Big biz 'struggling' to dump Windows XP

Rather than go to Windows 8 or 7 and continue this insanity, the company that makes the browser plug-in should attempt something with Wine and Firefox (or Chrome) -- basically attempt to recreate a windows like environment on top of something simple to deploy (debian/Red Hat/Fedora) -- make something XP-like for a desktop that is directly targeted at only a few largely deployed applications.

Then sell support for that plug-in mess on top of a free distribution of Linux.

Yeah, it's heresy -- but it would get businesses over half-way to using a Free OS, rather than the crap nightmare they've been having with Microsoft. And if they're really concerned about OS support, they can buy that from several large enterprise providers.

Let it be a lesson to all those who stick with MS technology.

Zorin OS is probably closest to the Windows look and feel but it doesn't really do anything special with Wine.

I am aware of ReactOS but it looks like development of that is moving at a snails pace.

You all understand that the developers are all wringing their hands, snickering to themselves and have big green dollar-signs in their eyes,... right?!?!

MS just gave them job security for the next 2 years, ... Why would they change their stripes??? Lock-ins galore as far as they're concerned ...

This is why it's difficult to supplant MS on the desktop. Clients are locked in. They made the desktop ubiquitous, captured the home/business desktops, ... and then built a service culture around supporting it. To upset that apple cart (excuse the unintentional quasi-pun), you have to be able to rescue these businesses with a less expensive solution to upgrading and migrating to Win7/8/9/10...

The easiest way,... right now,... seems to be virtualized desktops,... (uh-oh, I feel like I'm channeling Ken Hess). A Citrix client running on top of a Chrome host, talking with a Windows VM,... and despite you going "Yuk!," it means less IT at a local level, cheap, almost throw away machines, easy work from home telecommuting solutions (reducing office space, increasing productivity, decreasing road congestion, reducing commuter backlogs, preventing add'l environmental damage from fossil fuels, etc.), and more control for business data than giving a company laptop to an employee.

It's coming. Just wait (I was right predicting tablets would be the rage, too). At least Linux is part of the solution, though.

> A Citrix client running on top of a Chrome host, talking with a Windows VM...

Citrix, VMware View, and probably half a dozen others. There are a number of players in the field. We're using View at the company I work for.

> ...cheap, almost throw away machines,...

Well, they should be, yes. But have you checked the price on thin client machines? They cost as much or more than a real desktop. Most businesses would be better of reusing their existing machines they would otherwise be throwing away. Any machine capable of running XP should run fine as a Linux based thin client.

> ...easy work from home telecommuting solutions...

Yes. They are that. Far better than most VPN solutions I've seen.

> ...and more control for business data than giving a company laptop to an employee.

That seems to be the biggest selling point to many companies.

I'm gonna be rolling out Citrix soon enough. I need to start looking at the client app for Linux.

@Steven_Rosenber:

Look around form the Chrome client,... If it's not available yet, I'm fairly certain it's in the works.

Edit:

Look Here;

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/081211-citrix-chromebo...

An interesting point is that GAMBAS has the ability to port VB6, and no doubt 5, code to GAMABS and therefore on to Linux. Just exactly how much of Microsoft's COM model this deal with is not disclosed, but given that VB6 and earlier were specifically themselves based on COM might mean that GAMBAS is a potential means of moving people off VB6 coded applications.

If I could get my hands on some reasonably serious VB6 code I'd be willing to see what GAMBAS can do.

I have some serious VB6 & VB5 code which are heavily COM based (more activex than you can shake a stick at ) as I used to do a lot of VB in another existence, can't release it though as its for a company I used to work for and still do on the odd occasion.

But if I get some time I will see what GAMBAS can do with it.