[AccessD] Access 2007 Applications Running Under Access 2013 Runtime

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Tue Jan 20 18:25:58 CST 2015


Hi Arthur:

For one, I believe all the hardware has been completely documented...though I did not pay much attention to the online PDF but I understand there are more units than I would have thought.  

Aside: A number of years ago, I did a major local POS upgrade. The front end Desktops are all Fujitsu hardware as they have 20 USB connectors plus many other types...so scanners, light poles, built-in pad tablets, touch screens, multi-LAN cards, power-back, mouse and modem backups, a couple of card readers, built-in UPS and so on...all in super heavy duty units. Somewhere around $10K a box. 

As I remember, all the units were upgraded to the maximum, of 3 GB of RAM. Depending on the store there can be a number of servers. There is always backup units, boxes that do backing up and synchronization with head office. Then there may be Accounting machines that keep the purchases and re-ordering tracked. Mind you, most of my understanding is dated...everything may now be routed through to Vancouver (head-office) and all information disseminated from there. Head Office has a lot of servers. Many which manage, Communications, DNS, Web, Accounts (AD), Data stores, retrieval and analyses, Routing, Firewall and security and so on. 

Microsoft has a lot of specialized servers, designed for different tasks...Linux is different in that all servers (and stations for that matter) are full-featured and generic until its functionality is decided and then modified appropriately. According to the installers, if the Management branch decides to go Linux, the server count could be cut in half.

Senior management really wants to move to Linux, middle management, the tech department and office staff (especially the old staff members) are scared of this type of change (this is where the hand-holding and training sessions will be needed) and the front-end workers could not care less as long as their POS and browsers work.   

Note Arthur, there is virtually no software that can not run stably on Linux or that an equally good alternatives can not be found. There will, mostly likely, be some required products that are incompatible with Linux but then a Cloud, stand-alone Windows or Apple option can be used. Linux networks seamlessly and connects to everything so I see no issues there.

An aside: I have been told that the Microsoft's Vancouver office, is having a crack team of sales staff, driving up from Redmond, to talk deals and prices next week. It is good to hear that they are nervous. ;-) Regardless of the outcome it does seem that the client, London Drugs, will save a lot of money and end up with a great system...hope its Linux. 
 
Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Fuller" <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2015 1:51:19 AM
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Access 2007 Applications Running Under Access 2013	Runtime

Jim,

Given that they are XP-era boxes, my initial question would be, How much
RAM is available? As you know, for a pure Linux install even 2 GB will
suffice, but the reason I ask is that the way I see it, your preferred
paths (mine, too, with that many boxes to consider) are either Linux + Wine
or Linux + VirtualBox + XP VMs. Either way, a minimum of 4 GB of RAM would
be needed. I am also assuming that the critical software aboard each
desktop is close to identical. So 1000 / 78 = 12.8 boxes . Assuming one
server per store, that averages to 65 desktops per store. Really? Who would
have thunk that a puny little pharmacy would need that many boxes per store?

Regardless of the actual distribution, that's still a lot of boxes to
convert. Presumably you'll recommend a path and the other consulting firm
will do the actual ports. I certainly don't need to tell you what to do. If
it were me, I'd start with a physical inventory. Maybe instead of or in
addition to a server per store there are one or more server farms, in which
case one approach may be a cloud solution. Is there an off-the-shelf
"pharmacy package" that they use? If so, and it was written in .NET, then
perhaps a port to Mono? What's the Back End database? It would be really
convenient if it were MySQL. For other stuff, I'm guessing they use Office.
An enterprise-wide conversion to Office Libre or OpenOffice would involve
training, store by store -- not your problem of course, but somebody's.
Still, I can sure see why such an outfit would be looking to escape the MS
stranglehold. The extended-support packages offered by Ubuntu etc. start to
look really good by comparison.

Please keep me posted on how it goes.

(Strictly Canadian note: do you ever watch Dragon's Den? One of the
dragons, Jim Treliving, he of Boston Pizza and Mr. Lube, frequently
mentions London Drugs. I don't know whether he owns a piece or just has an
ongoing relationship with them.)

Arthur


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