Linux Won the Desktop Wars a Long Time Ago

@Caitlyn.....I'll repeat herzeleid's comments as well, but for another equally important reason, SLED. I have no connections with the government/corporate sectors so I have no idea what operating systems they are running, but your statement re SLED is extremely interesting and very encouraging. I have been reading articles recently that seem to suggest that SUSE as a distribution is "slowly dwindling away" which would be very disturbing to me because I think the solid engineering that is displayed in openSUSE, my preferred OS, is exceptionally good and I would be bitterly disappointed to see SUSE and openSUSE vanish.

I also think that Chromebooks are going to penetrate the corporate and government sectors much more than they have done recently.....I don't "know" of course, but I'd be willing to guess that the "cloud" they need to access for some purposes does not have to be a Google server......it can equally be the corporate/government server.....And if I am correct, then that makes the Chromebook one heck of an attractive device to those sectors. I may be wrong so if you care to correct and comment, I'd like that please.

I have zero experience with Chromebooks so I will have to leave that with someone else. I believe that SLES/SLED is pretty well established in old line Novell Netware clients. Many shops migrated from Netware 6.5 to OES over SLES. SUSE+Novell have kept the pricing pretty darned attractive for large enterprise customers with both environments. I don't think SUSE is fading away bit I do think Red Hat is the dominant player. Does that help any?

Yes Caitlyn.......ta muchly. And said with much relief.

Quoting:And you are correct!

Is that really you, are you an impostor? :-)

Quoting:It's a government office. So far about 270 users have been migrated to Linux on the desktop

Good work @caitlyn, keep it going.

One thing is for sure, if MS did know better about Linux proliferation, they wouldn't prepare to make MSOffice available for Linux.

Quoting:I also think that Chromebooks are going to penetrate the corporate and government sectors much more than they have done recently... the "cloud" they need to access for some purposes does not have to be a Google server......it can equally be the corporate/government server....

I fully agree with @Ridcully. Such a setup would save corporations/governments a huge amount on purchases and support. Of course there would still be full fledged desktops and other form factor devices.

There is isn't a device that fits all?

For business a device like a chromebook is a double edged sword. It's great in that business has full control of the desktop, and what the travelling user can do and access, but it becomes potentially a bit of a security nightmare, in that a lost or stolen chromebook has direct access to the company servers, and the data thereon.

The usage of them would require some careful thought and probably new security measures.

@fett -

I'm not really me, but myself pretending to be me.

@PseudoDino......."O, that way madness lies; let me shun that; No more of that." Sorry Dino, I just could NOT resist that quote.

@Tracyanne....Point taken and agreed. I haven't handled a Chromebook yet, but surely they could be given a log-in password the same as any other Linux based computer ? If that is the case, then wouldn't they be virtually the same as any other company laptop currently in existence ? Or am I really, really missing something here ?

Quoting:I'm not really me, but myself pretending to be me.

Hmm, good one Dino, I am confuse for the night. :-)

I've received reports that a very large health care affiliated corporation in the U.S. is moving its data, quite possibly all of it, 100% on-line.

Corporations may not be as averse to on-line as some have argued above.

Is it wise? I doubt it. At least, not as long as they continue to run Windows. But the mere fact that they are still running Windows says much about their concerns for security.

@Dr --

That's very interesting, especially with all of the HIPAA considerations.

Does the thought of that fill you with warm fuzzies?

Can't say it does. But, I was also told, "On-line is the future. Get used to it."

Quoting:Good work @caitlyn, keep it going.

I can't take credit for it. Most of that user base was here when I arrived. Now, the new cluster of servers for an increased deployment of thin clients will be my baby :)

Ooooo, thin clients. My favorite small office deployment model.

Great deployment model for any high wear and tear environment. My first experience with them was in a commercial banking environment. I've since done them in educational, office and prison environments. Very resilient.

The more robust LANs get, the better the thin-client experience, I imagine. If you have 1 GB, it must work very well. If there were 10 GB clients, that would be seamless, I figure.

> Ooooo, thin clients. My favorite small office deployment model.

Except that the commercial thin client machines I've looked at are way overpriced for what you get. You're probably better off re-purposing old desktop machines that you would otherwise have to replace.

Quoting:You're probably better off re-purposing old desktop machines that you would otherwise have to replace

There are volume discounts that can greatly reduce the cost. When you take hardware maintenance costs in high stress environments where wear and tear and difficult environmental conditions can destroy traditional desktops quickly the thin clients become very cost effective.

Quoting:Corporations may not be as averse to on-line as some have argued above.

A former customer of mine put it this way: many businesses are totally clueless when it comes to security. With all the problems inherent in the Cloud the end result is still way better than what they had when everything was in house.

I'll also point out that openSUSE now has an image for some Cloudbooks, so it is entire possible corporate IT will buy them as cheap laptops and simply reimage them with their own custom image just like they do with any other laptop.

> When you take hardware maintenance costs in high stress environments where wear and tear and difficult environmental conditions can destroy traditional desktops quickly the thin clients become very cost effective.

I'll accept that qualifier. :) The volume discounts are also usually available for PC's, so that's not an edge to the thin clients. But I agree that high stress environments require special hardware, not standard desktops. For your average office work environment, I think my point is still valid.