machine, call center PCs, etc. Eliminating paying for a fullWindows license for a fixed function is an easy justifications for moving to a Linux desktop in your business.
3. A low impact way of persuading key people in the organisation to consider Linux is to ‘dual boot’ their windows machine with Linux. This is a very simple process usually and at start-up the user can choose which operating system to use. Very often, there will be some key hold-outs in any company who advocate no change. Increasing their familiarity with Linux, reassuring them that it works on standard machines and that it is compatible with their peripherals will go a long way to making the switch to Linux easier. It also offers them the reassurance of switching back to Windows should the decision not be made to go with Linux
4. Change your IT policy! When buying new applications, computers or peripherals ensure that you buy products that work well with Linux. This protects you in the future. When tomorrow you move to Linux, you aren’t stuck with legacy applications which can’t be ported.
5. And last but not the least. Invest some of the savings that you get from the licenses into training and support. This will ensure that users are more comfortable and they have access to expert support to rely on

My Article in FE.

Oracle’s announcement of providing support on Red Hat Linux is a clear indication that Linux has arrived. Linux, which started out as a hobby among some engineers, is today enterprise-ready and important enough for Oracle to provide support.

Read More.

This first appeared in Express Computer:

Linux in the Enterprise: Total Cost of Ownership

Everybody loves TCO

TCO (total cost of ownership) may be an overused concept, but with Linux on the desktop PRAKASH ADVANI says that the benefits are immediately visible

Total cost of ownership (TCO) has become one of the most politically correct terms in the PC industry’s lexicon. Most companies today claim that their solution has the lowest TCO, but the projected savings accrue over a period of time, so it’s very difficult to feel the benefits
immediately.

In contrast, the TCO benefits of Linux-based solutions are immediately visible. And maintenance costs over a period of time are also lower.

Let’s begin with the reality today. A lot of reports, including the latest MAIT (Manufacturers Association of Information Technology) report, suggest that most of the hardware sold in India is Intel-based commodity hardware. This used to cost Rs 30,000 10 years ago and even today you would end up spending a similar amount to get a decent Pentium 4 PC. The operating system (Windows 98/XP) and office suite (MS Office) are always considered ‘free,’ since people use pirated software. The reality is that the local assembler just installs it and gives it with the PC. If he shows any resistance in offering pirated software, there will always be another assembler willing to fill in.

minimum software that an organisation begins with since word processing and spread sheet are common applications and everyone knows how to use these. There may be other applications such as accounting, CRM, etc, that can be considered while calculating TCO but we’ll stick to the bare minimum here.

In spite of piracy being so rampant and smaller organisations not being too concerned about it, piracy is not an option! For developing countries like India, piracy is not a sustainable model, especially if we wish to project ourselves as a software superpower. The laws in the country are also very strict and unlike other laws where one can dodge—by bribing—getting around piracy is not possible. The only way out is to purchase legal software or go to jail.

What typically happens is that organisations start small with one or more PCs and think it is okay to use pirated software. As more and more business processes get computerised the number of PCs increase and they reach a point where the cost of going legal becomes prohibitive. It’s not just small organisations that succumb to using pirated software but also many large organisations and in these cases, the cost of becoming legal would run into several lakhs or even crores of rupees.

So what’s the cost of going legal? If one had to purchase a Pentium 4 for Rs 30,000, Windows XP for Rs 6,500 and MS Office for Rs 15,000, the cost adds up to Rs 51,500. Microsoft doesn’t sell and support anything less than Windows XP today so we have taken the cost of Windows XP. Secondly it is uneconomical (or the option isn’t even available) to purchase Word or Excel as standalone applications, even if most of your users don’t require the entire office suite. This nearly doubles the cost of computing and computerisation begins looking like an expensive luxury.

Fortunately, Linux has come to our rescue. Linux is finally ready to be used as a desktop. It may not give 100 percent of the functionality of other operating systems but it meets the needs of 90 percent of users. The
benefits of using Linux are plenty. To list a few: Linux desktop applications such as office suites, e-mail, browser and others are finally mature enough to be comparable to their Windows counterparts. The GUIs available for Linux,
KDE and Gnome, have matured considerably and give a Windows-like look and feel. Hardware compatibility has also improved significantly and there are solutions available to run legacy Windows applications as well. Linux also has proven its reliability and stability and is relatively virus-free.

