Who uses Linux at work?

[timZZ]

Curious how many people have Linux within the work place.

[PhillyPhil]

Me. Computer scientist.

[tumbes2000]

I have just started using ubuntu at work. Mind you I mainly do real estate investment, so nothing really crazy as far as programs go. I am mainly using an office suite and email client. So far I am pretty happy with my experience.

Now our accounting computer still has to run windows because our property management software only runs on windows (very specialized software for commercial real estate).

[Not unique]

I have done a bit of charity work lately and tried to perused them to switch to something like Ubuntu but there tied into contracts or stuck on Windows.
But I know York University (UK) use Sun Solaris OS with Sun terminals (old and Unix i think but hope it helps)
And York college, Leeds University use Linux whether it be for Server projects or desktop?
P.S. have you thought of making a poll of this thread?

[Docaltmed]

My entire practice runs on Ubuntu. All staff computers, server, everything.

[Not unique]

I have to say Docaltmed that is fantastic and I suppose it saves you money and tax payers or is it not a public practice?
And does it all work fine?

[uRock]

Me.

[Spr0k3t]

My primary desktop at work runs Ubuntu. One of my test systems is using BackTrack. Another system is using Ophcrack. One of the in-house servers is using CentOS. I have DSL on a couple thumb drives. Several different distros on CDs and DVDs stashed here and there throughout the office. I've "converted" roughly 8 techs who also utilize Linux in some way or another. Most of the people I've worked with in my consulting have been moving to OpenSource alternatives even if they still need to use Windows for some reason or another.

[lykwydchykyn]

Running Kubuntu on my desktop at work, and manage a bunch of Linux servers and kiosks. Have to run a VM for a few things, but I've been getting into more and more areas where that's not required.

[stmiller]

alas OS X ... :(

[Rasa1111]

Me. :)

[ilovelinux33467]

Well not at work but at my school all client computers are running Ubuntu 10.04 and the servers are running Mandriva 2010.

[Irihapeti]

I do. I work for myself and use Ubuntu to do the standard admin stuff.

I also do admin work for a couple of clubs, and I use Ubuntu entirely for that, too.

[Copper Bezel]

I'm an adjunct English instructor, and I have one Ubuntu netbook that does everything I need, from grades and e-mail to making handouts and running media projectors. The campus is on Windows XP and 7, so I have to use Windows to print things, but thanks to Dropbox, that's literally all I do on those machines - open a folder, right-click, print.

I do wish I was working in one of these Linux environments, though.

[triceratops]

I run 11.04 + xfce at work on an old 3 GHz intel box. Then again, my machine is not networked with any of the other machines in the office. I'm free to run whatever system I want at work. :D

I have tried to convert co-workers, but so far that has been futile. I get the "linux is for nerds", "linux is too hard to understand", or "I don't want to use commands" all the time. How have some of you been able to convince co-workers, friends, family members, etc. to try ubuntu? GNOME and KDE aren't hard to grasp if you're already familiar with Win or OSX. Still can't convince people.

[MOS95B]

I have a Windows Desktop, a Ubuntu Desktop, and accress to a butt-load of Unix servers. Enterprise level TS here....

[Docaltmed]

I have to say Docaltmed that is fantastic and I suppose it saves you money and tax payers or is it not a public practice?
And does it all work fine?

Thanks. I'm in the U.S., where the majority of practices are private; mine is, and I'm sure I couldn't have gotten away with this were I working for a hospital or VA.

In all honesty, the thing works smooth as butter and has saved me at least $15,000 in two years. I use OpenEMR as an electronic medical record and insurance billing system; GnuCash runs the accounting; I view DICOM radiology images with Aeskalup; the standard LibreOffice and communications applications handle the rest.

There were a few hiccups getting going, I won't kid you, but most of those were due to me just learning Ubuntu and not being an IT professional, just a doctor who likes to hack around with computers.

