Ubuntu in a large office. . .

[KiwiNZ]

Back right before I graduated my school's computer science department was setting up a computer lab using ubuntu. It went pretty bad too, but not due to ubuntu. It was because they deployed all wrong. First of all the started with whatever the latest testing release of ubuntu was (9.04? maybe), and not an LTS version. Secondly instead of setting up the server and one client and making sure everything worked, they set up the server and installed the client on the entire lab and then tried to make it work by remote administering them all. At any rate four months of being stuck using that lab where you didn't know if you were even going to be able to log in made me sorry for the students that didn't have their own laptop/netbook.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if your office network sucks on ubuntu its most likely going to suck on windows too because your admins don't know what they are doing. The money would be better spent hiring good network admins vs replacing everything with windows.

Your last paragraph is so wrong. But then again so are most sweeping statements.

[Bright_View]

The French Parliament uses Ubuntu. So does the Gendarmerie (it's a branch of the military with Police duties)... they don't experience crashes to my knowledge.

Not Ubuntu specifically, but work in a very large environment where enterprise-level Linux is used on a daily basis. No crashes. No complaints.

But then, we have folks specifically trained to support the 50+ servers that we have networked and running on a daily basis.

Thanks guys, this is what I was looking for - evidence that large organizations have used Ubuntu/linux successfully in other places.

Sorry folks, I call BS on the whole thing... THAT is my opinion... I mean, look at the OP, there's nothing there to go on besides 'it crashes and all workstations need to be re-booted everyday'. Geez, you couldn't go to an MS support forum and post something like that and not be questioned.

I can't give you any more because I don't work there. My information is second hand from somebody who is not a computer expert, which makes it really difficult to post any specifics. I'm not looking for technical support or answers which would require far more information for all of you, I just wanted to know of other places that use Ubuntu and have done so successfully. I told her that her experience sounded fishy to me, and some good counter examples would back that statement up. I want to make sure that I'm not inflaming the situation by creating unrealistic expectations of what Ubuntu can do in that environment.

I've forwarded her the thread link, so we'll see what happens.

Turned out to be a very passionate thread. Wasn't expecting that. Interesting.

[chappajar]

Thanks guys, this is what I was looking for - evidence that large organizations have used Ubuntu/linux successfully in other places.

Then you should have just asked!
http://www.focus.com/fyi/information...ht-not-expect/
http://www.aaxnet.com/design/linux2.html

[kaldor]

and unless they decide to "upgrade" to Microsoft then they're out of luck.

Some person at a local business said the exact same thing to my surprise. Their computers all run a very very VERY old version of Linux and use firefox 1.x.. they say they are going to upgrade to Windows 7 in the office. When I mentioned they could upgrade their Linux systems instead of using something that looked like it was from the 90's, they said that it wouldn't be possible to do.

I don't get why people say that Linux is so difficult. Ubuntu/Mint are sooo easy to set up for anyone who can read. I run OpenSUSE on two computers and Ubuntu Server on an older one. I never have any stability issues or crashes at all. The only time I rebooted my Ubuntu server was when I upgraded from Hardy to Lucid.

[Bright_View]

Then you should have just asked!
http://www.focus.com/fyi/information...ht-not-expect/
http://www.aaxnet.com/design/linux2.html

Wow, excellent articles. I'll be forwarding these on for sure.

[earthpigg]

Wow, excellent articles. I'll be forwarding these on for sure.

don't spend to much time on proving it can be done.

hit on that, don't spend a lot of time debating it (there will always be people who simply refuse to believe that the world is round), and then move to how it's done.

[Bright_View]

Vindication!

So my friend, armed with the articles and testimonials that you all gave me. asked her IT head today to explain exactly what was causing all of the problems with the computers. Some of you won't be surprised by this, but it turns out the whole thing is a giant misunderstanding. The Ubuntu systems themselves are fine, but many of the important programs that the office uses are remote services and the link between their office and head office is currently overloaded (has to do with their ISP). They've just obtained the green light to upgrade to a fibre link, and they've done some other work to try to minimize the problems in the meantime. When the link goes down, staff cannot even log in to their computers, which made many of them think that Ubuntu had crashed.

The IT guy she spoke to actually sounds like a linux fan, and an Ubuntu fan in particular. He even told her to try dual booting at home.

So in summary, some combination of a bad link, ignorance on the part of the staff as to what services were being run where, flippant remarks made by some of the IT staff (probably Microsoft fans), and possibly some assumptions made on the part of the staff about free software had the whole office thinking that Ubuntu was garbage.

Thanks guys, you've probably assisted in making scores more people open to trying Ubuntu in the future. I'll make sure my friend passes along what she learned to her co-workers. She was emboldened and highly entertained by the responses that were posted here (I'm positive she never would have actually asked about this without seeing this thread).

Oh yeah, before I forget - everyone who wanted to string up the IT department there, you can set your phasers to stun.

Cheers!

Dave.

[Drenriza]

Is it just me that thinks it's strange. That because of an ethernet link fail, then the computers locks op?

Even if the online services crash. The desktop should still be avaliable, so they for example could continue using open office. Unless they done something strange to it?

The Ubuntu systems themselves are fine, but many of the important programs that the office uses are remote services and the link between their office and head office is currently overloaded (has to do with their ISP). They've just obtained the green light to upgrade to a fibre link, and they've done some other work to try to minimize the problems in the meantime. When the link goes down, staff cannot even log in to their computers, which made many of them think that Ubuntu had crashed.

But if the problem is that the ethernet connection gets overloaded, then why not limit the traffic at a time on the link? So it won't crash.

[chillicampari]

Is it just me that thinks it's strange. That because of an ethernet link fail, then the computers locks op?

Even if the online services crash. The desktop should still be avaliable, so they for example could continue using open office. Unless they done something strange to it?



But if the problem is that the ethernet connection gets overloaded, then why not limit the traffic at a time on the link? So it won't crash.

It's really hard to say. It depends on how their network is set up. If the remote office is running in a thin configuration network problems could totally kick everyone out of their sessions and since thin clients (or pc's set to connect as thin clients with session management done by the server) need to validate with the server, it could create locks and dead clients.

[chessnerd]

Is it just me that thinks it's strange. That because of an ethernet link fail, then the computers locks op?

Even if the online services crash. The desktop should still be avaliable, so they for example could continue using open office. Unless they done something strange to it?

But if the problem is that the ethernet connection gets overloaded, then why not limit the traffic at a time on the link? So it won't crash.

My father, who works as a branch manager for a credit union, is having similar issues. His company "upgraded" to, what sound like, thin clients. The things are evidently slow, buggy, and constantly crashing because of the slow connection speeds.

If this office has a set-up where certain programs are running over the network then they could experience similar problems with those programs. OpenOffice probably works fine, the issues likely involve the applications running over the network.

A "crash" means different things to different people. My mother is constantly claiming the computer "crashed" when really it was only the web browser.

Software was not meant to be run over a network. I am a firm believer of this, but cloud computing still is called the "future" by many...