Converting a MS company to Linux

[Derek Neighbors]

Scott Henderson said:
> I undertand that folks might want to follow some of my trek in
> moving a medium-sized corporation from the land of MS into Open
> Source, and I'm happy to share it all, but I still don't think
> this list is the best place.  For one thing, the long-term
> usefulness of this information would be reduced by having it
> archived in a list, interspersed with all the rest of the topics.

I think there are many aspects of value.  Possibly the single biggest
value for 'evangelism' isnt in the 'step by step' as much as it would be
presenting as a 'case study'.  As part of a 'case study' you end up saying
here was the problem, here were the options and here was our final
implementation.  I say this likely has the greatest value, because
generally technical folks like GNU/Linux, its convincing the "C" level
mangers (CFO/CEO/COO) that its a good move.

They dont care about step by step or how to, they can relate to a case
study which points out clearly the problem and the solution.

> Wouldn't it be better to have it somewhere all together?  And
> second, I really worry it might create too much traffic to wade
> through for those who are not faced with sys admin duties for a
> company.  I will likely throw out at least some of my questions
> to PLUG, as I have in the past, and I may well compile some of my

All questions should go to plug as those are useful to the list as well as
useful for you to get a plethora of answers back.

> experiences into one or more HOWTOs or guides, somewhere down the
> road, but in the meantime, I'm all ears to any suggestions on how
> I could expose this information in a better way than putting it
> all on the PLUG list...

I know that WikiWiki was suggested and while they are good, generally they
dont make for best documentation tool.  That of course is merely my
opinion.  I read many of the posts and I can only iterate, take Matt
Alexander's advice.  The conversion of M$ to GNU/Linux in most outfits is
a marathon and not a sprint.  Take the victories where you can and move at
a steady pace.  Nothing can be worse than taking on more than you are
ready for and having it flop and having the doors of opprotunity shut
forever.

-Derek