How to Stop Using Windows in your Business - Chris Titus Tech
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Date: 2022-03-20
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Comments and reviews: 10
AlucardNoir
From personal experience, the real problem is proprietary and governmental software made exclusively for Windows. You can have a server running Linux or Oracle, but the cubicle computers can still end up being windows because the software needed to run on them is made only for windows and teaching people how to run that software in Linux, under wine, takes the kind of time and money most small and medium business don't have.
Linux is free and runs a lot nicer on decades old computers but that's not the problem the problem is software made to run MRI or telescopes or some other piece of tech that was made to run on a certain version of windows and which has run on that version for the past decade or more. The problem is with a government contract made for one or two decades designed to make software for windows - because 95% or people were using Windows at the time. The problem is with corporations that still run Win7, XP and in some cases I've even seen MS-DOS because that's the software they had when the bought the PC and if it work's don't brake it.
Windows 10 came out almost 4 years ago, most businesses I've seen still run 7 and some XP... and I've seen machines with MS-DOS. Some of those machines are connected to the internet and some of those are used for internet banking...
You, me and a bunch of other people can toot the horn for Linux all we want but we will only change the way things work when you can convince the governments of the world to switch to linux and foss alternatives. I live in a country were if a file is requested by either the government or a private business it's requested in a proprietary formal owned by either Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk or the like. I like in a country were all governmental software contracts that weren't for websites and server required only windows compatibility, in same cases all the way to windows 95.
I know part of the US government is in the process of moving to open source alternatives, but here in the EU things are a lot grimmer. On paper the EU tried the same, there has been barely any real movement towards that goal though. Most software made for governmental use is MS specific and most businesses need to run Windows for that. Then come other software companies that make software that runs mostly on windows like accounting firms and the like, software businesses usually use and which also pigeonholes them on windows. Every country has it's own business exclusive software that's directly bound to that countries laws, software that can't be internationalized and as such can only be made foss by that countries own citizens. Even large foss projects like libreoffice take time to develop and are short on staff, and they're international. for smaller countries it's extremely unlikely that there will ever be foss accounting software or the like. Unless the governments of the world start to willingly move towards linux and foss it's unlikely M$ will lose their grasp on the office market for at least another two decades... especially if they're not above paying a bribe or two to the right politician at the right time.
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From personal experience, the real problem is proprietary and governmental software made exclusively for Windows. You can have a server running Linux or Oracle, but the cubicle computers can still end up being windows because the software needed to run on them is made only for windows and teaching people how to run that software in Linux, under wine, takes the kind of time and money most small and medium business don't have.
Linux is free and runs a lot nicer on decades old computers but that's not the problem the problem is software made to run MRI or telescopes or some other piece of tech that was made to run on a certain version of windows and which has run on that version for the past decade or more. The problem is with a government contract made for one or two decades designed to make software for windows - because 95% or people were using Windows at the time. The problem is with corporations that still run Win7, XP and in some cases I've even seen MS-DOS because that's the software they had when the bought the PC and if it work's don't brake it.
Windows 10 came out almost 4 years ago, most businesses I've seen still run 7 and some XP... and I've seen machines with MS-DOS. Some of those machines are connected to the internet and some of those are used for internet banking...
You, me and a bunch of other people can toot the horn for Linux all we want but we will only change the way things work when you can convince the governments of the world to switch to linux and foss alternatives. I live in a country were if a file is requested by either the government or a private business it's requested in a proprietary formal owned by either Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk or the like. I like in a country were all governmental software contracts that weren't for websites and server required only windows compatibility, in same cases all the way to windows 95.
I know part of the US government is in the process of moving to open source alternatives, but here in the EU things are a lot grimmer. On paper the EU tried the same, there has been barely any real movement towards that goal though. Most software made for governmental use is MS specific and most businesses need to run Windows for that. Then come other software companies that make software that runs mostly on windows like accounting firms and the like, software businesses usually use and which also pigeonholes them on windows. Every country has it's own business exclusive software that's directly bound to that countries laws, software that can't be internationalized and as such can only be made foss by that countries own citizens. Even large foss projects like libreoffice take time to develop and are short on staff, and they're international. for smaller countries it's extremely unlikely that there will ever be foss accounting software or the like. Unless the governments of the world start to willingly move towards linux and foss it's unlikely M$ will lose their grasp on the office market for at least another two decades... especially if they're not above paying a bribe or two to the right politician at the right time.
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Niels
A few discutable points:
For a file server basically anything supporting CIFS will do (whether it's FreeNAS / BSD or Linux), as long as you just use RAID-1 or RAID-10 for static File Storage. RAID-5 and RAID-6 are just too tricky these days with huge HDD's.
Most major vendor hardware RAID implementations (IBM / Lenovo / Dell / Futjitsu; only HPE uses SmartArray?) are LSI based. Replacing them with the same or a newer LSI based controller, usually allows the RAID array to be picked up flawlessly. I've already done this trick a few times to save a RAID array.
