Linux, OMFG help me :)

[Faram]

Okay I work as network manager and a sort of problem solver for a midsized company ~300 enployees.

www.erikolsson.se if you are intrested.

As an experiment we will try to convert as many users as possible to Linux.

No new hardware will be bought for this, we will only use existing platforms, that is IBM Thinkpad X41.

I have installed Ubuntu on a trial basis and like it.

So a complete Linux newbie, I hav 6m to get the basics, 12m to hopefully roll out linux to atleast 100 users and save some cash on licensing.

Any hot tips for me?

As a bonus try and find my picture on the web

[Bounty]

How many employees have Linux already? Did you just install it on one test machine?

[Decue]

As I never used Linux I only go for the bonus

Computer God

[Faram]

How many employees have Linux already? Did you just install it on one test machine?

Three test machines 0 users, project mayham starts today

[Faram]

As I never used Linux I only go for the bonus

Computer God

Damn u, found my picture fster than I got to change it

Updated the image on da web and in the quote box

[R. U. Serious]

Any hot tips for me?

Not sure what ou are asking for. Do you want advise on how to strategically go best about doing your job? (That would all be non-linux specific advice, like setting up a time table, gathering use-cases, developing test-cases, planning user-feedback, planning support, planning backup strategies etc.)

Or do you want advise on how to quickly learn Linux? I am afraid there is really no shortcut, and a lot of it depends on what you already know. It will also depend on what your users needs are. If they are mostly web+mail users, you'll want to focus on compatibility with existing mail-infrastructure and certain kinds of applications.
If you use custom software or custom hardware, or you need specific, very new versions of the kernel or certain software, you'll want to get familiar with how to bake a kernel the debian-way, how to deal with dependecy issues etc. It's really a very wide area, and given that you have 6-12m (which I am guessing is not solely dedicated to that task) you really don't want to waste time learning stuff that you're hardly going to need.

One thing that certainly makes sense to learn about is dpkg and apt and all the relating tools. It's quite likely that you will want to build and roll out your own packages for certain stuff, it will help tremendously with the maintenance of the machines (with 100 machines you want to automate as much as possible), you'll also be learning a scripting language - pick one and stick with it...

[Faram]

Any hot tips for me?

Not sure what ou are asking for. Do you want advise on how to strategically go best about doing your job? (That would all be non-linux specific advice, like setting up a time table, gathering use-cases, developing test-cases, planning user-feedback, planning support, planning backup strategies etc.)

Or do you want advise on how to quickly learn Linux? I am afraid there is really no shortcut, and a lot of it depends on what you already know. It will also depend on what your users needs are. If they are mostly web+mail users, you'll want to focus on compatibility with existing mail-infrastructure and certain kinds of applications.
If you use custom software or custom hardware, or you need specific, very new versions of the kernel or certain software, you'll want to get familiar with how to bake a kernel the debian-way, how to deal with dependecy issues etc. It's really a very wide area, and given that you have 6-12m (which I am guessing is not solely dedicated to that task) you really don't want to waste time learning stuff that you're hardly going to need.

One thing that certainly makes sense to learn about is dpkg and apt and all the relating tools. It's quite likely that you will want to build and roll out your own packages for certain stuff, it will help tremendously with the maintenance of the machines (with 100 machines you want to automate as much as possible), you'll also be learning a scripting language - pick one and stick with it...

My knowledge of linux/unix is sorly lacking.

But I got a 3g card to work under ubuntu, thank you google

Our mail is standard exchange, webmail throu firefox works. But a free mailclient that can talk IMAP4 would be nice.

Our main application is webbased, Works best with IE7 but a rewrite is underway.

Also is it possible to get a linux client to understand Active Directory for the user management?

EDIT
Is there any CISCO VPN client for linux?

[atg]

Our mail is standard exchange, webmail throu firefox works. But a free mailclient that can talk IMAP4 would be nice.

Thunderbird should suit for what you need.

Our main application is webbased, Works best with IE7 but a rewrite is underway.

Firefox should work.

Also is it possible to get a linux client to understand Active Directory for the user management?

I think that Samba does what you're looking for. I have to confess, though, that I've only ever used samba as a domain server, not in a client role.

Hope that helps some.

[RThurmont]

Ah the ThinkPad X41. I have the tablet version. You clearly have good taste. However, I haven't tried Linux on it yet (except for PC-BSD [technically not Linux] in VMWare, which works fine, btw, but I doubt that would hold up with a bare metal install). Ubuntu is probably the ideal choice for laptops however, ATM, due to its fantastic hardware support. Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop has some support for ThinkPad features, as well (I installed these with it even though I don't run it on a ThinkPad, as I use it with a ThinkPad-style keyboard).

BTW, Faram wrote, regarding Linux, and my suggestion he learn about it:

No time and no intrest, windows works good enough for me needs.

So, here's your opportunity, at last!

[Faram]

No time and no intrest, windows works good enough for me needs.

So, here's your opportunity, at last!

True but now I get paid to learn

[RThurmont]

Nice bit of upside there.

[R. U. Serious]

Is there any CISCO VPN client for linux?

Yes, it's called vpnc and is in the ubuntu repositories, it's a command-line client you can script it to automatically connect when a certain network interface comes up.

There is also a plugin for network-manager that controls vpnc, however it doesn't work in edgy or older, you would have to manually install a newer version. Or take a look at Feisty which may already include an updated version that supports that plugin.

[Faram]

Is there any CISCO VPN client for linux?

Yes, it's called vpnc and is in the ubuntu repositories, it's a command-line client you can script it to automatically connect when a certain network interface comes up.

There is also a plugin for network-manager that controls vpnc, however it doesn't work in edgy or older, you would have to manually install a newer version. Or take a look at Feisty which may already include an updated version that supports that plugin.

Not for I386

The search goes on.

[General Zod]

I think that Samba does what you're looking for. I have to confess, though, that I've only ever used samba as a domain server, not in a client role.

Hope that helps some.

The company I work for uses Samba for their file server on a linux platform, which holds well over a hundred gigs worth of data. It's proven fairly reliable so far, though I don't know specifics about its implementation. I just handle QA.

[phongn]

Are you sure you can't get it for i386 or i686?

The Evolution email client will work with Exchange if you use the Evolution Connector plugin.

Ubuntu will authenticate against AD using Samba, but it does take some work.

Also, I daresay that this isn't the best forum for this (may check out ArsTechnica)?

[Xon]

So a complete Linux newbie, I hav 6m to get the basics, 12m to hopefully roll out linux to atleast 100 users and save some cash on licensing.

Trying to get Microsoft to discount licences because you mention the "Linux" word?

A fast transition like this is not going to be smooth or cheap for training costs and lost productivity.

[R. U. Serious]

vpnc

Not for I386

The search goes on.

Of course vpnc runs on i386 - it's a user-space program. I've been using it on a Pentium M for about a year.

[RThurmont]

A fast transition like this is not going to be smooth or cheap for training costs and lost productivity.

I don't know about that. Linux, IMO, provides an experience virtually identitcal to that of Windows in terms of basic internet, e-mail and productivity applications. Linux is more like Windows than the Mac OS X, in fact, yet users seem to be able to transition to it quite easily.

The only real risk of loss productivity would be for users trained to use special applications that are not availible for Linux (such as Adobe CS2), where they would need to be retrained to use the (often inferior) open source equivalents. However, the solution to that is to use a heterogenous network, with Windows or Mac clients for people who really need them for running certain applications.