Question

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

Roy O'Grady wrote:

>At the risk of getting told to take this question elsewhere....
>
>  
>

Hee hee, read on ;-)

>I am a network manager for a small government. Right now, we are using
>Novell NetWare for our networking needs, but we are getting ready to try
>an open-source solution. The costs of software acquisition and
>maintenance has gotten high, and I am hoping that a migration to
>something open-source will help us stop the money-bleed.
>
>  
>

Might well do it!

>How many of you have migrated from something closed-source and
>proprietary to something like FreeBSD or linux? What problems did you
>run into? How did users react to the change? I guess most importantly,
>was it cost effective?
>
>Thank you in advance for your opinions and time, and if this question
>is inappropriate for this list, please accept my apologies.
>
>
>  
>

Wish I could help you more; I feel this is a great question
for -newbies, or perhaps one of the other lists as well.
As questions@ is most trafficked, I might try that
one---betterchance of starting a lively discussion.
And perhaps chat@, all types read that (but not as
many).

As for your question, I've never tried anything
like this.  It's a dream of mine, though:  some
shop that runs M$ (primary target!) moving to
BSD ...  my random thoughts follow:

Please clarify this:  are you only looking to replace
your network infrastructure with open source OS
machines, or do you have a gazillion Windows(R)
users that you also want to convert to save $$ in
SW costs?

Do *you* personally run BSD or Linux?  Putting
an entire network (government?!) on it would be
like putting you on it, times the number of machines,
times the number of users divided by their collective
IQ's.  BUT there would be plenty of possibilities to make
it easier (build boxes distribute new SW via NFS, etc).
Suffice it to say, however, your office will be getting
a ton of (phone calls, emails, visits) as people try to
come to grips with something "different."  "Why can't
I install ($NAME_MS_PRODUCT)?"  "What will I do
without Messenger?" etc., etc.)  There are alternatives
for almost everything out there, but some retraining
and rethinking will be necessary.  People who get
"comfortable" with something they are apprehensive of
(at first) tend to get pretty apprehensive when you
change the system they worked so hard to get accustomed
to.....

Your freeware OS'es are going to be rather
network-centric, and as "software acquisition" is
via the Internet, a good connection is essential.

A lot of your "tech support" will have to come
from the community --- face it, that's where many
of the consultants you might be tempted to hire
get their information.  And, you might actually
*need* some help from time to time.  So, if there's
a consulting company in your area that has a
good reputation, perhaps they'll be there for
backup.

Your required reading stack may increase, if that is
possible.  Your will have to obtain, or even create a
good bit of documentation as well.

You will be less susceptible to M$ type "attacks"
(adware, virii, etc.) but you will need to be more
vigilant against other potential threats.

You'll need to learn new scripting language(s)
in order to automate system management.  If
you're not into CLI (command line interface), it's
likely you'll want to learn.  Do you have to?  Maybe
not; but it's available already, and works for many
sysadmins...

So much for random thoughts.

As I said, I've not done it ... but I've thought
about it.  I doubt I've said anything you've not
already thought about, but maybe something
here will help.

Good luck!

Kevin Kinsey

P.S.  If it works, contact my local govt.
WinNT sysadmin brother and convert him, too!  :-)