Deploying Linux not only saves on the licensing costs but saves the organisation from typical licensing headaches where software has to be paid on a per user basis or a per PC basis or on the basis of servers deployed. Managing all these licenses and making sure the organisation is compliant has become a task by itself. Using Linux and open source applications frees corporate users from the stress of living under these constant fears.

Linux has a bundle of applications to match its Windows counterparts. Some of them are listed below.

Using Linux as a desktop brings down the cost of software to zero, and thereby reducing the cost per PC to Rs 30,000. Is that good enough?

You can also save more by using a Linux Terminal Server Project- (LTSP) based solution. Here all the applications run from the server and the client can be a Pentium 100 MHz/32 MB diskless client. This works out very cost-effective and in networks of 5-10 PCs, this can help reduce the TCO further by 50 percent.

This solution also offers other benefits as well.

• Centralised management: Since all applications are stored on the server, the admin has to manage only one server. If a backup needs to be taken, just take a backup of the server and all the user data is taken care of. If a new application has to be installed just install it once on the server and everyone can benefit from it.
• Sharing of computer: Since the user profiles are stored on the server, multiple users can log in using the same computer without having the fear of anyone snooping on their data. Each user has his/her own login/password and gets access to only his/her password-protected data directory on the server.
• Low maintenance: Since all data is stored on the server, there is very little maintenance required on the client PC. If a PC fails, it can be replaced immediately and the user can get back to work or alternatively the user could walk up to another PC on the network, login and start working. In terms of hardware, hard disks have a high failure rate. Since the LTSP terminals are diskless it also saves on the hardware maintenance cost.
• Lower TCO over a period of time: This is one of the main benefits of this solution. Since the applications run from the server, the clients never need to be upgraded. This saves on the cost of upgrading the clients, which would otherwise have to be junked within a few years of purchase.

All this sounds very exciting but lets also look at some limitations. Since Linux is relatively uncommon, there may not be too many vendors willing to provide support. Users also have resistance since they have to learn something new. The lack of Windows applications is also a limitation since most applications are written for the Windows platform. There are ways to run Windows applications on Linux but these need the installation of additional software and the purchase of Windows licenses.

The way around it is to co-exist. Have as many Linux machines as possible and the rest can be Windows. This way the organisation can have a taste of Linux and enjoy its TCO benefits.

I have been using Knoppix as my primary Linux distribution since a month now. I think its the best distribution I have used and highly recommended for a newbie since it can be run from a CD as well installed on the hard disk. I also wrote an article on Knoppix installation tips. This covers tips on installing Knoppix on the hard disk.

From My Article on India Times SMB Zone.

Today the hottest topic in IT circles is Linux. There is some speculation and some claims that Linux is not yet ready to be deployed in the enterprise market. But the reality is that it is definitely ready

Linux has been around for more than 10 years now and it is fully developed as an enterprise operating system. The largest number of Internet servers are Linux servers. It is today doing a host of things for corporates. Linux is being used for services such as email, Web, firewall, proxy, gateway, database, applications, broadcast, file server, printing and many more.

Published on Newsforge

Today India is a hot topic for discussion as far as Linux is concerned. Many users around the world want to understand the mindset of Indians regarding Linux. This article attempts to give some insight to the market dynamics here, and how they make Linux a natural fit for India.

Published on LinuxGazette.
This document is written for people who have just installed Linux but don’t know what to do next. Most of the commands discussed here should work on all distribution of Linux but since I use Red Hat 5.0 some of them may be specific to Red Hat 5.0. I have also used Caldera OpenLinux 1.3 and have included some Caldera specific information. If any of you have any suggestions or ideas to improve this document, they are most welcome. All commands are in quotes and you need to type them without the quotes. For example if you see type “ls” then you just need to type ls. You will also have to press the ENTER key after typing each of the commands. There are some useful commands in the document but for complete command reference you will need to refer to additional documents.