from:
http://www.crn.com/Sections/CoverStory/CoverStory.asp?ArticleID=31793

Constructing A Windows-Less Office

By
Frank J. Ohlhorst


Tired of doing Windows? Well, there might be no better time than now to
consider a pure Linux environment.

The flat economy, rising software costs, shrinking technology budgets,
and Microsoft's licensing and pricing gambles with Windows XP and .Net
services have many SMB customers clamoring to solution providers for
inexpensive alternatives. Although Linux's corporate inroads have
primarily been on the server front and questions remain about the
profitability of a Linux-powered desktop, a select few solution
providers are already closing deals and reaping rewards from selling
Linux-based solutions.

To get a firsthand look at the viability of a "Windows-free" solution,
the CRN Test Center built a Linux network consisting of a server and
five workstations running various distributions of Linux. The goal was
to create a reliable network that could be used in a typical
small-business environment.

Linux platform offers solution providers a reliable, low-cost
alternative in the SMB space. After constructing a practical solution,
the Test Center reached the following conclusion: Linux and associated
Linux applications can accomplish many of the same tasks as the Wintel
standard at a much lower initial cost,in this case, for 93 percent less
than the software cost of a similar Windows-based network,and without
many of the licensing hassles presented by traditional software
platforms.

And a legion of solution providers agree. "For most business uses, Linux
desktops and available applications can perform the tasks people need,
reliably and efficiently," said Evan Liebovitch, a partner at Starnix, a
Linux-centric VAR based in Toronto.

So far, however, Linux has been a tough sell for many solution
providers. As an open-source platform, Linux has faced some hurdles in
penetrating a critical mass of businesses, not the least of which is the
end user's willingness to change.

"The biggest single challenge, in my experience, is inertia," Liebovitch
said. "People who are used to Windows will undergo a learning curve.
This is no different from the changes necessary in moving from Windows
to, say, a Mac."

What's more, many potential clients simply haven't recognized Linux as a
viable platform. But that is beginning to change. With major vendors
such as IBM and Sun Microsystems touting Linux's capabilities, solution
providers now should be able to demonstrate the platform's practicality
to customers.

"The single biggest problem at the enterprise level is politics," said
Leon Brooks, director of CyberKnights, a Perth, Australia-based network
integrator. "Many managers either don't know that anything besides
Windows exists or have been snowed into believing that Windows is the
best answer to every problem."

Similarly, a perceived lack of applications has hindered Linux's
acceptance, solution providers said. "The single biggest obstacle to
Linux everywhere is specific Windows applications with no direct
portable equivalent, like AutoCAD or MS-Publisher. Some people are
unwilling to substitute near-equivalents," Brooks said. "Alternatives
are arising, and I expect that by 2003 there will be polished, open
alternatives to MS-Publisher, Adobe Illustrator, MS-Access, AutoCAD and
the like."

Although many software companies don't develop native Linux
applications, customers' needs often can be met with the plethora of
open-source and commercial Linux applications now readily available.

"Most of the common desktop work,including Internet surfing, e-mail,
spreadsheet, word processing and presentation software,has arrived with
a comparable level of quality [in Linux] as software found under
Windows. This wasn't the case three years ago," said Gael Duval, founder
of Mandrake Linux, an Altadena, Calif.-based Linux distributor.

Moreover, the need for a Windows-based application isn't necessarily a
showstopper. Commercial products like Netraverse's Win4Lin let users run
native Windows applications on a Linux desktop, and VMware's VMware
workstation can be used to create multiple virtual machines running
Windows under Linux.

'The advances in the KDE interface and the easy system maintenance
provided by both SuSE and Mandrake provide a solid client desktop that
Windows clients can't touch.' ,Anthony Awtrey, I.D.E.A.L. Technology

'Most of the common desktop work,including Internet surfing, e-mail,
spreadsheet, word processing and presentation software,has arrived with
a comparable level of quality [in Linux] as software found under
Windows. This wasn't the case three years ago.' ,Gael Duval, Mandrake
Linux Another possibility is Wine, an open-source application that
enables some Windows software to run under Linux. Solution providers
also can move a customer's Windows applications into the ASP realm.
Using off-the-shelf hardware and commercial applications such as
Netraverse's NSSE or Citrix Systems' MetaFrame, solution providers can
provide remote access to Windows applications via thin-client
technology.

One of the most perplexing choices with Linux is deciding which of the
numerous vendor distributions to use. Many Linux solution providers work
with several distributions and pick those that best fit a customer's
needs. Still, some do have their preferences.

"Most of our clients run either Mandrake or SuSE on their desktops,"
said Anthony Awtrey, director of integration at I.D.E.A.L. Technology,
Melbourne, Fla. "The advances in the KDE interface and the easy system
maintenance provided by both SuSE and Mandrake provide a solid client
desktop that Windows clients can't touch."

Starnix's Liebovitch agreed. "For an all-around desktop distribution, my
current favorite is Mandrake. Red Hat is better-known and has the
biggest services organization. But I find Mandrake to be a better
non-techie user package. I would also note that Caldera, while it lags
behind other Linux vendors in techie esteem, is still the most
channel-friendly distribution by a long shot."

The Test Center's "non-Windows" network included Linux distributions
from Red Hat, Mandrake and Caldera for the desktop and server
implementations. To reflect the mishmash of equipment usually found in a
small-business environment, the Test Center used a menagerie of hardware
to gauge various Linux configurations. This included computers ranging
from older Intel Pentium II-based systems to systems based on the latest
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices processors as well as storage devices,
such as SCSI and IDE hard drives and CD-ROM and DVD drives. Broadband
Internet connectivity was supplied via a cable modem linked directly to
a Linux-based server or shared via a Linksys broadband router.