My biggest screw-up was using Simple Backup to backup to a FAT32 file system. 90% of the people reading this probably know why that was a total bust, but I didn't, and when crunch came to bang, I was sadly short of a backup. Fortunately, I don't trust anything backup-related, and had a secondary backup of the absolutely crucial would-die-without-it data, which kept the practice running. Still cost me a chunk of change to recover the rest, though.

With the exception of my computer, we don't even have any machines running a Windows VM anymore. I have one vendor-supplied application which requires a VM. It's one of those Superdedooper Special Double Special Applications that *their* tech has to install. So I just set up a virtual machine, let him in the window, and the tech never knows the difference. I would try installing it under Wine, but they won't give me the Super Extra Secret Password.

I cannot tell you how much my staff loves Ubuntu. Fast, quick, clean, gets the work done, and I have to say, Unity was a big hit around here. My office manager, who makes a point of telling me how much she hates me on a daily basis, actually likes it. And if she likes it, *everybody* gonna like it, whether they like it or not.

[Johnsie]

I'm a programmer at a postage company. Our internal portal which handles all our systems and our web servers run on off Ubuntu Servers. Only one of the desktops in the company runs Ubuntu full time. It's used by people who only need access to a browser. We might be switching that to Xubuntu or Lubuntu depending on the usability of Unity in 11.10

The other 30ish desktops on this site are Windows XP. We use XP because Ubuntu doesn't support any of the sortation and de-dupe software packages available and it also doesn't support the Toshiba-tec sx4 range of printers very well. We had all that before I started at the company and it would be very difficult to force people to change.

[Lisimelis]

Me!! I am a salesman for a company and promoting linux on the side ;) Three times this year our servers got hit with virus or malware or something and I was the only one smiling that day! Drove our IT guy nuts!!!!

[ndefontenay]

I switched my desktop to Ubuntu at work.
I'm a DBA and more recently web developer.
I tried convincing my boss but for some reasons, it seems unpalatable to him.

Our production servers work on linux and to me it makes sense to develop in the same case sensitive environment. My colleagues already had some surprises due to that.

No change in sight for them though.

[Off Topic]

TO all of you able to run linux at work, I hate you.

[BrokenKingpin]

I work for a software development company, but we are primarily a Windows shop internally. We do use Linux (Debian)for a few test web servers, but all of the workstations are Windows.

[Kakym]

Linux for office / email / web

Windows in virtualbox for 3 specialist software packages

[exanime]

I do!... I work at a children's hospital as a senior technical support... our main environment is windows and my main PC is windows too but I have netbook that I carry around pretty much all the time and it's Ubuntu (11.04 soon to go back to 10.04) from which I do pretty much everything

We have a good Citrix platform which lets me access pretty much every business app...

[3Miro]

I have been using Linux for work almost exclusively for years.

[robertmbowes]

I use Ubuntu 10.04 at work. I work for a loan company and do technical support for hundreds of stores. I have over 80 people using Ubuntu 10.04 on Toshiba laptops. They travel from store to store and connect wired, wirelessly and use Sprint/Verizon broadband cards. They print over the network. They use openoffice to open spreadsheets and documents from other users using MS Office 2000 to 2010.
I have a helpdesk with half of the dozen people using Windows and Ubuntu together with Synergy.
I have 2 people using Ubuntu 10.04 desktops at the corporate office. I have at least one Ubuntu 10.04 desktop in one of our automotive remarketing locations.
We have a locked down version of xubuntu 9.04, ubuntu 10.04, CentOS 5, and Fedora Core running in 800+ locations around the company.
I use Linux Mint 10 at home on my desktop and dual boot LM10 and XP on my netbook.

[beew]

I think Linux is pretty common if not the norm in the scientific research community, especially for the pure sciences. It is actually relatively hard to find Windows in such environments.

[timZZ]

I have done a bit of charity work lately and tried to perused them to switch to something like Ubuntu but there tied into contracts or stuck on Windows.
But I know York University (UK) use Sun Solaris OS with Sun terminals (old and Unix i think but hope it helps)
And York college, Leeds University use Linux whether it be for Server projects or desktop?
P.S. have you thought of making a poll of this thread?