The turning point for a on-premise Microsoft Exchange Server based on 5 years is roughly 60 - 75 users (though you'd still miss out on a few cloud advantages). On linux there are third party solutions, from which I've seen a few in the field (which do not have the full feature set unfortunately)
If you can't find a Linux printer driver for a specific printer, you can actually download the Microsoft Windows PostScript driver. It can actually include a PPD file, that will work just fine with Linux sometimes.
For Active Directory Samba works just fine for the SMB and quite good for larger companies too with Samba 4.11
Evolution is a good replacement for Microsoft Outlook (one of the unfortunate reasons that I'm using Gnome, because KMail is a mess with Microsoft Exchange and Evolution doesn't work completely on KDE)
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A few discutable points:
For a file server basically anything supporting CIFS will do (whether it's FreeNAS / BSD or Linux), as long as you just use RAID-1 or RAID-10 for static File Storage. RAID-5 and RAID-6 are just too tricky these days with huge HDD's.
Most major vendor hardware RAID implementations (IBM / Lenovo / Dell / Futjitsu; only HPE uses SmartArray?) are LSI based. Replacing them with the same or a newer LSI based controller, usually allows the RAID array to be picked up flawlessly. I've already done this trick a few times to save a RAID array.
The turning point for a on-premise Microsoft Exchange Server based on 5 years is roughly 60 - 75 users (though you'd still miss out on a few cloud advantages). On linux there are third party solutions, from which I've seen a few in the field (which do not have the full feature set unfortunately)
If you can't find a Linux printer driver for a specific printer, you can actually download the Microsoft Windows PostScript driver. It can actually include a PPD file, that will work just fine with Linux sometimes.
For Active Directory Samba works just fine for the SMB and quite good for larger companies too with Samba 4.11
Evolution is a good replacement for Microsoft Outlook (one of the unfortunate reasons that I'm using Gnome, because KMail is a mess with Microsoft Exchange and Evolution doesn't work completely on KDE)
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HewFreBie
Want an alternative or a replacement for the familiarity of Microsoft Office? No problem their is a feature from LibreOffice called notebookbar ribbon UI to have a familiarity but it's not by default which is still an experimental stage which needs time but still it keeps changing. No? you don't want that no problem, their another application called WPS which only has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application only but it has Ads I'm afraid. No again? Not to worry you're luck hasn't ran out just yet their another software which has the same familiarity as Microsoft Office which is called OnlyOffice the name is real, I'm not making it up and it's open source nonetheless but it only has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation which is the only disadvantage.
So you only have three alternatives or replacements:
1) LibreOffice
2) OnlyOffice
3) WPS Office
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Want an alternative or a replacement for the familiarity of Microsoft Office? No problem their is a feature from LibreOffice called notebookbar ribbon UI to have a familiarity but it's not by default which is still an experimental stage which needs time but still it keeps changing. No? you don't want that no problem, their another application called WPS which only has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation application only but it has Ads I'm afraid. No again? Not to worry you're luck hasn't ran out just yet their another software which has the same familiarity as Microsoft Office which is called OnlyOffice the name is real, I'm not making it up and it's open source nonetheless but it only has a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation which is the only disadvantage.
So you only have three alternatives or replacements:
1) LibreOffice
2) OnlyOffice
3) WPS Office
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Pierre
I'm surprised you didn't mention containers like Docker or container.d, Swarm can be installed and configured in minutes on VM or bare metal. With UI like Portainer it becomes very easy for SMB to manage their in-house cloud. For SMB it can be a quantum leap having access to so many open source projects for their business in literally minutes with lots of online documentation. Larger SMB can look at options like Rancher with or without RancherOS for an easy intro into the Kubernetes world...
Oh and for those new to containers, you might want to watch some tutorials on storage and backups of your in-house cloud. Also make sure any YAML scripts are on a private Git repo somewhere, passwords and keys backed up to an encrypted secure area.
Keep up the good work
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I'm surprised you didn't mention containers like Docker or container.d, Swarm can be installed and configured in minutes on VM or bare metal. With UI like Portainer it becomes very easy for SMB to manage their in-house cloud. For SMB it can be a quantum leap having access to so many open source projects for their business in literally minutes with lots of online documentation. Larger SMB can look at options like Rancher with or without RancherOS for an easy intro into the Kubernetes world...
Oh and for those new to containers, you might want to watch some tutorials on storage and backups of your in-house cloud. Also make sure any YAML scripts are on a private Git repo somewhere, passwords and keys backed up to an encrypted secure area.
Keep up the good work
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Jon
Many years ago, we had SLED10 (-SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop-) at work. Never any problems (no, wait, sometimes a colleague could not open a PDF - oh, the horror! /END sarcasm).
Then we all got Windows 7, and AFTER that Windows 10.
I am the -local power user-, aka LPU, and I cannot say how MANY TIMES I have to go help out a colleague who has some issue, and how often I have had to call the IT Department since we switched from Linux to Microsoft Windows.