Test Center engineers found the installation of the various Linux
distributions surprisingly easy. Caldera, Mandrake and Red Hat have gone
to great lengths to simplify the process, and their products generally
had no problems identifying the hardware and successfully installing
Linux on any of the test systems.

Caldera's OpenLinux Workstation, however, refused to install on two of
the test systems, offering only a cryptic "system not suitable" style of
message. Further investigation of the install logs showed
incompatibilities with a generic video card and an older Adaptec SCSI
controller. Conversely, Mandrake's and Red Hat's installation wizards
demonstrated that concerns about hardware compatibility might well be a
thing of the past.

The inclusion of automated disk partitioning eased installation of all
three distributions. In the past, partitioning hard drives to accept
Linux was a big installation hassle. Unlike DOS or Windows, Linux
requires multiple disk partitions and doesn't use drive letters to
identify those partitions. Automating the partitioning process reduces
the confusion. Partitions are conceptually similar to the directory
structure used in the DOS/Windows world.

A major decision faced by Linux installers is choosing a graphical user
interface (GUI). Gnome and KDE are the two most popular Linux GUIs, and
most distributions include both. Test Center engineers found KDE the
friendliest and were impressed with the array of KDE-compatible
software. In fact, the Linux distributions tested all included a vast
amount of software. Most of the included software is based upon
open-source licensing and can be distributed without additional
licensing fees.

Installers will want to seriously consider deploying Sun Microsystems'
StarOffice, a user-friendly office productivity suite (word processing,
spreadsheet and presentation applications) that's compatible with
Microsoft Office file formats. Users familiar with Microsoft Office
would find the transition to StarOffice easy. Other office suites also
are available, including KOffice, which is integrated in the KDE
desktop. Though not as polished as StarOffice, KOffice can meet most
users' needs.

And Linux's software flexibility isn't limited to office suites. An
array of open-source and commercial applications are available for most
any business situation. For advanced graphical editing, for example,
users can turn to GIMP, an application that brings Adobe Photoshop-like
capabilities to Linux. For personal financial management, users can opt
for GNUcash, an open-source, Intuit Quicken-compatible product. And on
the accounting end, Appgen Software's MyBooks products offer all the
bells and whistles normally found in products such as Intuit's
QuickBooks, and for a fraction of the cost.

For situations where legacy Windows applications must be supported,
solution providers can turn to commercial products such as Win4Lin or
VMware Workstation.

Test Center engineers installed the latest version of Win4Lin on
Mandrake Linux Standard Edition 8.1 running the KDE desktop and on Red
Hat Linux Professional 7.2 running the Gnome desktop. Win4Lin offered a
straightforward install and true Windows 98 compatibility. The product
creates a virtual environment to install an actual copy of Windows 98,
and the wizard-driven installation offers customization features. The
Win4Lin version of Windows 98 allows the installation of Windows
applications and can run the software with Linux concurrently.

Test Center engineers encountered no stability problems using Win4Lin,
but there was a performance degradation. Still, Win4Lin offers adequate
compatibility to serve most Windows application needs in the Linux
environment.

VMware Workstation 3.0 offers another legacy solution and comes in
Windows and Linux versions. The product lets users create multiple
virtual machines under a host operation system, allowing multiple
operating systems to be run concurrently.

The Test Center tested both VMware Workstation versions. The
installation was straightforward under Windows 2000, and Test Center
engineers were able to quickly deploy multiple instances of Linux under
Windows 2000 using the virtual-machine setup wizards. Each instance of
Linux can run in its own virtual machine (installers will need plenty of
disk space and RAM to create effective virtual machines). VMware
includes detailed instructions for most popular distributions of Linux;
Red Hat and Mandrake Linux were tested under the Test Center Windows
environment.

VMware's Linux version proved more complex. Test Center engineers
installed the product on a system running Red Hat Linux Professional 7.2
with the Gnome desktop. The RPM install utility was used to install the
VMware package, and then the setup wizard was used to create a virtual
machine running Windows XP Professional under Linux. The virtual Windows
XP environment proved stable, but there was a performance degradation.

In the Linux realm, solution providers also can craft custom
applications for their customers. As early as two years ago, Linux
desktop applications remained out of the reach of mainstream developers,
and most of the open-source tools created were written primarily for C
programmers. But that's starting to change.

KDE is the most actively developed Linux desktop and has the most tools.
Solution providers seeking KDE desktop open-source development tools
should go to www.apps.kde.com, which has ratings on each product,
including feedback from the user community. One of the most promising
tools at the site is KDevelop, which includes a wizard that generates
skeleton code for an application and runs a number of compilers and
object linkers through its IDE, hiding most of the complexity from
programmers.

Several months ago, the introduction of Borland's Kylix language marked
a new chapter in Linux development. Kylix is based on the popular Delphi
language, Borland's version of object-oriented Pascal. The language now
includes XML SOAP-based Web services, a cross-platform development
framework and a number of RDBMS mapping tools. Like most modern rapid
application deployment (RAD) tools, it includes a top-of-the-line IDE
and source-debugging facility.

Despite the various distribution, application, deployment and
development routes solution providers can take with Linux, they'll often
find that the proof is in the pudding when selling solutions based on
the platform. Linux's low cost, unlimited distribution and elimination
of licenses can be a big catalyst in sales pitches.

"My clients are very impressed when they see my proposal with its
inexpensive hardware specification, and they realize that the price
includes all software," said David Lane, director of Egressive, a
Christchurch, New Zealand-based network integrator. "Also, potential
clients finally comprehend that there are no licenses, and when they
talk to my existing clients, they find that in addition to everything
else, Linux is more reliable and needs almost no maintenance."

MARIO MOREJON contributed to this story.


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