It is interesting you mentioned a contract. In my expeirance it has been very challenging for Linux to enter large organizations in terms of Desktop support.

1. Because a brand is not in place pushing this. It is local businesses with small reach. Brand Aggression.

2. Nobody appears to be supporting this on a desktop level.

[timZZ]

My entire practice runs on Ubuntu. All staff computers, server, everything.

Can I ask what field of work your company is in?

[timZZ]

alas OS X ... :(

See for a lot of people ... Having alternative such as OSX and Windows is a part of the business.

I too also use Windows 7 / OSX because my market uses these products.

I do not have a choice unless I plan to alienate people.

However ... I still think people pick Windows 7 based off stereotypes and lack of information about an alternative.

[timZZ]

Well not at work but at my school all client computers are running Ubuntu 10.04 and the servers are running Mandriva 2010.

Amazing ... I think Linux is very suitable for schools and universities. (Depending on the software required)

[timZZ]

I switched my desktop to Ubuntu at work.
I'm a DBA and more recently web developer.
I tried convincing my boss but for some reasons, it seems unpalatable to him.

Our production servers work on linux and to me it makes sense to develop in the same case sensitive environment. My colleagues already had some surprises due to that.

No change in sight for them though.

Another good point ... Our servers use Red Hat as the size of the company does demand a support contract.

I have chosen to convert an HP machine to run Ubuntu.

I do have a product called Moba X-Term but this does not compare with the native BASH.

I can spend up to 50% of my day averagely using SSH.

[timZZ]

I think Linux is pretty common if not the norm in the scientific research community, especially for the pure sciences. It is actually relatively hard to find Windows in such environments.

That is true and a very good point.

[t0p]

I work for myself, from home, so it's up to me what software I use. In truth I currently only need a word processor and some internet tools, so Ubuntu serves me well. Except I have to use XP in VirtualBox to print stuff as Ubuntu refuses to play nice with my HP Deskjet D2660 (yes I know the openprinting people say the D2660 should work (http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/models/deskjet/deskjet_d2600_series.html), HPLIP etc... but I can't make the flaming thing go properly...)! Grr!!

[hatalar205]

I'm a teacher and I use Ubuntu at school.

[Docaltmed]

Can I ask what field of work your company is in?

I'm a doctor, here's my website:

www.docaltmed.com

[wojox]

Our servers run RHEL. As far as Desktop Environments, it's up to you. You can run Windows or Linux.

I had been running Fedora 14 but just switched to Unity being it rocks the most.

[spynappels]

75+ servers and a couple of desktops, all ubuntu.

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

It is funny to think about how people where I work would answer that question.

If they are working in IT as administrators they know that we run mostly Linux.

If they are programmers they might think we run more Microsoft Windows or more Linux depending on the applications they are using to develop software on their project.

If they are management, accounting, scheduling, human relations, for example, they may think we use Microsoft Windows exclusively. Even then, they are using OSS on their Microsoft Windows box; such as, Firefox, Thunderbird, and so on.

Actually, we use more Linux than Microsoft Windows. The infrastructure uses Linux for domain name servers; password and account authentication; web servers; file servers; databases; mail servers; and network management, server management, storage management, and help desk applications.

The datacenter that I am currently working on is 90% Linux; however, the workstations the employees use to connect to the datacenter could be either Linux or Microsoft Windows. Currently 80% of those workstations are using Linux.

[Idaho Dan]

Nothing but Ubuntu for me at work since 2008.
My co-workers on the other hand are still fighting their windows machines.
I wish Adobe Acrobat liked Linux, but I have other tools I can use very effectively!

[DZ*]

I use linux for at work (scientific research in stats & genetics).

But the pesky biologists keep sending me Word docs with "track changes", for which I keep W7 (maybe with its naturally occurring viral "ecosystem") in VirtualBox.