We work with -roaming profiles- in Windows 10 at work. Late last years I lost dozens of files (and I am not the only one), because of that shitty Windows sychronization crap (Backups! Backups! Backups!).
I -hate- Windows 10. F-ck you, Microsoft.
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Many years ago, we had SLED10 (-SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop-) at work. Never any problems (no, wait, sometimes a colleague could not open a PDF - oh, the horror! /END sarcasm).
Then we all got Windows 7, and AFTER that Windows 10.
I am the -local power user-, aka LPU, and I cannot say how MANY TIMES I have to go help out a colleague who has some issue, and how often I have had to call the IT Department since we switched from Linux to Microsoft Windows.
We work with -roaming profiles- in Windows 10 at work. Late last years I lost dozens of files (and I am not the only one), because of that shitty Windows sychronization crap (Backups! Backups! Backups!).
I -hate- Windows 10. F-ck you, Microsoft.
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MegaManNeo
I suppose I am in the lucky position here as I am the first person in the company I am working for who is exclusively using Linux on both desktop and laptop at my workspace.
Better yet, my boss and our IT department supports me with that!
Really, I don't hate Windows but as Linux fits my personal preference and workflow better - also for our projects - I much rather run a Kubuntu desktop and Ubuntu MATE laptop more than anything else.
Configured our HP OfficeJet Pro to work with both my machines today, it was a struggle but eventually it did fine.
Now I am happy! :D
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I suppose I am in the lucky position here as I am the first person in the company I am working for who is exclusively using Linux on both desktop and laptop at my workspace.
Better yet, my boss and our IT department supports me with that!
Really, I don't hate Windows but as Linux fits my personal preference and workflow better - also for our projects - I much rather run a Kubuntu desktop and Ubuntu MATE laptop more than anything else.
Configured our HP OfficeJet Pro to work with both my machines today, it was a struggle but eventually it did fine.
Now I am happy! :D
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Croft
Not realistic to get rid of Windows or AD for most businesses. We're using Linux boxes, and XigmaNAS for storing files on SMB just so I can roll back a snapshot for up to 7 days if something happens, like ransomware somehow getting through. But replacing AD, Exchange, Outlook, Office, or VDI or RDSH is just not happening anytime soon. Office 365 is fine, but realistically people will have to pay for an enterprise level account, and now we're talking about $20+ per user and month. It starts adding up real fast.
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Not realistic to get rid of Windows or AD for most businesses. We're using Linux boxes, and XigmaNAS for storing files on SMB just so I can roll back a snapshot for up to 7 days if something happens, like ransomware somehow getting through. But replacing AD, Exchange, Outlook, Office, or VDI or RDSH is just not happening anytime soon. Office 365 is fine, but realistically people will have to pay for an enterprise level account, and now we're talking about $20+ per user and month. It starts adding up real fast.
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badger
The wife and I have moved to Spain to help the mother in law to run her English Language classes for Spanish Civil Servants wanting to pass their exams.
I have built her an AMD system using the Athlon 200ge apu, gt710 gpu.
4 fans (very quiet) 40+ degrees in the Summer.
120 gb ssd
3 x 2tb ext4 backup drives running Mint 18.3
LibreOffice 6 with ms fonts installed, using Ariel as the default font and the default save as .docx.
Works great.
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The wife and I have moved to Spain to help the mother in law to run her English Language classes for Spanish Civil Servants wanting to pass their exams.
I have built her an AMD system using the Athlon 200ge apu, gt710 gpu.
4 fans (very quiet) 40+ degrees in the Summer.
120 gb ssd
3 x 2tb ext4 backup drives running Mint 18.3
LibreOffice 6 with ms fonts installed, using Ariel as the default font and the default save as .docx.
Works great.
reply
Patrick
-How to Stop Using Windows in your Business- ... you can'T?
that kinda sucks
as far as setting up some situation where you have to -trust- and of these big corporate solutions, no
next thing you know they are scanning your files for -offensive content-
google's original motto was -don't be evil- how's that working these days
(OK I fixed it, still the same comment)
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-How to Stop Using Windows in your Business- ... you can'T?
that kinda sucks
as far as setting up some situation where you have to -trust- and of these big corporate solutions, no
next thing you know they are scanning your files for -offensive content-
google's original motto was -don't be evil- how's that working these days
(OK I fixed it, still the same comment)
reply
Box0Doughnuts
For Active Directory have you tried Univention Corporate Server?
Also I have got to say much of your content and opinions have mirrored my own experience over the last few years after my disappointment and frustration with Windows/Microsoft became unbearable and decided to go full Linux.
Keep up the great content!
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For Active Directory have you tried Univention Corporate Server?
Also I have got to say much of your content and opinions have mirrored my own experience over the last few years after my disappointment and frustration with Windows/Microsoft became unbearable and decided to go full Linux.
Keep up the great content!
reply
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